Ingredients of the Preamble

While drafting the Constitution of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru presented ‘the objectives resolution’ in the Constituent Assembly on 13th December 1946, and it was adopted on 22nd January 1947. Since then, it was added to the Constitution as an introductory statement and has been known as the ‘Preamble of the Constitution’.

The Preamble was said to be the ‘soul of the Constitution’ because it contains an outline of everything present in the Constitution. The committee drafting the Constitution realised that the Preamble should be limited in explaining the socio-political objectives. The important features of the new state and other necessary affairs should be polished further in the Constitution. Later in the Preamble, there were amendments replacing and adding some keywords and lines.

Considering the Preamble, there are four essential ingredients:

• System’s objectives: Justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.

• The nature of government: Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic and Republic.

• The source of authority: People of India.

• The Date of adoption and enactment: Constitution was adopted on 26th November 1949 and was enacted on 26th January 1950.

Objectives of the system or nation

In the Preamble, the objectives of the political system have been further clarified. There are four such objectives to maintain the unity and integrity of the nation– justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity. 

Justice denotes the balanced accommodation of sole conduct with the concept of the public good. It stands for the rule of law, a system of equally distributed rights, the absence of any arbitrary decision, and free and equal chances for all in society. 

Liberty stands for the freedom to do legitimate things for Indians; it implies that there shall not be any unreasonable restriction on nationals about the general things they do. It does not mean unreasonable freedom either; liberty must be exercised within the constitutional limits. 

Equality comes in handy with liberty; they are complementary. Equally, it implies that special privilege to anyone is not acceptable; it signifies equality of status. Fraternity refers to the sense of belonging within the country with its citizens, a spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.

Nature of the government or political system

The Preamble of the Constitution declares the nature of India to be a ‘Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic’. The terms ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ were added in the Preamble after the 42nd Amendment. Here, Sovereign implies that the state is neither dominion nor a dependency on any other state but an independent nation; it deals with its affairs (internal and external) solely. 

‘Socialist’ means that our nation believes in an economy that is a mixture of public and private sectors. ‘Secular’ means that a nation shouldn’t have any specific religion; all religions shall get equal respect and authority within the state. Democratic is a comprehensive term that depicts that the Indian Constitution is established from the will of citizens through a free election. 

In the context of a republican form, the head of the state is always chosen for a certain period. With a decision to be a Republic, India has opted for electing its citizens as its President, who is considered the head of the state.

The source of authority

The beginning of the Preamble states that “We, the people of India, adopt, enact, and give to ourselves…,” which implies that the source of our Constitution is the citizens, ie, the people of India. This implication arises from whether the country’s people are represented in the assembly. 

The situation under which the Constitutional Assembly was formed is proof that in 1946, it wasn’t practically possible to form a body with the right to vote in elections, and no part of the assembly had any experience of that. So, it was only wise not to hold the task of framing the Constitution because enabling the right to vote in the entire country would have taken several more years. However, the citizens being the source of the Constitution, they hold power to elect their representatives now.

Date of adoption and enactment

As the source of authority is mentioned at the beginning of the Preamble, the date of adoption has been given at last as “this 26th day of November 1949…” The Preamble was enacted on 26th January 1950 after the adoption was made earlier. The proposal was made to enact the Constitution on the same day it was adopted, but it was rejected.

The Preamble is the soul of the Constitution. It is like a jewel in the Constitution. It basically contains the socio-political, moral, and other values that are supposed to be promoted through the Constitution. It consists of the spirit of the Constitution, the urge of the Indians to be united in a general task of forming up a new and independent nation, which will confirm the triumph of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. 

It outlines the essentials of the Constitution, which was to be formed by the Constituent Assembly, and thus, laid down what is called “the horoscope of our Sovereign Democratic Republic.” The Preamble is a vital part of the Constitution, as one can understand the Constitution through it.

Conclusion

As discussed above, the Preamble serves as the ‘identity card of the constitution’, being the introductory statement, it enables one to develop an understanding of the Constitution through it. The Preamble has four ingredients that provide a basic idea in the text. 

These are: the source of the authority, ie, the people of our nation, the objectives of the Constitution, which are justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity, nature of the state that is said to be Sovereign, Secular, Socialist, Democratic and Republic, and lastly, the date of adoption ie, 26th November 1949, and the date of enactment, ie, 26th January 1950.