Every year on 26th of January we celebrate Republic Day commemorating the enforcement of the Constitution of India which led to the formal creation of a sovereign democratic republic. As we might know from our history books that even though the Constituent Assembly finished their final draft of the Constitution, they decided to hold on the adoption for two more months so that the date coincided with the first declaration of Poorna Swaraj which was 26th January 1930. The Congress which passed the resolution of Poorna Swaraj in 1930 paved the way for the new union that was formed. However, the provisions of the Constitution were far from the ones Congress had promised in the Poorna Swaraj document, putting a significant doubt on the importance of the date.
The Poorna Swaraj document made eight main promises, almost none being kept in the Constitution, at least in its entirety. Congress’ promiseto give complete and unrestricted independence to all citizens was later delivered with numerous restrictions. This was also not extended to complete freedom of expression and association, which got a special mention in the Declaration of 1930. The document was very Gandhian and promoted local industries and reduced the burden of taxation, be it domestic or on import.Yet, there was no provision to promote these local industries and controlled taxation. On the contrary, India focused much more on the growth of technology and related sectors than the promised revival of handicrafts. On the taxation end, the salt tax which got a special mention in the document was not discontinued in independent India with Article 253 enforcing levying the same levels of taxation on the poor salt peasant. The promise to make education more accessible and equitable is something that the Assembly delivered on, but the efficiency and effectiveness are things that one can question. Lastly, the right to possess arms was something that was promised too but was delivered upon very selectively for the tribals with provisions in the document making it almost impossible to attain a license.
Arghya Sengupta in his book, The Colonial Constitution, mentions that the constitution that came into effect in 1950 was largely a colonial document with “one-third of the final draft finalized by the Assembly were directly borrowed [from the Government of India Act, 1935], with minor modifications where necessary”(Pg 13). Instead of delivering on the promises the idea seems to be not to fix something that is not broken. “Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile’ said the Drafting Committee head of the Consitution, Mr. B.R. Ambedkar while presenting the draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly. However, in modern discourse, it is very common and easy to say that we live in a colonial state with a poorly written constitution or on the other end of the debate, that Man is vile. Whoever or whatever you may deem the problem of the Constitution, one thing we can agree on is the questionable quality of the document and the date of 26th January.
Congress which held almost 90% of the total seats in the Drafting Committee and the Constituent Assembly could have easily delivered on its Poorna Swaraj promises, but it chose not to. This change in view is best encapsulated by Laxminarayan Sahu, one of the Assembly members, who pointed out the hypocrisy of Congressmen and asserted “that self-government is better than good government. Now we have grown indifferent to self-government and are raising the slogan of good government. With so many rigid provisions what good government can you have and for whom?” (Dec 2, 7.65.136). Hence, making the two-month wait for this new document of sovereignty irrelevant as it was just a revised form of colonialism, in my opinion. If you think sovereignty is what 26th January or the constitution signifies for you then you just might be in the minority as there have been calls from the NDA to change and Indianize the constitution who, in my opinion, too would ignore the colonial aspects of the constitution as it gives them more power. Only an altruist can bring this change and politics is not an altruistic profession. 26th January might be an important day for the freedom fighters or in pre-independent India but we have not been able to maintain the sanctity of the date.
Source: Live Law
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