Skip to main content

Why are secularism and socialism in the Constitution's Preamble an eyesore to Hindu nationalists

By Ram Puniyani* 
The RSS General Secretary, Dattatray Hosabale, who holds the second position in the RSS leadership hierarchy, recently stated  that the words "Secularism" and "Socialism" were inserted into the Preamble of the Indian Constitution during the Emergency. He further claimed that these words were not present in the original Preamble drafted by Dr. Ambedkar and, therefore, should be removed.
This is not the first time such a demand has been raised from Hindutva quarters. When the BJP government came to power in 2014, in the following Republic Day of January 2015, the government issued an advertisement featuring a picture of the Preamble in which these words were missing, under the same pretext that they were not in the version released in November 1949. A significant debate ensued, and a case was filed in the courts demanding the deletion of these words from the present Constitution.
Multiple petitions were filed on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Constitution on November 25, 2024. The Supreme Court rejected and dismissed all petitions challenging the inclusion of the words "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble. The justices held that the addition of these terms could not be objected to solely on the ground that the original Preamble did not contain them at the time the Constitution was adopted.
It's not just these two values that Hindu nationalists are against; they oppose the Constitution as a whole. During Constituent Assembly debates, many leaders had expressed apprehension that secularism would be undermined and emphasized the need to guard against this to the utmost. As a representative example, Sardar Patel's statement needs to be recalled: "I made it clear that this Constitution of India, of free India, of a secular State will not hereafter be disfigured by any provision on a communal basis."
As per the Constitution, Hosabale’s argument is on weak ground, as the very provisions of the Constitution spell out these words. According to the fundamental rights enshrined in Article 25, which deals with the freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion, the word "secular" is explicitly mentioned under clause (2)(a).
Due to electoral compulsions, the BJP speaks in many tongues. It began with "Gandhian Socialism," which was abandoned in 1985 in favor of the caste-hierarchy-based "integral humanism." In the BJP's Constitution of 2012, it stated its objective as aiming for a party that "...shall bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India."
The core agenda of RSS-BJP is to strive for a Hindu Nation where the Manu Smriti will be the guiding principle. Right after the Indian Constitution was implemented on January 26, 1950, the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, published an editorial heavily criticizing the Constitution. It stated on November 30, 1949, "The worst [thing] about the new Constitution of Bharat is that there is nothing Bhartiya about it… [T]here is no trace of ancient Bhartiya constitutional laws, institutions, nomenclature and phraseology in it." This implies that the Manu Smriti had been ignored by the makers of the Indian Constitution.
At the same time, the ideologue of Hindu Nationalism, V.D. Savarkar, stated that "Manu Smriti is that scripture which is most worship-able after Vedas for our Hindu Nation and which from ancient times has become the basis of our culture-customs, thought and practice. This book for centuries has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Even today the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus in their lives and practice are based on Manu Smriti. Today Manu Smriti is Hindu Law. That is fundamental."
[V.D. Savarkar, ‘Women in Manu Smriti’ in Savarkar Samgra (collection of Savarkar’s writings in Hindi), Prabhat, Delhi, vol. 4, p. 415.]
In the decade of the 1990s, three major statements and actions again demonstrated its deeper and real affinity and goal of a Hindu Nation. In 1993, Rajju Bhiayya, the then Sarsanghchalak of RSS, stated that "Official documents refer to the composite culture, but ours is certainly not a composite culture… this country has a unique cultural oneness. No country, if it has to survive, can have compartments. All this shows that changes are needed in the Constitution. A Constitution more suited to the ethos and genius of this country should be adopted in the future."
In 1998, the BJP came to power as part of the NDA. One of the major things it did was to appoint the Venkatachaliah Commission to review the Constitution, asserting that it had become old and needed revision. The Commission did submit its report, but there was huge opposition to it, and so the implementation of its recommendations was put on hold.
Undeterred by all this, in the year 2000, when K. Sudarshan became the Sarsanghchalak of RSS, he stated that the Indian Constitution is based on Western values and should be scrapped and replaced by one based on Hindu Holy books (i.e., Manu Smriti).
Many BJP leaders have kept echoing this line on and off. Anant Kumar Hegde of Karnataka explicitly stated that they are in power precisely for changing the Constitution. In the light of the "400 par" (beyond 400 parliament seats) slogan of the BJP, many of their leaders reiterated that they need these many seats so that they can achieve their goal of changing the Constitution.
The BJP's tactical flexibility was on display when Mr. Modi said that even if Babasaheb Ambedkar were to return, he could not change the Constitution. In the backdrop of the 2024 elections, Rahul Gandhi made a major issue around the Constitution by carrying a copy of it in his hand. There was no overt opposition from the RSS-BJP camp, and Modi even bowed to the copy of the Constitution.
The RSS-BJP strategy is multipronged: to try to tamper with the Constitution through various steps and, at the same time, to adopt policies that bypass the ethos of the Constitution when in power. That’s what we have been witnessing for the last decade or so. Hosabale’s statement is a calculated move to test the waters, to march further in their agenda of doing away with democratic, secular values and equality.
---
*Youtube Facebook Instagram Whatsapp
Twitter Pinterest My Website

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

'Threat to farmers’ rights': New seeds Bill sparks fears of rising corporate control

By Bharat Dogra  As debate intensifies over a new seeds bill, groups working on farmers’ seed rights, seed sovereignty and rural self-reliance have raised serious concerns about the proposed legislation. To understand these anxieties, it is important to recognise a global trend: growing control of the seed sector by a handful of multinational companies. This trend risks extending corporate dominance across food and farming systems, jeopardising the livelihoods and rights of small farmers and raising serious ecological and health concerns. The pending bill must be assessed within this broader context.
Post a Comment
»

Delhi Jal Board under fire as CAG finds 55% groundwater unfit for consumption

By A Representative   A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India audit report tabled in the Delhi Legislative Assembly on 7 January 2026 has revealed alarming lapses in the quality and safety of drinking water supplied by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), raising serious public health concerns for residents of the capital. 
Post a Comment
»

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.
Post a Comment
»

Pairing not with law but with perpetrators: Pavlovian response to lynchings in India

By Vikash Narain Rai* Lynch-law owes its name to James Lynch, the legendary Warden of Galway, Ireland, who tried, condemned and executed his own son in 1493 for defrauding and killing strangers. But, today, what kind of a person will justify the lynching for any reason whatsoever? Will perhaps resemble the proverbial ‘wrong man to meet at wrong road at night!’
Post a Comment
»

Why economic war waged by US has created the situation for Iran's turmoil

By Vijay Prashad   Iran is in turmoil. Across the country, there have been protests of different magnitudes, with violence on the increase with both protesters and police finding themselves in the morgue. What began as work stoppages and inflation protests drew together a range of discontent, with women and young people frustrated with a system unable to secure their livelihood. Iran has been under prolonged economic siege and has been attacked directly by Israel and the United States not only within its borders, but across West Asia (including in its diplomatic enclaves in Syria). This economic war waged by the United States has created the situation for this turmoil, but the turmoil itself is not directed at Washington but at the government in Tehran.
Post a Comment
»

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat*  As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.
Post a Comment
»

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra*  The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.
Post a Comment
»

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...
Post a Comment
»

Climate advocates face scrutiny as India expands coal dependence

By A Representative   The National Alliance for Climate and Environmental Justice (NACEJ) has strongly criticized what it described as coercive actions against climate activists Harjeet Singh and Sanjay Vashisht, following enforcement raids reportedly carried out on the basis of alleged violations of foreign exchange regulations and intelligence inputs. 
Post a Comment
»