Preamble #5: Fraternity

Fraternity. This should be an uncontroversial word in a constitution or preamble, right? But it was not the case, explains Aakash Singh Rathore in Ambedkar’s Preamble. In 1948, Ambedkar introduced this clause:

“Fraternity, assuring the dignity of every individual without distinction of caste or creed.”

The left-leaning members of the drafting committee were not happy with it. For them, class conflict was the greater problem, not caste conflict, so they wanted “class” to be part of the clause. The right, on the other hand, wanted emphasis on the nation (building) aspect in the clause.

 

Ambedkar yielded to both groups and the updated clause read:

“Fraternity, without distinction of caste, class or creed, so as to assure the dignity of every individual and the unity of the Nation.”

 

But the Objective Resolution had no mention for fraternity. The Drafting Committee got nervous – were they flirting with danger by not following something framed by Nehru and the Congress top brass? They came up with the “clumsiest solution imaginable”:

“(They) decided to append a footnote to the Preamble.”

The wording of the footnote smacked of “The lady doth protest too much”, writes Rathore. Even with the footnote, the members were nervous. The clause survived but was amended to the form it would have on 26 January 1950:

“Fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation.”

And that footnote? It too got reworded to say that the reason for adding the “fraternity” term was that recent events (Partition) had made the need for “fraternal concord and goodwill” very important. Nicely handled.

 

Ambedkar had three other reasons to push for the fraternity clause. One, to soften the blow from the “battery of assaults on Brahmanism and Brahmanical patriarchy that were enclosed in the body of the enclosed Constitution”. Two, he was authoring the Hindu Code Bill to breakdown many of the powers of the caste system. He knew those would be contentious, and a country already being split by Partition might next split on caste.

 

Three, Ambedkar truly believed in liberty, equality and fraternity. No, he insisted, he did not take those from the French Revolution. Instead, he attributed them to (wait for it) the Buddha!

“He (Buddha) added that unlimited liberty destroyed equality, and absolute equality equally left no room for liberty… He gave the highest place to fraternity as the only real safeguard against denial of liberty or equality – fraternity which was another name for brotherhood or humanity, which was again another name for religion.”

And added:

“The word fraternity is not an adequate expression. The proper term is what the Buddha called Maitree.”

 

Was inserting the Buddhist touch a subtle dig at the caste system? Or was it a way to avoid the criticism that Western values were being imposed on an independent India? With Ambedkar, it was probably both of those things.

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