Reclaiming the Republic, and the Constitution Premium

Our choice for a Constitutional republic over a Hindu Rashtra has to be reasserted

On January 22, 1947, the “Objective resolution” of the Indian Constitution was unanimously adopted by the Constituent Committee. This became the inspiring and powerful Preamble to the Indian Constitution. And now, as the Indian Republic enters its 75th year, a mammoth state-sponsored spectacle has undermined the determined resolve of both the Preamble and the basic structure of the Indian Constitution for India to be a secular nation.

However, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda being presented at this time, is not just making the state ‘theocratic’ and the majority religion ‘political’. It is part of an unprecedented effort to create a unidimensional culture in a nation that has been the home of a multitude of cultural practices. Indians will also have to decide whether to walk the path of a top down, politically imposed Hindutva; or respond culturally to ensure that the vibrant cultural landscape including a myriad of religious practices prevails , nurturing our diversity and building tolerance, rather than suspicion and hate for the ‘other’.

The political nature of the Hindutva effort is to flatten our multidimensional imagination into a two-dimensional vision of “ourselves” and the rest of the world. Even the somewhat clichéd messages of “unity in diversity” have gone. It is now one nation, one market, one colour, one language, one election, and, of course, one official religion. Even within the majority religion, which has never had one set of laws, or a high priest, we are witnessing a concerted, centralised effort to determine its “national norms”. Others will be allowed to exist, but either through official or unofficial fiat, the attempt is to make them all subservient to the dominant identity. Even religion is being centralised.

Freedom of faith and worship is intrinsic to humanity, individually and in groups. Some of the most powerful manifestations of the diversity of faith have been continually played out in India.

To be Indian was to be complex, to represent differences. There was anticipation about the context, cultural nuances and political alliances of every Indian you met. The person unravelled the nuances of language, food, clothes and cultural choices, weaving together a vibrant and colourful tapestry. Why, if we are proud of our heritage, do we rush to follow others who do not have the richness of diversity? It is perhaps because the ones driving this are attracted by the power and the control that centralisation and identity politics helps exercise.

Post-Independence, and Partition, we have grown up with the flavour of multiple choices including the liberty to opt-out of what we were born into. It was the freedom to choose. We defined choices as those that liberated us from the narrow definitions of stereotypes — including religious, caste and racial identities. Liberation included the right to step out of those two-dimensional definitions, to realise our potential, and have the freedom to eat, wear, sing, and think in multiple ways. For those of us living in cosmopolitan ‘Indian spaces’, it meant understanding the plural ways in which one celebrated even a ‘Hindu’ festival. Dusshera was celebrated in many ways — with a Durga pandal, a Tamil Navaratri with dolls, the north Indian Ram Lila, and the nuanced differences of every State and language group represented there. One looked with pity at cousins trapped in a single identity and who had to live in a single language zone.

India’s Constitution adopted 75 years ago, recognised and incorporated space for these diversities and differences, not just in politics but also in culture, and how we led our lives. What we count as progress has been built on sanctified objectives of tolerance and solidarity even as we faced the seemingly insurmountable challenges of competing interests. This was a sophisticated perspective written into the Constitution, that knew that differences had to be tolerated, if not welcomed to make India something more than a collection of kingdoms or a “former colony”.