From one point of view, it may appear that the question of the political strategy to be pursued in the seventies is largely irrelevant. After all the basic goals of the polity are firmly set. We are, in the words of the Preamble to the Indian Constitution, pledged to uphold the sovereignty of the republic and to secure to all its citizens justice, liberty and equality. The Preamble is indeed a revolutionary departure in Indian history. Let us think about it a little. While civilization and culture have had a remarkable continuity in India stretching back into hoary antiquity, the idea of a single political order embracing the whole country and a political order being based on equality of all citizens is something new in the historical experience of this country. It was only during the freedom movement that the concept of a democratic political order for the whole country based on equality of citizens and on the fundamental principles of individual liberty grew and took concrete shape in the Constitution framed by the Constituent Assembly.
The Assembly gave to the country a political system based on universal adult franchise. It further provided political institutions which would at all times reflect the principle of the accountability of Government to the elected representatives of the people. Recognising that liberty flourishes only when the principle of legitimate authority is respected, the Constituent Assembly opted for a form of Government which would ensure for the people of India effective governance. If the Constituent Assembly had done no more, its contribution to the unfolding of modern India would still have been great. But what entitles the Assembly to the special gratitude of the succeeding generations is the vision it had of a new social and economic order. It was not enough to build a liberal democratic State. It had to be linked to the dream that has inspired man throughout the ages, the dream of better life for all. The Constitution, therefore, promised to all citizens justice — social, economic and political.
The recognition of this noble principle was not confined to the Preamble as a decorative piece. The detailed provisions of the Constitution invested the Government with authority to bring into existence a new social order free from the glaring inequalities and from exploitation. What was accomplished here has been accomplished in many other countries in modern times only at the cost of much bloodshed and suffering which have left their own stamp on the history of the European nations. The-magnitude of change should not be evaluated only in terms of violence that accompanies it.
