The Indian constitution was framed by the constituent assembly with the vision of building a unified and coherent society. Preamble of the constitution was specially designed keeping in mind all the ideals and aspirations that are forefathers wanted to see in our constitution.
The preamble of Indian constitution is based on 1946 objective resolution proposed by J L Nehru. It was unanimously adopted on 22nd Jan, 1947. It shows the guiding purpose and principles of the document and also indicates the source of its power, i.e. people of India.
Our society is ever-evolving one with one of the largest diversity in the world, thus there is a need of a social contract which would be flexible, and responsible to the needed changes of the time; and while at the same time- should be rigid and robust.
John Locke’s concept of social contract resembles Indian scenario the most. Both- John Locke’s state and Indian state talks about establishing- a state and how it interacts with the citizens. Similarly, just like Locke forbidded people to surrender the rights of- life, liberty and property, the surrender of rights is also not absolute in the Indian constitution as evident from Article 13 of the constitution.
Thus, the state established in Indian governance’s system is the same as advocated by Locke- “A state of liberty, not of license”. Similarly, our social contract document in its preamble says that, “India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic and we give to ourselves the ideals of- justice [social and economical], liberty [thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship], equality [status, opportunity].
This shows that the India constitution was not made by any authoritarian leader but it was the result of people’s representatives coming from all sections of the society and agreeing upon some rules to govern themselves. So, it is largely a “social contract” rather than just a set of rules. All those provisions, which have been left to ordinary legislations in other countries- have also been added to the Indian constitution and are ideally reflected in the preamble.
“Social contract” means that the society itself has come together to make rules for self-governance and it has been Indian constitution’s one of the unique features that we have not been dependent on anyone else for rules making. We as a society have framed and governed ourselves very smoothly since last 75 years and will continue to do so in the future.
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