This is transcript of video lectures from the series of [[15 Video Lectures on Indian Constitution]] **Navigate to other lectures in this series:** [[Introduction to Indian Constitution]] | [[Constituent Assembly Debates]] | [[Preamble of Indian Constitution]] | [[Citizenship in India]] | [[Right to Equality]] | [[Reservation Policies and Indian Constitution]] | [[Freedom of Speech & Expression]] | [[Right to Life and Personal Liberty]] | [[Freedom of Religion]] | [[Rights of Minorities]] | [[Directive Principles]] | [[Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles & Fundamental Duties’ Relationship]] | [[Union Executive Powers & Position of President & Prime Minister]] | [[Indian Judiciary]] | [[Constitutional Amendments & the Basic Structure Theory]] # Chapter 3 - Lecture 3 By Prof. (Dr.) Faizan Mustafa Namaskar, welcome to online course on Indian Constitution which is being offered by Nalusar University of Law in collaboration with Ministry of Law and Justice Government of India. In the last lecture we talked about how Indian constitution was drafted, we talked about the composition of the Constituent Assembly, the choices which were there before the Constituent Assembly and the choices they made. Today we are going to talk about a very important topic of our constitution that is the preamble of the Constitution. Let me first of all read the preamble of our constitution. We the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist, secular, democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens, just as social, economic and political. Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and version, equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. In our Constituent Assembly, this 26th day of November 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this constitution. So Indian constitution was adopted on 26th of November 1949. But the constitution was enfold on 26th January 1950. So 26th November 1949 till 2014 used to be celebrated as laudate. But in 2014, the Government of India and in my opinion rightly decided that this day should be celebrated as a constitution day. And therefore now we call it a constitution day and celebrate it every year. Now the first question which should come to your mind, why constitutions need to have a preamble? Preamble means introduction. It tells us the source of the authority of the constitution. The most fundamental question for any constitution is from where this constitution draws its authority. So it is the preamble which will tell us what is the source of the authority of this constitution. We will discuss it later. Preamble also indicates ideals, goals and vision of framers of the constitution. It will tell us the values of our constitution or any constitution in the world would wish to achieve. The preamble also tells us the kind of society the constitution invisages. In the famous case of Golaknath versus state of Punjab on 1967 judgment, Chief Justice Subaraw had said, preamble contains in a nutshell the ideals and aspirations. So our aspirations as a nation, if you want to read you should come to the constitution of India, read our preamble and I just read it to you. Next crucial question is do all constitutions have preamble? The answer is not a clear yes, not a clear no. But legally speaking it is not mandatory. To have a preamble in a constitution. But then most constitutions in the world really have a preamble. But you will be surprised to know as many as 54 constitutions in the world do not have a preamble. Which are these constitutions? Belgium, Botswana, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malaysia, Maldives, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand etc. It is a long list about one fourth constitutions in the world don't have a preamble. In our own country, government of India act which was a constitution, a kind of constitution did not have a preamble. We borrowed a lot from the government of India act. Out of 134 constitutions in the world which do have a preamble, how many of them call it a preamble? 87 and there are 47 constitutions where some kind of preamble is there. But it is not called preamble. The shortest preamble is that of constitution of Greece. It has mere 11 words. In the name of the holy and consubstantial and indivisible Trinity. This is how the preamble begins. The landiest preamble is in the constitution of Iran which has 3773 words. Chinese preamble is also very landy. It has 1771 words. 121 preambles state the values and goals. So let us talk of what are the common values. If so many preambles refer to values, is there some commonality in the values? Generally, preambles refer to God Almighty. In as many as 60 preambles, there is a reference to God. In the preamble of Albania, Brazil, Uganda, Germany, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Ireland etc. Preambles also talk of sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity of the nation and the right to self-determination. They also make a reference to democracy, rule of law, justice, social justice, freedom, equality, equality before law and human rights. You will also find in preamble invariably reference to peaceful and cordial relations with other countries, prosperity, welfare, humanism, pluralism, protection of interest of minorities. So these are broadly the common values which are referred in the preambles of the world. Coming to the preamble of Indian constitution, which I read to you just now, the question is who drafted this preamble? There is no clear record. But there are three views about the authorship of our preamble. The predominant view is that the preamble is based on the objective resolution which was moved by Pandey Jawaharlal Nehru. The other view is that it was Sri, Sb and Rao, who was the advisor to the constant assembly, who used to be given the credit of drafting the preamble. The third view is that it was the drafting committee of the constitution, which was headed by Dr. Bhimra Om Bhaitkar that this drafting committee drafted the preamble. And as you know most members in the drafting committee did not really work. It was largely Dr. Bhimra Om Bhaitkar in the opinion of Professor Akash Singh Ratar, who can be given the credit of drafting the preamble of Indian constitution. Now the next crucial question, legal question, is is preamble part of constitution? Now in many ordinary legislations and enactments, the preamble may not be even enacted by the legislature. But as far as the preamble of Indian constitution is concerned, I just told you that it was moved as an objective resolution by Pandey Jawaharlal Nehru. It was eventually adopted at the end on the suggestion of Hassrat Mohani and it was adopted like any other provision of the constitution. So framers of the constitution treated preamble as important, as significant, as any other provision. What is a judicial response to this question? In the case of Inre Beru-Bhari, a 1960 judgment of Supreme Court, the on-rebel Supreme Court said preamble is not the part of constitution and it cannot be amended. This was overruled 13 years later in the famous His Holiness Keshavanandabharti judgment where Supreme Court said preamble is part of the constitution and can be amended. His Holiness Keshavanandabharti recently passed away and in a state of UP versus Dina Nath Shukla 1997 judgment, it was held that the preamble is the basic structure of the constitution. Many expressions used in preamble have already been held as the basic structure of the constitution, such as democratic character of the country or the secular character of the country. Now if preamble can be amended, how can it be amended? Just now I told you that in Keshavanandabhari, Supreme Court said it can be amended. But since preamble is also the basic structure and you know the law on basic structure is that parliament has the emending power to amend any provision of the constitution but it cannot amend what is called basic structure of the constitution. So parliament does not have the power to destroy the constitution. If preamble is the basic structure, can it be amended? Yes, because you can add something to the preamble. So preamble can be amended only by way of addition. Accordingly, in 1976 through the 42nd amendment, three words were added to the preamble. Socialist, secular and integrity. Now then the most crucial question preamble is important. It contains the core values of the nation. It is part of the constitution, part of the basic structure. So what use of the preamble can be made in interpreting the constitution? If the provisions of the constitution are clear, preamble cannot be used in interpreting the constitution because preamble is all of the constitution. It is not is of the constitution. Having said that, let me also say, preamble is legitimate aid in the interpretation of provisions of the constitution. If the two provisions of the constitution are contradictory or constitution is silent on any subject, we need to know what is the intent of the framers and therefore we need to look at the preamble. So preamble can be used to find the intention of the framers of the constitution. In Indra Barubari, 1960 judgment, Supreme Court said, a key to open the mind of the makers. What is preamble? A key to open the minds of the makers of the constitution. If we want to see what was there in mind, we should look at the preamble. Now, let us now come to what is there in the preamble. Of course, I read it to you, but now let us look at it more closely. The most vital expression which has been used in the preamble at the very beginning of the preamble is the people of India. I told you that it is the preamble which tells us the source of the authority of the constitution. So what is the source of the authority of Indian constitution, we the people of India. Each one of us is referred in the preamble. From where we borrowed this expression, we the people from the United Nations charter, from where United Nations charter borrowed it from the constitution of United States. So this in my opinion is a crucial expression in the preamble. I told you in the second lecture that the constant assembly of India did not consist of directly elected people, but by using this expression and due to the participation of the people in successive elections under this constitution, we have endorsed this constitution. And the second vital expression in the preamble other than the we the people of India in my opinion is adopt, enact and give to ourselves this constitution. This constitution we have enacted, we have adopted, we have given to ourselves. You have to read it when I talk about sovereign because this expression indicates our autonomy, our sovereignty, our independence. Now as I look more closely to the preamble, preamble is talking of three kinds of things. One, it describes our nation. What kind of nation we are? Two, it talks of three entitlements of citizens. What are the entitlements of citizens? And then these entitlements have a purpose. What is that purpose? For what these entitlements are to be used? Let us talk of these three vital things in the preamble. First, how the preamble describes our nation? It says that we are a sovereign nation, socialist nation, secular democratic and republic. So it describes our nation as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. In terms of nation, these are our characteristics. We are sovereign, we are socialist, we are secular, we are democratic, we are republic. Then it talks of three entitlements of citizens. What are those entitlements? Very crucial important entitlements. One justice, what kind of justice? Social, economic and political. To liberty, liberty of what, of thought, belief, faith and worship. And thirdly, talks of equality as an entitlement, equality of status and of opportunity. It talks of both kinds of equalities. And then the three purposes, why we are talking of all this? Because we want to promote among the people of India fraternity. This is one word which has not been talked about in public domain. I think this is the most crucial word. The purpose of our constitution is to achieve fraternity, brotherhood and sisterhood. We all want to live in peace with each other. And the purpose of this entitlement is dignity of the individual. So, the preemble says that we will promote among the people of India fraternity and half fraternity will be promoted when we assure dignity of every individual. Each individual is important to us. Each Indian is important for us. We will not compromise on the dignity of even one citizen of ours. And if we have fraternity and if we uphold and assure the dignity of the individual, what will happen? We will achieve our ultimate goal. All of us exist for India, for our motherland. So, we will get unity and integrity of nation. If each individual's dignity is assured, if fraternity is there, if liberty is there, equality is there, justice is there, we will be a powerful united integrated nation. Great ideas, great vision. But as I said, preemble talks of odds, what ought to be done? What is really done? We need to look at the express provisions of the constitution. Therefore, let us see how preemble is reflected in the provisions of the constitution. Look at fundamental rights. All these fundamental rights are about liberty, equality, dignity of individual. Our fundamental rights are largely individualistic, except right to culture and right of the minorities which are group rights or collective rights. We talked of social, economic and political justice. Elections happen. Everyone has a universal franchise. So, largely there is political justice. But to have social and economic justice, we have part four of the constitution, directive principles. These are the positive obligations of the state. How can we achieve fraternity? Not by mere assertion of rights, but also performance of our duties. If we have compassion for all living creatures, if we abjure violence, if we uphold the noble ideals of our freedom struggle, we will achieve fraternity. So, fundamental duties incorporate the idea of fraternity. We have unequals in our society. There are people who have been historically marginalized and exploited. How do we bring these unequals at the level of equals? Therefore, we need affirmative action. We need reservation policies. And therefore, when we have one value of justice and other value of equality, our affirmative action says, let us give primacy to justice over equality. And therefore, we have affirmative action and reservation policies. And to see that these reservation policies are properly implemented and monitored, we have schedule costs, we have schedule drive, we have OBC commissions. And finally, the central goal of any constitution or any preamble is to have constitutionalism. Constitutionalism is an idea of limited government. There should not be any concentration of power in anybody's hands. So, you have distribution of power between center and estate. You have separation of powers between legislature, executive and judicial. You have power of judicial review to see that all organs of the state are operating within their allotted spheres. Let us now come to the description of our nation, sovereign, secular, socialist, democratic republic. Very briefly, what is this whole idea of words, sovereign sovereignty? When we say we are a sovereign nation, what does it mean? It means India is internally supreme and externally free. We don't take orders from European Union, United States or any other power of the world. We are masters of our own destiny. Whatever laws we want to make, we will make. Nobody can tell us, make this law and don't make that law. Secular. We are secular but not like France. Where religion and states are completely separated. Not like United States, where you have a Jefferson wall of separation between church and state. We have our own brand of secularism. State is religion neutral but it has equal respect for all religions. It maintains equidistance from all religions. We are socialist, not in the sense of socialism, of Lenin socialism of Karl Marx. We are socialist because we are talking of distributive justice. We are talking of social and economic justice. We are socialist because we want that the national resources should be so distributed that they subservue the common good. There is no concentration of wealth in few hands. So, our socialism is democratic socialism. We have a mixed economy. So, public sector is also there. Private sector is also there. After the adoption of new economic policies of liberalization and privatization, many people went to the supreme court saying that now your policies are again socialism and therefore what socialist should be dropped. Supreme court said since preamble is the basic structure nothing from the basic structure can be deleted or dropped. We are a democratic nation. What does it mean? We have a government by choice. People rule over us with our consent. We gave our consent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji in 2014, renewed our consent in 2019. That's why he will rule over India. Number of times people of India due to the non-performance of governments have withdrawn their consent. We are words largest democracy. We always have peaceful transition of governments. So, will of people prevails in this country and we are republic because our president is an elected head of the state. He is not a monot, he is not a king. He is a tenure of five years. What did we learn today? We learned that preamble talks of goals, values and aspirations of a nation. Preamble in India is part of the constitution and can be amended by way of addition. It can be used in interpretation of the constitution to know the intention of framers of the constitution. Thank you very much. ---  *Disclaimer: I am not asserting any claim over this content. The content is entirely from the Ministry of Law & Justice and NALSAR University of Law's joint online course on the Indian Constitution. My effort has been to make the transcript available for people like myself who prefer to read or quote it rather than to listen. This is part of my public self-archiving project. For more details, see [notes.daktre.com](https://notes.daktre.com) or [daktre.com](https://daktre.com).* Last updated: 2026-02-21 22:14