Constitution Day: Understanding Ambedkar and the context of the birth of Indian Constitution

In honour of the Constitution Day, the Ambedkar Reading Circle organised a lecture about the ‘Ambedkarite Utopia’ that the Constitution of India envisioned. The lecture was given by Dr. Ashna Singh, an Assistant Professor of Law at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.  

In honour of the Constitution Day, the Ambedkar Reading Circle organised a lecture about the ‘Ambedkarite Utopia’ that the Constitution of India envisioned. The lecture was given by Dr. Ashna Singh, an Assistant Professor of Law at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.  

Dr. Singh highlighted the context of the drafting of the Constitution and debunked several allegations and misconceptions about the Constitution. 

One of the common critiques of the Indian Constitution is that it reflects European modernity and not Indian culture. The Constitution has also been criticised for its bulkiness unlike the Constitutions of many other countries.  

The answer to these critiques lies in an anti-caste vision, explained Dr. Ashna. The Constitution was deliberately made extremely detailed inorder to counter the division in caste and bureaucracy and to ensure minority rights were not overlooked, she said. 

She noted that Ambedkar provided a third pole other than the left and right wings and broke the binary of which wing the country should lean upon. One of the ways he did that was by fighting the invocation of God in the preamble, which, Dr. Singh noted, both wings were in favour of then; Whereas Ambedkar’s stance reflected his secular thinking.  

An oppressive society 

The legal order of society before the Constitution was oppressive towards the Dalits. Ambedkar characterised it as a Brahminical legal order, he saw Hinduism as a system which gave out a lot of injunctions such as unequal punishments and restricted access to facilities, education and even rights.