Constitutions are primarily seen as the legal edifice that prescribes the fundamental principles and rules crucial for governing a nation. The Indian Constitution, as the revered guiding document, for governing the post-colonial independent nation, consists of the prescription, pronouncements, and provisions that gave shape to India’s legal-political system of governance. However, beyond the legal directives and provisions, the document
reflects a set of normative ethical values which the Indian Constitution makers perceived as integral for laying the foundation of the Indian Republic. Such constitutional predilection
towards a set of ‘substantive moral entailments’ that goes beyond the legal-doctrinal reading of the Constitution entails the basic premise of constitutional morality. It refers to the ideas and motivation that enables a nation to not only practice constitutional life in letter but also in spirit. It’s a morality that pushes a nation to strive for the realisation of the promises that the Constitution espouses. To adequately comprehend the promise and practise of the Indian Constitution, it is crucial to unpack such underlying moral or ethical tenets that have shaped or has been shaping the discourse of constitutionalism in India.
Contextualising constitutional morality
This Republic Day, as India marks the completion of 74 years of its constitutional functioning, the moral and ethical spirit of the Constitution that has phenomenally shaped the trajectory of constitutional democracy, needs to be delved into. It is important to register right at the outset that the conceptualisation and treatment of India’s constitutional morality have been varied and contested. But, the premise of constitutional morality needs to be extrapolated to better understand the larger ethical dynamics that have consolidated the form and substance of democracy in India. The practise of representative democracy is constituted by two dimensions—procedural democracy as well as substantive democracy. The former encapsulates the practise of electoral democracy while the latter also includes the larger substantive or qualitative impact of electoral democracy on the lives of the people. Despite the apprehensions raised at the time of independence as India was dubbed as
an ‘improbable democracy’, constitutional democracy in India undoubtedly remains stable and durable, manifesting its unflinching resilience in the last seven decades. The success of India’s vibrant democratic continuity, in spite of the humongous challenges of multi-dimensional diversity, geographical, and demographic expanse and other socio-economic hindrances can be attributed to the moral and ethical drivers of the Indian Constitution that needed to be deciphered further.
To adequately comprehend the promise and practise of the Indian Constitution, it is crucial to unpack such underlying moral or ethical tenets that have shaped or has been shaping the discourse of constitutionalism in India.
Ethical motivation and democracy
The
book,
Politics and Ethics of Indian Constitution, notes that the Constitution at its very inception identified itself to belong to the ‘people’ underlining the democratic ethic of the Indian Republic. The Constitution’s genuinely egalitarian project got manifested in the granting of the universal adult franchise to all sections of people in India regardless of class, gender, ethnicity, literacy or any other identitarian attributes. India, by virtue of its constitutional inclination towards inclusivity, commenced universal political enfranchisement immediately after the independence while the right to vote has been granted to women in stable western democracies much later after their independence. The constitutionally
designated Election Commission in India functions as an autonomous body and has remained successful in conducting largely free and fair elections right from the early 1950s. It is to be emphasised
here that in the initial period, registering of millions of voters in the electoral rolls, especially the
task of identifying the women voters amidst patriarchal norms, supervision of the nomination process and campaigns of thousands of candidates in the electoral fray, has been a daunting task that India could fulfil. The Election Commission and many other forums and organisations have
undertaken the challenging task of creating ways to encourage a greater number of voters to go to the polling booth for casting their vote, especially women voters, which has resulted in a considerable
increase in the voters’ turnout in India over the last seven decades. Also, the
instances of major electoral violence have also
declined with time further
strengthening the credibility of the electoral process. In tandem with the principle of inclusiveness based on the idea of equal political opportunity that the Indian constitution espoused, India
witnessed a gradual increase in the political participation and representation of the hitherto marginalised and weaker sections of people. The element of positive discrimination
through affirmative action has also provided a crucial avenue of political participation and resultant empowerment of the historically marginalised sections. The underlying constitutionally sanctioned principles of individualistic as well as communitarian egalitarianism expanded the reach of India’s electoral democracy to the sections lingering at the socio-political periphery. Moreover, the fundamental rights
rolled out by the Constitution have acted as an extremely helpful instrument for strengthening India’s democratic credentials by making the ‘modern citizen’ aware of their political, legal and civic rights based on the inalienable principle of individual liberty. The juxtaposition of duties along with rights has inculcated the prerequisite of exercising collective self-restraint and realisation of responsibility amongst the citizenry to ensure social stability. The wide-ranging non-enforceable yet crucial welfarist provisions enshrined in the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) of the Indian Constitution
manifested itself in the context of electoral politics premised upon the imperative of distribution of welfare and developmental goods
, expanding the scope of welfare politics in India. This also has enabled a large section of people to get access to basic amenities of life facilitating a minimum life of dignity for all in tune with the underlying substantive democratic ideal of a better life.
The element of positive discrimination through affirmative action has also provided a crucial avenue of political participation and resultant empowerment of the historically marginalised sections.
The indispensability of the moral vision
Therefore, the underlying foundational normative values of freedom, fraternity, equality and social justice embedded in the heart of Indian Constitution has led to the consolidation of some of the procedural as well as substantive dimensions of democracy. It is because the mechanisms of constitutionally sanctioned electoral politics not only enabled the inclusive participation of citizens, both as voters as well as candidates but has also created sections of politically aware citizenry comprising a vibrant and autonomous civil society and well as duty-bound citizens. Also, the constitutional emphasis on the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), gave an impetus to the citizens to deploy the instruments of mass mobilisation to ensure welfare and developmental governance. It is important to once again ponder over and appreciate the underlying normative principles of a good life that the Indian constitutional promise of democracy entails beyond the palpable articles enlisting the rules and directives. Thus, the inextricably embedded values of India’s constitutional morality have played a pivotal role in strengthening the ethical vision of democracy, despite challenges, further enhancing India’s democratic resilience.
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