
It is a perennial debate in the Constitutional cosmos whether the Indian Constitution is a revolutionary transformative document or just an evolutionary continuum of the British Raj. In 1954, Justice Vivian Bose held that the Constitution blotted out, in one magnificent sweep, all vestiges of despotic power in India -- the colonial past was obliterated, and a new order was born. But this assertion is only a half-truth.
The enactment of the Constitution marked the demise of 'John Bullish' imperialism and the dawn of democratic republicanism in India. However, the grand document failed to include the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi who led the long and unfinished walk to India's salvation holding the torch of ahimsa and swaraj. The abolition of untouchability and organisation of village panchayats were but exceptions to the rule.
Is the republic crumbling?
The Constitution has two components -- the doctrinal foundation and the operational super-structure. As the republic celebrates its 75th birthday, the doctrinal foundation of the Constitution is egregiously diluted and the operational super-structure is cobwebbed with moral and political corruption.
The Report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2002) rightly portrayed the state of the republic: "There is pervasive disenchantment with the working of the institutions of democracy. People themselves seem almost to have resigned to what they consider their inevitable fate. Their patience and emotional resources appear to be wearing thin, yielding place to a sense of revulsion against the State and a deep distrust against the machinery of government, particularly the police and bureaucracy. There is pervasive and cynical disbelief that anything will at all."
The report quoted Chakaravarti Rajagopalachari who wrote some prophetic words from his prison cell in Vellore in 1922: "We all ought to know that Swaraj will not at once or, I think even for a time to come, bring better government or greater happiness for the people. Elections and their corruption, injustice, and the power and tyranny of wealth, and insufficiency of administration, will make a hell of life as soon as freedom is given to us."
Unfortunately, Rajaji's has pessimism prevailed over Jawaharlal Nehru's exuberant 'Tryst with Destiny' optimism. We have failed to build up a prosperous, democratic, and progressive nation, and to create social, economic, and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life for every man and woman, as Nehru boldly envisioned.
Nehru, in his legendary speech, paid tribute to the Father of our Nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. Panditji prophetically said that succeeding generations would remember the message of Mahatma and bear his imprint in their hearts. When the republic touches the milestone of 75 years, it is time for us to look back on Gandhiji's legacy for guidance and solace.
The citizen-saviour
In the Gandhian scheme of things, the spiritually empowered individual is the fulcrum of society and state. Ananya Vajpeyi in her Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India (2014) underscored the importance of 'self' in Gandhian philosophy: "These are the two categories [swaraj and ahimsa] that lay the political foundations of modern India. The 'self' is semantically central to both categories. The first, swaraj, literally means the sovereignty, rule, or mastery (raj) of the self (swa); here self is named [...] The second, ahimsa, literally means ‘the absence of the desire to harm’; here the self is indexed by the concealed desiderative (hims-)- harm is absent (negativizer ‘a’) from the will or intention of an implied agent, the self. Moreover, Gandhi frequently switched registers between the ideas of individual and collective selfhood, thus addressing both India and every person in it, as also potentially every human being anywhere."
This fact gives us an insight that only a morally and spiritually enlightened citizenry, India's collective self, can save the republic from the pervasive cancer of corruption and violence.
The individual is the solid building block of the Constitutional order. For Gandhiji, individual swaraj and village swaraj have been an integral part of constitutional swaraj. Referring to the success of Bardoli Satyagraha and the Motilal Nehru Committee report in 1928, Gandhiji wrote: "Bardoli has shown the way to organic swaraj [...] while Lucknow [it was at Lucknow All- Parties Conference ratified the Nehru report] has opened the gates of constitutional swaraj. Both are essential. Whereas learned and politically astute leaders were required for the Lucknow swaraj, the ordinary illiterate masses served the purpose for the Bardoli swaraj."
In today's India, we the people have to reignite the spirit of Bardoli Swaraj to reclaim the life of the Lucknow Swaraj. Here Gandhi emerges as the Pharos.
Gandhi has been much maligned for his 'romantic villagism'. He envisaged a political system composed of innumerable villages where life would not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. He conceived an oceanic circle of villages as a unique constitutional order for India. The humble individual was the centre of the oceanic circle.
He wrote: "My ideal village will contain intelligent human beings. They will not live in dirt and darkness as animals. Men and women will be free and able to hold their own against anyone in the world."
Village, for Gandhi, has been a medium for spiritual and moral advancement and political expression of of individual. Hence, the deliverance of India is feasible only through the spiritual and ethical nurturing of the citizenry.
Lok Sevak Sangh
To provide a spiritual and ethical guidebook for the citizenry, a distinct 'spirituality and ethics charter' must be incorporated into the Constitution. The charter must draw vitality from the Gandhian ideals of ahimsa and swaraj. The Lok Sevak Sangh, as Gandhiji conceived in his last will and testament dated January 27, 1948, can be raised to propagate and enlighten the citizenry on the principles of the charter. In his last will, he suggested that the Indian National Congress may itself be converted into a Lok Sevak Sangh to work for the establishment of a non-violent society.
Gandhiji conceived an ideal Lok Sevak who would keep constant personal contact with every villager within his jurisdiction. A Lok Sevak must abjure untouchability in any shape in his personal and family life and must believe in the ideal of inter-communal unity. Just four days before his martyrdom, Gandhiji told Vincent Sheean, an American author, that his constructive workers would keep parliament in check by educating and guiding voters. As Bhikhu Parekh pointed out in his Gandhi’s Political Philosophy: A Critical Examination (1989), Gandhiji pleaded for a polity articulated in terms of the complementary and mutually regulating institutions of the state and the Lok Sevak Sangh.
During a time when the Catholic Church faced internal corruption, Pope Innocent III dreamt of the Lateran Basilica collapsing. In the dream, a humble, barefoot man dressed in a simple tunic was seen holding up the crumbling edifice, preventing it from falling. Shortly after this dream, the Pope met St. Francis of Assisi and recognized Francis as the man from his vision.
Nikos Kazantzakis in his God's Pauper: St. Francis of Assisi portrays this scene: "Can you be the one", he [the Pope] asked him [Francis] in a startling voice. The face of the ragged monk was just like your face! Does this mean you are the one who is going to save the Church?"
But in today's India, the common citizen has no such doubt over the truth that it is the slender Chiranjeevi Mahatma, with his ideals of ahimsa and swaraj, who is going to save the Basilica of the Republic from crumbling down.
(The author is Deputy Law Secretary to the Government of Kerala. Email: faisal.chelengara10@gmail.com)