On 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India was adopted formally and came into effect. Its preamble set out in brief the enlightened values it enshrined and hoped to engender. In a radical shift from mainstream constitutional history, this book establishes Dr B.R. Ambedkar's irrefutable authorship of the preamble by uncovering the intellectual origins of its six most central concepts: justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, dignity, and nation.
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The Constitution of India
PREAMBLE WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation; IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this 26th day of November 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION. |
"It is Dr Ambedkar’s preamble not only because of the processes by which it came to be, but also because of its conceptual content—it is Dr Ambedkar’s preamble both procedurally and substantively. Unlike for B.N. Rau, or even for Nehru, each and every one of its central concepts—justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, dignity and nation—has a decisive and inimitable provenance in Dr Ambedkar’s writings and speeches."
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