LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY --THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE
LIBERTY AND
FRATERNITY
THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL
IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE
Dr M. D. Thomas
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While inaugurating the Constitution in the parliament, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar said, ‘I feel that the Constitution is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that man was vile’.
In line with the insightful avowal of Dr Ambedkar quoted above, it could be stated without any exaggeration that the Constitution of India is one of the best constitutions of the world, in terms of the volume and substance of the values it contains. On the other hand, it could also be sadly acknowledged that ours is one of the most violated constitutions of the world, as regards its stipulations.
The preamble of the Constitution assures the citizens ‘liberty and fraternity’. They are like the ‘individual and social’ dimensions of human life. They look like the realities of ‘one and many’, too. Together, they compose a meaningful life for the humans. Both are equally important. They are mutually inclusive and complementary. Therefore, human life does not make real sense in the absence of either of them or in the deficit of balance between them.
‘Liberty and fraternity’ together constitute a substantial portion of the Constitutional values of our land. These are bound by the ‘fundamental rights’ and ‘fundamental duties’ of the citizens that are stipulated by the Constitution, in a mutually accountable manner. The one, who dares to violate these values, may he or she be from the ruled class or from the ruling class, without doubt, is ‘traitor’ of the first degree in the country.
‘Liberty’ implies ‘freedom’, in a simpler language, and it is the elementary right of a citizen. This involves freedom of thought, belief, faith, expression, speech, worship, etc, freedom to assemble peaceably, freedom to form associations, freedom to move freely, freedom to reside anywhere, freedom to any occupation, and the like, within the territory of India. All these aspects of liberty are grounded in ‘freedom of conscience’, as well.
Liberty or freedom is further strengthened as the key provision of the Indian Constitution by the ruling of the Supreme Court, which categorically affirmed ‘right to privacy’ in 2017, in the context of Aadhaar. Accordingly, the right to privacy is protected as an ‘intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution’.
‘Fraternity’ means ‘brotherhood’, in an easier version, which is a strong feeling of spiritual and psychological bonding among the people. It secures both ‘dignity of the individual’ and ‘unity and integrity’ of the nation. It signifies sharing among the citizens ‘common profession or interests’. It defines the fellowship and mutual support among the citizens of the country. In the collective sense, it is also that the entire country is a ‘fraternity’ in spirit.
Brotherhood or sisterhood is the most essential gift of the parent-like Creator, in the social or horizontal sense. Gender, language or any other phenomenon cannot violate its spirit. Even while the humans are born as individuals, he or she is born of a shared act by two, which is the most basic form of the society. He or she inherits the characteristics of both of them, though may be in a more or less fashion. Brotherhood is beached at the social character of the humans.
Accordingly, ‘freedom and brotherhood’ are ‘core endowments of the divine’, without which the humans indeed cease to exist. Every individual, on account of his or her social quality, gets networked with others and lives in the society, in an inclusive and interactive manner. In other words, liberty and fraternity are ‘characteristic marks of the human identity’ and violating them is crime against the divinity as well as the humanity, at the same time.
Making the constitutional implications of liberty and fraternity described above successful and effective in life calls for a quadruple setting of ‘democracy, secularism, socialism and ethics’. ‘Democracy’ is the form of governance, which is ‘of the people, from the people and by the people’. ‘Secularism’ is a principle that keeps ‘state separate from religion’. ‘Ethics’ is ‘moral principles that govern the conduct of a person, an activity or an entity’.
‘Democracy’ is supposed to be the rule of the majority. But, in actual fact, when the vast majorities of the people in India are illiterate, discriminated, pushed to the margins and are poor, how could they join the process of governance? Further, when the election process is tampered, the voters are cheated with half truths and even full lies and MPs-MLAs switch over across the parties for money and power, how could democracy ever survive?
Indian democracy requires being transformed in a revolutionary mode. It has to learn to listen to the voice of every citizen and to take everyone along. The disoriented and eccentric guys at the helm of affairs in administration have to be shown the exit door. Enlightened and well-meaning persons have to alertly facilitate the process of good governance and collective wellbeing, in order to ensure liberty and fraternity of all citizens in the country.
‘Secularism’ requires that no one is discriminated in
the name of religion or faith, of any difference for that matter. The freedom
to hold one’s conviction and pursue one’s tastes cannot be compromised. But, when
considerations of majority-minority, high-low, rich-poor, right-left, black-white,
male-female, senior-junior, and the like mess about the sacred space every
community, group and tradition is naturally endowed with, how could secularism
have its due space?
‘Socialism’, in simple terms, is ‘being social in mindset’, as regards the means of life as well as managing it. It advocates organizing the political and economic aspects of social life with ‘shared decision-making’ and ‘equal or equitable distribution of resources’, leading to a spirit of ‘being a community’ at large. But, as a matter of fact, where does our country in particular, the world at large as well, stand in terms of the ‘social sense’ that is vital to human life?
It is too obvious that the Constitutional ideal of ‘socialism’ is sharply contradicted by the ground realities in India. While the filthy rich billionaires and millionaires relish the lion share of the riches and comforts of the country, a high percent of the people in India are condemned to make ends meet with meager loafers, in some way or other, or sleep hungry, that too under the flyover, roadsides, streets, slums, huts, etc, does ‘liberty and fraternity’ amount to anything in our country? Before claiming to be ‘socialist’, we Indians require checking our ‘social quotient’.
‘Ethics’, as a system of principles, gauges what is
good and bad. These principles go a long way in regulating liberty or freedom, of
individual or of group. Ethics monitors the ‘ethos of life’, by way of custom,
habit, character, disposition and culture. These features are the guiding
principles of fraternity, too. Ethical fibre is decisive for the quality and
stability of both liberty and fraternity, separately and together.
The sum and substance of liberty and fraternity is the principle of ‘integrity and integration’ in life. Integrity implies ‘honesty, truth, uprightness and reliability’ in the diverse contexts of life. Integration signifies ‘bringing together or uniting integrals, persons, entities or things’. The horrible ‘erosion of values’ and the consequent disastrous ‘social vacuum’ in the country has to be considerably addressed, in favour of boosting the spirit of freedom and brotherhood.
Do we want to prove what Dr Ambedkar stated at the end of the quote that ‘man was vile’, albeit we have a good Constitution? Or do we resolve to clear up the mess, candidly and to the best of our capacity, and recognize the values of freedom and brotherhood/sisterhood of every citizen and community, trusting that these values will hold our country together as a nation with integrity? Genuine and responsible answers to these questions only will usher in a better tomorrow that would gleam with the spirit of ‘liberty and fraternity’, for the days and years to come, in the 21st century and beyond.
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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.
He could be viewed, listened to
and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’
(p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p)
and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’
(o); social
media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’
(o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’
(p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone
9810535378 (p).
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Published in ‘Voice of Civil Society’ (Quarterly Journal), New Delhi, Vol. 01, Issue No. 06, p. 05-07 – in July-September 2020
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