Philosophy of the

constitution
Chapter- 10
 Introduction
• Since last 68 years, our country has been
governed on the principles and
objectives of the constitution.
• Why did our national leaders give
constitution to us? on what principles
was our constitution build?
• what are the criticisms leveled against
our constitution? all these questions will
be dealt in this chapter.
 Philosophy of the Constitution

• Constitution is a set of document that sees

how the state is formed and on what
principles and norms the state should run.
• these rules and regulations help in limiting
the powers of government. modern day
governments can be very powerful curb
the freedom of people.
• Thus, constitution sets rules and
regulations which define the power of
government and limit it. therefore,
constitution is not only a set of rules and
regulations but it also shows the norms
and principles on which the state is run.
• So, there is a definite link between moral
values and laws.
• So, by political philosophy we mean
that :
a. It explains the conceptual structure of
the constitution. it helps us to
understand the meanings of terms like
'rights', 'citizenship', or democracy.
b. It explains the values on which our
constitution is build.
c. Indian Constitution must be read along
with constituent assembly debates so that
we can know what were the reasons when
the following law was made?
• Therefore, political philosophy not only
helps in finding the moral value of the law
but also it helps to arbitrate between
varying interpretations of the values in our
polity.
• This means that political philosophy helps
in giving various interpretations of the law.
 Constitution as a means of
democratic transformation
• Constitution sets the rules and
regulations for the country and this helps
in limiting the power of government and
preventing it from turning it into
tyrannical form of government.
• Constitution is an instrument to bring
socio- economic and political
transformation in the country.
• It provide peaceful and democratic
means to bring about transformation.
• it was designed to bring about a change
and shed away traditional and
conservative ideologies and bring
freedom, equality and justice.
• therefore, constitution exists not only to
limit people in power but to empower
those who have been traditionally
deprived of it.
WHAT IS THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
OF OUR CONSTITUTION?

• Our constitution is build on the principles

of liberty, democracy, egalitarian, secular
and federal, open to community values,
sensitive to the needs of religious and
linguistic minorities and commitment
towards building common national
identity.
 Individual Freedom
• It did not happen that our constitution
makers post independence demanded
liberty as the principle to govern the
constitution. Rather liberty has been
debated and discussed for long and our
national leaders have fought hard for it.
• Raja Ram Mohun Roy demanded
freedom of press and freedom of
publications.
• Rowlett Act was also opposed. the act
ordered police to imprison people
without trial and this harmed the rights
of an individual.
• Therefore, when our national leaders
fought really hard for preserving
individual freedom, it was natural that
freedom would be one of the principle of
our constitution.
 Social Justice

• Our Indian constitution did not adopt

liberalism in the classical sense. it means
that there was not complete liberalism.
• Rather liberalism with social equality was
established.
• Our national leaders thought
that complete freedom will not have any
value for the weak and marginalised
community.
• Therefore, they introduced reservations
for scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes to overcome age old injustices in
the system.
 Respect for diversity and minority rights

• This was an important principle to be

incorporated in the constitution. respect
for diversity was important because Indian
society is a hierarchical society.
• for example caste has divided people into
higher and lower caste groups.
• and also when there is inequality in
society, the communities tend to
become rivals. this was a challenge
before our constitution makers.
• to overcome this problem, our
constitution recognised community
based rights.
• one such right is right to religious
communities to establish and run their
own educational institutions.
 Secularism

• India did not adopt western meaning of

secularism. West has defined secularism
as the complete separation of religion
and politics.
• here, both religion and politics stay away
from another. politics do not talk about
religion. and religion also do not talk
about the politics of state.
• It was to protect the individual rights and
their freedom. because the state might
favor people belonging to one group of
religion.
• But conditions in India has been
different. they gave rights to religious
groups and our constitution gave power
to state to intervene in the religious
affairs of community.
 a. Rights to religious community
• Indian constitution granted rights to all
religious communities such as the right
to establish and maintain their own
educational institutions.
• so our constitution equally granted rights
to all religious communities.
• because a person's freedom and sense of
respect is dependent on the status of his
community.
 b. State's power of intervention

• our Indian constitution adopted principled distance.

• it means that state will intervene in religious affairs only to
eliminate evils in the religious system.
• otherwise , our state will maintain a distance from religion.
• for example: eliminating sati system, removing
untouchability.
 Universal Franchise
• As India got independence, everybody
above a certain age got the right to vote.
• This was surprising because in western
countries, women recently got the right
to vote after lot of struggle.
• India gave right to vote to every adult
who has attained the age of 21, because
they wanted democratic self
government.
 Federalism

• India adopted federalism with a strong

central government. it adopted assymetric
federalism.
• It gave special provisions to certain states
like Jammu and Kashmir, north eastern
states like Nagaland, Assam, Manipur etc.
 National Identity
• Our constitution constantly reinforced a
common national political identity.
although, India strove to maintain its
religious identities along with national
identity.
• The Indian constitution tried to balance
these identities. as Sardar Patel puts it ,
that the main objective was to evolve
"one community".
 PROCEDURAL ACHIEVEMENTS

• besides making substantial achievements,

our constitution was able to make some
procedural achievements as well.
• a. our constitution recognized difference
and disagreement. it was inclusive and
represented varied sections of population.
• our constitution makers deliberated,
discussed and debated to include every
section's interest.
• although during making of constitution,
not every group's representative was
present, but makers included interest of
every section.
• b. our constitution reflects spirit of
accommodation and compromise. there
was open discussion and deliberation, to
arrive at important decisions.
 CRITICISMS

• The Indian Constitution can be subjected to many criticisms

of which three may be briefly mentioned below.
• First is unwieldy (Difficult to use or handle or manage
because of size)
• The criticism that it is unwieldy is based on the assumption
that the entire constitution of a country must be found in one
compact document.
• Countries such as the US which do have a compact
constitution.
• In the case of India, many such details,
practices and statements are included in
one single document and this has made
that document somewhat large in size.
• Many countries for instance, do not have
provisions for election commission or the
civil service commission in the document
known as constitution.
• But in India, many such matters are
attended too by the Constitutional
document itself.
• A second criticism of the Constitution is
that it is unrepresentative.
• At that time, adult franchise was not yet
granted and most members came from
the advanced sections of the society.
• Two components of representation, one
that might be called voice and the other
opinion.
• The voice component of representation
is important.
• People must be recognised in their own
language or voice, not in the language of
the masters.
• If we look at the Indian Constitution from
this dimension, it is indeed
unrepresentative because members of
the Constituent Assembly were chosen
by a restricted franchise, not by universal
suffrage.
• A final criticism alleges that the Indian
Constitution is entirely an alien
document, borrowed article by article
from western constitutions and sits
uneasily with the cultural ethos of the
Indian people.
• This criticism is often voiced by many.
Even in the Constituent Assembly itself,
there were some voices that echo this
concern.
 How far is criticism of our
Constitution true?
• It is true that the Indian Constitution is
modern and partly western.
• But it was never a blind borrowing. It was
innovative borrowing.
• It does not make our Constitution
entirely alien.
• First, many Indians have not only adopted modern ways of
thinking, but have made these their own.
• New instrument of modern law was effectively adopted by the
people to address questions of dignity and justice.
• Second, when we were drafting our Constitution, efforts were
made to amalgamate western and traditional Indian values.
• It was a process of selective adaptation and not borrowing.
 Briefly mention the limitations of the Constitution.

• The limitations of the Constitution: -

• First, the Indian Constitution has a centralised idea of national
unity.
• Second, it appears to have glossed over some important issues of
gender justice, particularly within the family.
• Third, it is not clear why in a poor developing country, certain basic
socio-economic rights were relegated to the section on Directive
Principles rather than made an integral feature of our fundamental
rights.
Thank You