preamble

MEANING

The preamble is also known as the spirit and backbone of the Indian Constitution. Not reading the preamble makes no sense in reading the Constitution. It is the preamble which gives a brief idea about why the constitution has been prepared. The preamble can be classified or broke into 3 parts:

According to the first part, the people of India solemnly resolved India into a “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic”. Each and every word of the preamble is wisely chosen and arranged in such a way that by reading, the preamble makes a clear picture of India’s stand towards its citizen.

The second part says to secure the liberty, equality, justice and to promote unity and integrity among all.

The last part is declaratory, where the people of India in their constituent assembly adopt, enacted and gave themselves this constitution.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PREAMBLE

Importance of the Preamble can be stated as follows:-
(i) The Preamble contains the philosophy on which the entire Constitution has been built. It provides a standard to examine and evaluates any law and action of government to find out whether it is good or bad. Hence, it is the soul of the Constitution.

(ii) The Preamble shows the way the government ought to run. It declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic.

(iii) It envisages justice-social, economic and political-for all its citizens. It seeks to give the citizens all types of freedoms-freedom of thought and expression, freedom of belief and worship etc.

(iv) The Preamble mentions people as the source of the Constitution. It seeks to provide equality of status and opportunity to all individuals and thus promotes a sense of brotherhood among all citizens.

KEY WORDS OF THE PREAMBLE

The main terms in the Preamble are:-

“We, the people of India”

The term We the people clearly states the participation of the citizen of the country. It defines that the sovereign authorities are the citizen of India. It clears the fact that all power vested in the government is given by the people themselves. It is the citizen who chooses the government. The term ‘We the people of India says that the authors of the constitution are the people.

Actually, the question of whether and how every citizen voted for the constitution? The people/ citizen does not directly vote because it is impossible for the millions of the people to take a direct part in the procedure of making the constitution. The constitution was made by the representatives of the people, in the name of the people.

Sovereignty

The term sovereignty means the supreme and absolute power. The power can be real or nominal. The concept of sovereignty is taken from Article 5 of the Constitution of Ireland. Sovereignty means India is the supreme power and no other nation can rule or imply their dominance in the country. The people of India are the sovereign power of India, they transfer their power to their elected representative.

India became a Sovereign country on 26th January 1950, having equal status with the other members of the international community, and has decided to remain in the Commonwealth of Nations.

Socialist

The term socialist was included in the constitution by the 42nd Amendment. Generally socialist means a political-economic system. The main reason why the term was inserted in the preamble was to provide the equality in opportunity and a better life for the people and give the brief to the makers so that they can make the constitution by keeping the concept of socialist in mind.

Secular

The word secular was also inserted through the 42nd Amendment in 1976, the word secular means that India does not has any religion and treats all the religions equally, and with equal respect. The individual is free to choose his or her religion. It does not mean that India is an aesthetic state nor anti-religion, it is just because in India millions of people of different religion reside, and India as a secular state respects their religion but does not follows any religion nor interferes in their practice.

Democratic

The term democracy is derived from the Greek word ‘Demo’ which means the people and ‘Kratos’ which means authority. Democracy means government by the people. It is the form of the government in which people elect their representative and indirectly participate in government activities.

Democracy can be direct or indirect. In a direct democracy, every people has the voting power not only in selecting the government but also in changing the constitution. In an indirect democracy, people have a right to vote and select their representative and those representatives represent the citizens in the administration.

Republic

The concept of Republic means the people of the state having the supreme power and they transfer their power to their representative by appointing him as the head of the state. It is completely different from the concept of monarchy, in monarchy the king, the queen then their child becomes the head of the state i.e. hereditary is being followed, but in the concept of a republic, the state is headed by the head of the state elected by the citizen.

In India the head of the state is known as the President who is elected by the people through voting, all the citizen has a right to vote. He is elected for the term of five years.

Justice

The concept of justice was inserted in the preamble to secure its citizens political, social, economic justice. Generally, the term justice means to secure the people from all sorts of inequalities like wealth, opportunity, race, religion etc, and their economic interest like equal work, payment for their works etc.

Liberty

Liberty means Freedom. The term Liberty was included as to secure the freedom of the people of their belief, thought, faith etc. it is essential to provide liberty to the citizen for their personal growth, and restrict the state from unlawful interference in the freedom of the citizen.

Equality

The concept of equality means each and every citizen of the country is equal and the state will work on the concept of equality before the law. Every person should have equal opportunity for work, equality in their status i.e. no discrimination on basis of religion, race, caste, sex etc. it is important for a country to treat its citizen equally for the development of the person and bring the best out of him.

Fraternity

Generally, fraternity means the spirit of brotherhood. The concept of the fraternity was introduced so that people feel that all people of the same soil, the same motherland are their brothers and sisters and are equal in status.

India is the country having diversities based on religion, race, caste so it is important to promote the spirit of brotherhood among them all.