The Preamble to the Indian Constitution begins: “We, the People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic.

 

It is pertinent to mention that the words “Socialist” and “Secular” were not in the original Preamble and were added through the 42nd Amendment in 1976 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, during the Emergency for mere politics.

 

It is interesting to note that both former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. BR Ambedkar were not in favor of including those two words, while the Constitution was being drafted by the Constituent Assembly.

 

The Constituent Assembly debates of that time clearly show why the words were omitted in the original text. The debates saw Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's reason that there was no need to include the term ‘secular’ as the entire Constitution embodied the concept of the secular state, which meant non-discrimination on grounds of religion and equal rights and status to all citizens.

 

On the inclusion of the term ‘socialist,’ he said it is against the very grain of democracy to decide in the Constitution what kind of society the people of India should live in.

 

“It is perfectly possible today, for the majority of people to hold that the socialist organization of society is better than the capitalist organization of society. But it would be perfectly possible for thinking people to devise some other form of social organization that might be better than the socialist organization of today or of tomorrow. I do not see therefore why the Constitution should tie down the people to live in a particular form and not leave it to the people themselves to decide it for themselves,” he had said. His words had influenced the final decision to omit the two words.

 

Apart from him, Nehru was also not in favour of these words. It was because he felt that there was not enough of a consensus on both these issues and that there were divergent points of view. He had told VK Krishna Menon, who drafted the Preamble, to ‘go a little slow’ on these two words.

 

 

When the nation was forced into an Emergency as the Opposition was in prison or underground, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi re-introduced the two words for political reasons in the 42nd Constitution Amendment of 1976.

 

During the Emergency in India, the Indira Gandhi government pushed through several changes in the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution. Through this amendment, the words "socialist" and "secular" were added between the words "Sovereign" and "democratic" and the words "unity of the Nation" were changed to "unity and integrity of the Nation".

 

It is ironic how the Congress, one of the largest dynasty parties amended the Preamble and blatantly spread lies that the ruling party is insulting the Preamble.