Markandey
The purpose of making the Indian Constitution
Markandey Katju 12 Oct 2024
In Western countries like USA, Britain, France, etc the purpose of having a Constitution, whether written ( as in USA, France, Germany etc ) or unwritten ( as in U.K. ) is basically (1) to set up the organs of power, e.g. the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, and set out their limits, and (2) to guarantee the liberties of the people, e.g. freedom of speech, liberty, freedom of religion, etc by putting checks on the executive and the legislature..

Constitutions purport to have been made by the people of the country. For instance, the preamble to the US Constitution states :
'' We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America ''.
Thus, Constitutions presume that the real rulers of a country are its people, who have made the Constitution. All Constitutions provide for a democratic form of government, and democracy was defined by US President Abraham Lincoln as ' government by the people, for the people, of the people '.

The apparent, ostensible purpose of the Indian Constitution is the same as that of Western Constitutions ( as mentioned above ) but the real purpose is very different. To understand this we must know some facts :
The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution had drafted our Constitution on Western models. They borrowed the concepts of parliamentary system of democracy and an independent judiciary from England, the fundamental rights and the federal structure from the US Constitution, the directive principles from Ireland, Article 301 (which provides for free trade and commerce throughout the country, thereby ensuring the economic unity of the country) from Article 92 of the Australian Constitution, etc

Thus, a modern Western-style Constitution was borrowed from the West and transplanted and imposed from above on our backward, semi-feudal society, probably with the thought that this would pull our society into the modern age. And to some extent, it did. After the Constitution was promulgated in 1950, a heavy industrial base was set up in India, many new engineering colleges like the IITs were set up, education (including girls’ education) became widespread, among other developments.

However, there was a basic flaw in this thinking: great historical changes cannot be brought about by just promulgating Constitutions. That requires historical struggles by the masses and a revolution.

For, after all, what is a historical transition? It is a period when the old feudal society is totally uprooted and torn apart, and a new modern society is created. Old values are destroyed and replaced by new ones. As Shakespeare says in Macbeth, ”Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” In other words, what was regarded good earlier (e.g. the caste system) is regarded bad now by the enlightened sections, and what was regarded bad earlier (e.g. intercaste or love marriages) is no longer so regarded now by the enlightened sections of our society.

Is this possible without a mighty people’s struggle? The vested interests in the old order will put up a fierce resistance to such changes.

If we study the history of Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries, when Europe was passing through its transition from a feudal agricultural to a modern industrial society, we find that this period was full of turbulence, turmoil, chaos, wars, revolutions, social churning and intellectual ferment, e.g.the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Civil War and Glorious Revolution in England in the 17th century; the French Revolution of 1789 and Napoleonic wars thereafter; the theories of Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau and the French Encyclopedists, etc. It was only after going through this fire that modern society emerged in Europe.

Similarly, India has to go through this fire before a modern society like the ones presently existing in Western countries can be created here. A Constitution is just a piece of paper and by itself cannot bring about great historical changes without a mighty people’s struggle.

In fact the Indian Constitution only serves to dupe and deceive the Indian people, in the following ways :
(1)The Indian Constitution of 1950 presumes that the real rulers of the country are its people. The Constitution provides for democracy, which, according to Lincoln means rule by the people, and for their benefit.
However, everyone knows that the real rulers of India are a handful of crooked politicians, and some big businessmen who are hand in glove with them.
Thus the first purpose of the Indian Constitution is to deceive, hoodwink, and pull the wool over the eyes of the the Indian people into thinking that they are the rulers of India, when the real rulers are a handful of crooks, while the people are akin to slaves..

(2) The second purpose of the Indian Constitution was to deceive the Indian people into thinking that they have freedom, which they got when India became independent.
The truth, however, is that the vast majority of the Indian people got no freedom in 1947. 
Real freedom is economic freedom, i.e. freedom from poverty, unemployment, hunger, lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc, which the Indian masses are still deprived of.  What does freedom of speech in Article 19(1)(a), freedom to travel throughout India in Article 19(1)(d), or freedom to do business in Article 19(1)(g)  mean to a man who is poor, unemployed, or hungry ? It means nothing. Economic freedoms are mentioned in the Directive Principles of State Policy,  which by Article 37 are specifically made non enforceable i.e. they are only an ornamentation or flower pot having no force of law.
In his State of the Union  Address delivered on 11th  January 1944, a speech known as the Second Bill of Rights, US President Franklin Roosevelt said that without economic rights like right to employment, right to healthcare and right to housing, the rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution were illusory.
Even the political freedoms like freedom of speech, liberty, equality, etc, while existing on paper, often do not exist in practice. Why is Umar Khalid still in jail without bail or trial for over 4 years ? Is it merely because he is a Muslim ? Why were the Bhima Koregaon accused kept in jail for several years on trumped up charges ? Or Prof Saibaba ? Why is the brave police officer Sanjiv Bhat languishing in jail for several years on a flagrantly trumped up charge, just because he gave an affidavit in the Supreme Cout accusing Modi of being complicit in the massacre of thousands of  Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 ? Why was Dr Kafeel Khan arrested and kept in jail for a long period ? Scores of similar such examples can be given

(3) The Indian Constitution provides for parliamentary democracy, which creates an illusion that the people are ruling themselves.
But everyone in India knows that in India parliamentary democracy largely runs on the basis of caste and communal vote banks, and these are skilfully manipulated by our crooked and cunning political leaders ( of all parties ), who have no genuine love for the people, but only seek power and pelf for themselves and their kith and kin, by polarising society and inciting and spreading hatred between castes and communities.
Casteism and communalism are feudal forces, which have to be destroyed if India is to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them ( as it largely runs on their basis ). So the 'democracy in India is a farce, and its real purpose is to befool and dupe the Indian people into thinking that that they are the masters of the country, when in fact they are only slaves

(4) Parliamentary democracy, laid down in our Constitution, creates an illusion among our people that their basic problems e.g. massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), almost total lack of proper healthcare for our masses, ( 57% of our women are anaemic ), etc can be solved within the system. The truth, however,  is that they can be only solved outside the system, by a mighty historical people's struggle and people's revolution led by genuinely patriotic, selfless, modern minded leaders determined to create a political and social order under which the country rapidly industrialises and modernises, and our people get a high standard of living, and enjoy decent lives.


By Justice Markandey Katju, former Judge, Indian Supreme Court
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