The Indian Constitution is the supreme legislation of India. It’s recognized to be the longest written constitution which units out elementary rights, duties of the government, and the residents. The Constitution of India got here into impact on January 26, 1950, declaring India as a sovereign and democratic republic.
THE FATHER OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution, was an ambitious leader, journalist, economist, and social reformer who fought for discrimination towards the untouchables. On August 29, 1947, he formed a committee of seven members calling it the ‘Drafting Committee’. With Dr. BR Ambedkar as the Chairman of the committee, the other members included were N. Gopalaswami, Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyas, Ok.M Munshi, Saijo Mola Saadulla, N. Madhava Rao, and D.P Khaitan.
He was a great mental within the capacity of an excellent academician, a research scholar, economist, jurist, philosopher, orator, anthropologist, and political scientist. He explains our nation ‘India’ as a society very deeply and dug into the evil roots of caste discrimination. He was born in a family of untouchables and raised his voice to vehemently oppose casteism. He was a proponent of democracy, and after analyzing the Indian society, he fixed upon making India a democratic nation that could assist achieve the target of protecting the rights of weaker sections of the society and recognizing them as citizens of equal importance.
He had the right understanding of the individuals of India and he knew exactly what our nation required to flourish as a modern developing power. Due to this fact, he incorporated democratic rules into the Constitution of India. This article thoroughly discusses the ideas and philosophy of Ambedkar that ultimately led this nice man to become the Father of the Indian Constitution.
THE MOTHER OF THE THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION
Madam Bhikaji Cama came from an affluent Parsi Zoroastrian family. She was also known for her social work and as a toddler, she was disciplined with a flair for languages. Born on September 24, 1861, Madam Bhikaji Cama can be considered the mother of the Indian revolution due to her contributions to the Indian freedom struggle. She was additionally credited to design India’s first tricolor flag with green, saffron, and red stripes which bore immortal words- Vande Mataram.
She was additionally amongst these leaders who raised their voice for women’s rights and women’s struggles. She made it clear to say that ladies must have the right to vote, which would then follow other rights for ladies.
The early life and education of Ambedkar
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was born on 14th April 1891 in a low caste family. When he was a child, he had to face so many cases of caste discrimination that he was not even able to study like the children of upper castes. He was treated very badly and this corrupt castigation induced him to fight towards it in the future.
Dr. Ambedkar was ambitious, decided, and brave chief. He was very hardworking as despite having unfavorable circumstances, he completed his education distinctively. He acquired a chance to review at Elphinstone Faculty in Mumbai and there he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts course having two language topics i.e. English and Persian. Further, the Maharaja of Baroda offered him the chance of studying in the USA. He welcomed this opportunity and in July 1913, he joined Columbia College in the US as a Gaekwad scholar. In 1914, he obtained his M.A. diploma for his thesis on “Ancient Indian Commerce”. In 1915, he offered a paper “the Castes in India, their Mechanism, Genesis and Development” in an Anthropology seminar.
In 1916, Ambedkar submitted his thesis for a Ph.D. entitled “National Dividend of India- A Historic and Analytical Study”. In the identical yr, he went to the London School of Economics & Political Science where he studied Economics and Political Science. At the same time, he has enrolled for the Bar course in Grey’s Inn the place he studied law. In 1923, he accomplished his D. Sc. (Doctorate in Science) in Economics and revealed his thesis on “the Problem of the Rupee – Its Origin and Its Solution”. He also completed his L.L.D. (Doctor of Law) and D Lit. (Doctor of Literature) doctorates in 1952 and 1953 respectively.
Ambedkar’s support for the depressed classes
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar realized the need of laying the foundation of unbiased India on egalitarian and humanitarian rules. India was divided into various courses and he wished to design the Constitution in such a manner that the rights of all of the individuals belonging to different religions or castes will be protected. Actually, it was not a simple job because it required true statesmanship, a correct understanding of social situations in different parts of the nation, and an intellectual vision to make sure the working of the Constitution by democratic means. He held the agency decision of serving to the downtrodden and marginal sections of the society as in his youth, he himself witnessed the injustice that was prevailing in India towards the decreased castes. Along with his discovered mindset and scholarly thoughts, stored up his revolutionary angle in assist of the untouchables to protect them against discrimination. The opposite leaders of the Indian National Congress focussed mainly on the actions and actions directed towards the banishment of British rule in India. Then again, Ambedkar argued for a similar along with the demand of granting rightful social recognition to the untouchables.
The Round Table Conference
The Round Table Conferences (1930-1932) were very significant from the angle of Indians as they have been held for the aim of consultation with the Indian leaders on the matter of forming the Constitution for India. It was the primary time when the illustration of depressed courses of India was allowed in such a convention. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and R. Srinivasan have been the 2 representatives of the depressed courses. In 1930, the first session of the Round Desk Convention has held within the Royal Gallery House of Lords in London the place Ambedkar put forth the demands of Dalits in India and emphasized their pathetic place.
On the behalf of the Dalit neighborhood, he spoke against the bureaucratic rule of the British in India and he clearly acknowledged his requisition of replacement of British Government with the Government of the individuals, by the people, and for people of India. Further, he justified the purpose of the situation of the marginalized sections by substantiating it with the overall state of affairs prevailing in our nation at the moment. He acknowledged that the Government of India failed to grasp that the landlords have been utilizing pressure to use the peasants and the laborers weren’t getting sufficient wages and have been compelled to work in improper working conditions.
Ambedkar spoke on the difficulty within the Spherical Desk Conferences so courageously that he even articulated his resentment of the British Government of India. He mentioned that the explanation why the Government was not intervening on the difficulty acknowledged above was its worry of going through robust resistance. With the present passive governance of the Government on this side, it was most unlikely to have reforms within the socio-economic situation of India. Ambedkar had said that these grievances might only be addressed if India acquired the political energy in its personal arms. “It is only the Swaraj Constitution that we stand any probability of getting the political power in our own hands without which we can’t convey salvation to our people”, Ambedkar mentioned.
Majorly, he emphasized two notions that are;
- First, depressed courses were supporting the liberty battle precisely like the opposite countrymen have been doing. They weren’t having any totally different approach in the direction of the British. The Hindu orthodox oppression of Dalits had no meaning regarding their perspective on British rule.
- Second, the Dalit drawback was not only a social drawback but a largely apolitical problem. This notion of Ambedkar was not agreed upon by many INC leaders. Ambedkar strongly advocated the connection of the Dalit drawback with the political sphere. He supported his argument that to be able to ameliorate the conditions of the marginalized part, political power was a lot needed. Without political hold, their situation could not be improved. But the INC by no means thought of it as a political issue other than a social evil.
Considering the truth that after Muslims, the Dalit community was the largest minority in India, Ambedkar, in 1931, set up the Minority subcommittee in which the rights of minorities have been mentioned. Following the efforts of Ambedkar, a scheme of political safeguards for the safety of the Depressed Lessons in the future Constitution of a self-governing India was ready and attached within the report of the Minority subcommittee. It is known for equal citizenship, fundamental rights, safety towards discrimination, and so forth. Ambedkar described Indian society as divided into three distinct sections — Hindus, Muslims, and the depressed courses. He further stated that India will be actually independent only if these courses elect their very own representatives to participate in the process of government. Dr. Ambedkar broadly categorized SC/ST because the depressed class, as almost all of them had the same socio-economic situation.
Poona Pact
The Poona Pact is one of the most vital occasions of India’s freedom battle. It was an agreement signed between Dr. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi in 1932. It marked the start of the social justice movement in our nation under the leadership of Dr. Ambedkar.
Both Gandhi and Ambedkar wanted the upliftment of the weak courses of the society however the two large leaders had different ideologies to realize this frequent intention. The Poona Pact was a negotiation on this side by which the target of the betterment of the underprivileged part got here into being.
In August 1932, the British government announced the communal award by which 71 seats have been reserved for the depressed courses. It paved the way in which for a separate electorate for various courses dwelling in British India. Gandhi was absolutely against the separate electorate as he felt that the British have been attempting to divide the Hindus. Initially, Ambedkar favored the idea of a separate electorate however as a result of he had variations with Gandhi, a collection of negotiations passed off and arrived at an answer by the Poona Pact, repealing the communal award.
Within the settlement negotiated with Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar agreed for depressed class candidates to be elected by a joint electorate. The Poona Pact emphatically pervaded Ambedkar’s leadership of the depressed courses throughout the nation and he made the Indian National Congress and each citizen of India morally responsible for the welfare of the depressed courses. He was profitable in making the depressed courses a formidable political pressure for the first time in India.
The political party of Ambedkar
In 1936, Dr. Ambedkar based a political party named Independent Labour Party (ILP). It was one of many main steps of Ambedkar in his political profession. His party strongly opposed the Brahmanical and capitalist buildings in India, supported the Indian working class, and had the first goal to dismantle the caste system. In 1938, the ILP organized a march of thousands of tenants to Bombay, making it the biggest peasant mobilization of that area. It additionally joined with the Communists to organize Bombay textile laborers in opposition to a bill intended to control strike actions by the laborers.
Role of Ambedkar in Viceroy’s Executive Council
Being a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council (VEC) was an incredible matter of fact in these times. Ambedkar joined the VEC as a Labour member in July 1942. He truly represented the working class of India by being the responsible member in charge of the Labour trade. He successfully led the battle for reducing working hours from 12 hours a day to eight hours in 1942. He contributed to the idea of setting up Employment Exchanges in India. When Ambedkar joined the British Executive Council, he was lauded for his rise as a great chief.
Role of Ambedkar in drafting the Indian Constitution
Dr. Ambedkar was one of those intellectual statesman-politicians who pondered upon each side of unbiased India. He played an important position in framing the Constitution and thus, he is also known as the ‘Chief Architect of the Constitution. On August 3, 1947, Dr. Ambedkar was appointed the first Regulation Minister of our nation. As a legislation minister, he was the primary person behind writing the Constitution of India and handed many legal guidelines pertaining to religious, gender, and caste equality throughout this era.
During the last decades of colonial rule in India, Ambedkar was considered to be the messiah of the depressed courses as a result of he was actively working for the welfare of the untouchables by putting efforts to incorporate the provisions of equality and non-discrimination into the Constitution.
After considering his social & political acumen and firm decision to convey betterment to Indian society, on August 29, 1947, the Constituent Assembly of India appointed Dr. Ambedkar the Chairman of the Drafting Committee. This Committee was given the responsibility to organize the draft of the Constitution of independent India. It consisted of seven members namely:
- Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (The Chairperson)
- KM. Munshi
- Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer
- Mohammad Saadulah
- Gopala Swami Ayyangar
- B.L. Mitter
- D.P. Khaitan
The drafting of the Constitution was completed by this committee and it was the result of the collective efforts of nice leaders of the Constituent Meeting like Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, B.N. Rau, Sardar Patel, and many more. There were very detailed discussions that took place within the Meeting whereas making ready the draft of the Constitution. Various ideas like elementary rights, directive rules of state coverage, modification procedures, and so forth. have been borrowed from different nations, and finally, India was established as a quasi-federal democracy.
We all know that the Constitution is the supreme law of the nation and it types the premise for all the other legal guidelines as they ought to be consistent with the Constitution. However, according to Ambedkar, along with the feature of supremacy, the Constitution possessed the driving pressure of the nation’s development. It not only eradicated the evils of inequality and other negative factors that could push India away from the progressive path but also introduced sure characteristic features for the advancement of the nation. Let us individually deal with these options on which Ambedkar worked meticulously and considered them to be the driving force of developing independent India.
Fundamental rights
The Fundamental rights are assured to the individuals in India under Part III of the Constitution from Article 12 to 35. Usually, the elemental rights are enforceable against the state but Articles 15 (2), 17, 23 & 24 are enforceable against the individuals as nicely because they give protection to the people from discrimination on the grounds solely of faith, caste, race, sex, place of origin, etc. Ambedkar was highly against the practice of discrimination and was publicly opposing any such unequal treatment since he gave his speech at the Round Table Conference. Now that he was appointed the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, he extensively argued for the civil liberties of the depressed classes and abolition of the practice of untouchability.
Article 17
Article 17 of the Constitution which states the provision of “Abolition of untouchability”, was incorporated by Dr. Ambedkar and we see today that following his efforts, untouchability is banned in India and is punishable under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1965 and Prevention of Atrocities (Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes) Act, 1989. It was Ambedkar who confirmed the trail of social equality and helped the depressed classes to gain recognition of the outer world. Apart from Article 17, Ambedkar considered the right to the equal alternative to be a very important right given to the citizens of India under Article 16 because by exercising this right, each person can train the chance given in a specific discipline irrespective of the faith, caste, race, sex, descent, residence, place of origin or any of them. So, this was a progressive step aimed at the upliftment of the downtrodden part.
Article 32
The Constitution guarantees the Right to Constitutional remedies under Article 32. Ambedkar regarded this provision as the “heart and soul of the Constitution”. It provides safety to the residents of India from exploitation at the hands of public authorities and lets them implement their elementary rights within the Supreme Court if violated. The reason why Ambedkar thought of it to be very significant was that it activated expeditious justice delivery. His acute perception on humanitarian topics helped the Constituent Meeting to include such rights and created a permanent impact on the constitutional setup of the nation.
Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP)
Articles 36 to 51 constitute Part IV of the Constitution and it deals with the Directive Principles of State Coverage (DPSP). The DPSP are the obligations or duties imposed on each Central and State government to establish a welfare society; Dr. Ambedkar outlined it as a novel characteristic of the Constitution as, curiously, it specifies the rules for the State to observe to supply socio-economic justice to the residents of the nation. It contains equal pay for equal work for each man & woman, sufficient technique of livelihood, right to public help, uniform civil code, and many different welfare provisions for society in general. It has to be noted that the DPSP is non-justifiable in nature and the reason behind why it can’t be enforced is the sensible issues that the Constitution-makers felt. India didn’t have enough financial assets to fulfill the wants to realize the welfare guaranteed under DPSP. Moreover, the variety within the Indian society was a big hindrance in implementing these provisions justifiably.
Dr.. Ambedkar believed that Part IV was very significant in providing social justice to the people and can be proved to be useful for the depressed classes. For example, Article 38 provides for social order in which justice, social, economic, and political, shall inform all of the institutions of national life. Also, it forbids inequality in varied aspects like income, standing, opportunities, and so forth. irrespective of their place or job. Therefore, it can be said that the objective of Ambedkar to strengthen the position of depressed classes was achieved by DPSP as well as it upheld the principles of socio-economic justice.
Parliamentary democracy
In the Parliamentary form of democracy, the Prime Minister is the real head of the state. The Monarch or the President is the nominal head only. Dr. Ambedkar strongly advocated the thought of Parliamentary democracy for India since the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935. He believed that the Parliamentary type of government is a more stable kind as a result of it being extra responsible as it lacks authoritarianism and the members of the parliament can ask questions and prevent the government from passing draconian laws. The options of the Parliamentary kind aligned with Ambedkar’s rules of social democracy. His social democracy consisted of politicians with high standards of political morality, honesty, integrity, and energy in addition to a highly responsible Opposition party or events committed to the welfare of the marginal and depressed classes.
Also, he was a strong supporter of the federal construction comprising the Union and unbiased states. He wanted to ensure public unity and nationwide integrity, due to this fact in that respect, he proposed the unified judicial system and All India Civil Services for our nation.
Protective discrimination
The feature of protection against discrimination is closely related to Ambedkar’s goal of collective growth of the people. It’s mirrored under each Part III & IV of the Constitution. Article 15 forbids the State to discriminate amongst people on sure grounds. And on the identical time, it permits protective discrimination to uplift the weaker sections of society like girls and children. Article 16 requires equality of opportunities and reservation in public sector jobs. That is considered to be Ambedkar’s main triumph as by introducing reservation coverage, the depressed courses turned able to exercise the precept of equality of opportunity practically on floor stage and finally served to lift the standard of dwelling of these people.
Article 30 also deals with the welfare of the minorities and facilitates the establishment of their academic institutions. On similar lines, Schedule V & VI of the Constitution explicitly cope with the upliftment of the SCs and STs. All of it clearly exhibits how deliberately Ambedkar worked for the betterment of the downtrodden part of this country and today, the situation of those classes is far better than that within the first half of the 20th century.
State socialism
State socialism is the ideology by which the government holds control over the industries and various other social service sectors. Dr. Ambedkar supported state socialism in the draft Constitution as he suggested state ownership in agriculture with the modified means of cultivation. He believed that an economy with state-controlled industries would let the democratic government presuppose a democratic type of society as it might induce a way of social conscience in the minds of residents. There’s a well-known statement of Ambedkar in this regard, “‘Rights are protected not by law but by the social and moral conscience of society”. But he faced opposition from the Meeting and thereby he couldn’t incorporate state socialism underneath the part of fundamental rights in the Constitution.
Ambedkar felt that democracy is not merely a political side however types the basis of social relations among the people within the society. All of the characteristic options of democracy comparable to equality, morality, freedom, and so forth. have to be adopted by society first, only then the adoption of the democratic system within the Constitution will be successful. To deny equality in social and economic life would adversely affect democratic notions. Therefore, he emphasized the need of having the people realize the rights and duties conferred on them by the State and not just establish the organs of the state because it’ll defeat the purpose of making India an independent democracy.
Finance Commission under Ambedkar
In 1951, Dr. Ambedkar established the Finance Commission of India. The Finance Fee is constituted by the President of India under Article 280 of the Constitution. According to the first level of his idea of state socialism, he believed in state ownership of agricultural land as it would be a more democratic manner of maintaining the economy by the farm sector. The other two factors of his idea were the maintenance of resources for production by the state and a simple distribution of those assets to the inhabitants. He emphasized a free economy with a steady Rupee which India adopted not way back. Within the Finance Fee, Ambedkar opposed revenue tax for low-income teams and he contributed to land revenue tax and excise duty policies to stabilize the national economy.
An insight into Ambedkarism
Thus far we have seen the instrumental involvement of Dr. Ambedkar in reforming the social condition of the untouchables and his efforts in drafting the Constitution of India. The dedication to work for the welfare of depressed courses and move their issues to the house of debate kind the very component of Ambedkarism. He understood the wants of the people and wished to create social equality in each sphere of life of the untouchables. The ambition of Ambedkar to lift the social acceptance of the Dalits was complemented by his political and economic insight on the basis of which he put in efforts to maneuver this situation coherently in the Meeting in order to include the provisions into the Constitution accordingly.
Ambedkar realized that caste-based discrimination has its roots within the philosophy of Hinduism. Manu is considered to be the author of the ancient text Manusmriti, who gave the idea of social stratification and launched the caste system. Ambedkar criticized it strikingly and envisioned the annihilation of caste in India. In order to obtain social equality in its totality, he felt that Hinduism has to be repudiated so that the evil of casteism will be eradicated. This motivated him to undertake another faith, and thus, Ambedkar renounced Hinduism and adopted Buddhism. He believed that Buddhism might render salvation to the untouchables and be socially fit for a diverse India.
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