AMBEDKAR SOCIAL JUSTICE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

 

Literature Review

 

Post- independent India saw that a large number of people living in very deteriorated and poverty-stricken conditions. The problem in South Asia in general and India in particular was so much that it was not only confined to the economic one but also encompassed all other aspects of socio-cultural life. The socio-political imbalances were prevalent and were in state of hue and cry for Social Justice and Social Development in India. Babasaheb favoured the formation of social-istic pattern of society based on equality, liberty and fraternity. It laid down certain provisions in Constitution of India for the social justice and development of the downtrodden India, as part of national commitment. The complexities and dissimilarities as a consequence plead to a “sense a clear-cut set of conflicts and tension mounting: economically, socially and politically” Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, since the inception of the human being on earth, human society has persistently moved forward, never swayed despite of innumerable issues and challenges during the course of the time.

 

These are transitory in nature. The Messiah of Downtrodden on his return to India in 1923, he founded ‘Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha’ with the main objective of spreading education and improving the economic conditions of the oppressed classes. With the slogan of ‘Educate - Agitate - Organise’ the social movement led by Dr. Ambedkar aimed at Annihilation of caste and the Reconstruction of Indian Society on the basis of equality of human beings. Dimensions of Social Justice Progressively new patterns and expands its frontiers and assumes new dimensions. Social justice has significance in the context of Indian society which is divided into Castes and Communities and they create walls and barriers of exclusiveness on the basis of superiority and inferiority such inequalities pose serious threat to Indian democracy. The concept of social justice takes within its sweep the objective of removing inequalities and affording equal opportunities to all citizens in social, economic and political affairs.

 

Socio-Economic Factor

 

India, while passing through the process of development is in the quest for finding our ways for a better and just socio-economic order. The search for a new model of socio-economic order is the need of the hour. Recent trends in Globalization, Urbanization, Mobilization of the poor in search of better life conditions and social justice movements compel us to think afresh. Social justice is an application of the concept of distributive justice to the wealth, assets, privileges and advantages that accumulate within a society or state because the essence of justice is the attainment of the common goods as distinguished from the goods of individuals even of the majority. There have been two major conceptions of social justice one embodying the nation of merit and desert, the other those of needs and equality. The first conception involves ending of hereditary privileges and an open society in which people have the chance to display their desert. It is expressed in equality of opportunity and careers open to talents. The second conception implies that goods should be allocated according in each person’s varied needs. As it aims to make people materially equal, it entails an idea if equality.

 

Just Social Order

 

Social justice involves the creation of just and fair social order just and fair to one and all. To make the social order just and fair for every member of the community, it may be necessary for the who are privileged to make some sacrifices. In this sense, social justice is a revolutionary ideal. It includes both the economic justice and social justice. In India, justice is a generic term which includes both procedural and substantive justices the former providing rules of court procedures and mechanism what is generally known as natural justice and the latter making provision for social assistance. Benefits, facilities, concessions, privileges and special rights, to those who deserve and need such help describes by the omnibus term social justice.

 

Caste Hierarchy

 

Social justice in India is the product of social injustice our Caste system and social structure is the fountain head for social injustice. It is unfortunate that even sixty years after independence social justice is still a distant dream not within the reach of the masses. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women under the traditional Hindu Caste hierarchy had suffered for centuries without education and opportunities for advancement in life. Social justice is compensatory justice to offset the accumulated disabilities suffered by these historically disadvantaged sections of society and absorb them educationally and occupationally in the mainstream of national life. If opportunities are not given to develop their neglected talents there will be social imbalance and tension resulting in anarchy and disobedience to the rule of law.

 

Justice for the weak

Social justice being a multi-dimensional concept has been viewed by scholars of law, philosophy and political science differently. The term social justice is quite comprehensive. Social justice is a bundle of rights, it is balancing wheel between haves and have nots. It is a great social value in providing a stable society and in securing the unity of the country. In general, social justice may be defined as “the right of the weak, aged, destitute, poor, women, children and other under-privileged persons”.

 

National Values

 

The constitution of India was adopted on November 26, 1949. Some provision of the constitution came into force on same day but the remaining provisions of the constitution came into force on January 26, 1950. This day is referred to the constitution as the “date of its commencement”, and celebrated as the Republic Day. The Indian Constitution is unique in its contents and spirit. Through borrowed from almost every constitution of the world, the constitution of India has several salient features that distinguish it from the constitutions of other countries. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, was chairman of the drafting committee. He was the first Law Minister of the India. He continued the crusade for social revaluation until the end of his life on the 6th December 1956. He was honoured with the highest national honour,’ Bharat Ratna’ in April 1990. B.R. Ambedkar was affectionately called Baba Saheb Ambedkar.

 

Preambular values

 Dr. Ambedkar is the man of millennium for social justice, since he was the first man in history to successfully lead a tirade of securing social to the vast sections of Indian humanity, with the help of a law. Dr. Ambedkar was the man who tried to turn the Wheel of the Law toward social justice for all. He has strong fervour to attain social justice among the Indian Communities for this purpose he began his vocation. At the time of independence, the constitution makers were highly influenced by the feeling of social equality and social justice. For the same reason, they incorporated such provisions in the constitution of India. These are as follows – The words, “Socialist”, “secular”, “democratic” and “republic” have been inserted in the preamble. Which reflects it’s from as a “social welfare state.” The expression “socialist” was intentionally introduced in the Preamble in D. S. Nakara v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that the principal aim of a socialist state is to eliminate inequality in income, status and standards of life. The basic frame work of socialism is to provide a proper standard of life to the people, especially, security from cradle to grave. Amongst there, it envisaged economic equality and equitable distribution of income. This is a blend of Marxism & Gandhism, leaning heavily on Gandhian socialism. From a wholly feudal exploited slave society to a vibrant, throbbing socialist welfare society reveals a long march, but, during this journey, every state action, whenever taken, must be so directed and interpreted so as to take the society one step towards the goal. In Excel Wear v Union of India, the Supreme Court held that the addition of the word ‘socialist’ might enable the courts to learn more in favour of nationalisation and state ownership of an industry. But, so long as private ownership of industries is recognised which governs an overwhelming large principle of socialism and social justice cannot be pushed to such an extent so as to ignore completely, or to a very large extant, the interest of another section of the public, namely the private owners of the undertaking.

 

Elimination of Discrimination

 The term ‘justice’ in the Preamble embraces three distinct forms- social, economic and political, secured through various provisions of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. Social justice denotes the equal treatment of all citizens without any social distinction based on caste, colour, race, religion, sex and so on. It means absence of privileges being extended to any particular section of the society, and improvement in the conditions of backward classes (SCs, STs, and OBCs) and women. Economic justice denotes on the non- discrimination between people on the basis of economic factors. It involves the elimination of glaring in equalities in wealth, income and property. A combination of social justice and economic justice denotes what is known as ‘distributive justice’. Political justice implies that all citizens should have equal political rights, equal voice in the government. The ideal of justice- social, economic and political- has been taken from the Russian Revaluation (1917).

 

Constitutional prerogatives

The term ’equality’ means the absence of special privileges to any section of the society, and provision of adequate opportunities for all individuals without any discrimination. The Preamble secures at all citizens of India equality of status an opportunity. This provision embraces three dimensions of equality- civic, political and economic.

 

The following provisions of the chapter on Fundamental Rights ensure civic equality:

 

a) Equality before the Law (Article 14).

b) Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex of place of birth (Article 15).

c) Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment (Article 16).

d) Abolition of untouchability (Article 17).

e) Abolition of titles (Article 18).

 

Political Equality

There are two provisions in the Constitution that seek to achieve political equality. One, no person is to be declared ineligible for inclusion in electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex (Article 325). Two, elections to the Lock Sabha and the state assemblies to be on the basis of adult suffrage (Article 326).

 

Directive Principles

Article 36 to 51 incorporate certain directive principles of State policy which the State must keep in view while governing the nation, but by Article 37 these principles have been expressly made non-justiciable in a court of law. Although these principles are not judicially enforceable, yet they are not without purpose. The report of the Sub- Committee said:” The principles of Policy set forth in this part are intended for the guidance of the State. While these principles shall not be cognizable by any Court, they are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and their application in the making of laws shall be the duty of the State.”

 

Welfare State

According to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Directive Principles of State Policy is a ‘novel feature’ of the Indian Constitution. They are enumerated in Part IV of the Constitution. They can be classified into three broad categories- socialistic, Gandhian and liberal- intellectual. The directive principles are meant for promoting the ideal of social and economic democracy. They seek to establish a ‘welfare state’ in India. However, unlike the Fundamental Right, the directives are non- justiciable in nature, that is, they are not enforceable by the courts for their violation. Yet, the Constitution itself declares that ‘these principles are fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws’. Hence, they impose a moral obligation on the state authorities for their application. But, the real force (sanction) behind them is political, that is, public opinion.

 

Reservation Policy

Though the reservation policy is just one of the instruments for development and social mobility of the weaker sections, it is nonetheless a vital force for social transformation and development with regard to the weaker sections, especially due to the lack of capital and other forces of development on downtrodden Indians.

 

The Socio-Cultural Gap

Another important thing to note is about the intra-gap among weaker sections. The socio-cultural gap is not merely between the SCs, STs and OBCs (weaker sections) but within the particular section itself. According, to some researchers, like ‘creamy layer’ – legally recognized among OBCs, be made legalised among SCs, and STs too; it is because social economic and political gap among the particular group has already been widened and established over the period of time, and the well-off sections – creamy layers, truly garner all the benefits provided for such weaker sections.

 

Findings

The social movement of Dalit rejects the so-called Brahminical ideology, criticizes government policies, spreads political awareness among its members, apart from other functions stated above. The growth and spread of the social movement have resulted into growth and spread of various Dalit political parties, i.e., Bahujan Samaj Party, Republic Party of India, Dalit Panther Party etc. Despite this, however, the intra-rivalries among themselves have not allowed them to grow to the extent of becoming the ruling party except in few pockets of the nation. Rajani Kothari observes that because of the rivalries among them specially between SCs and OBCs, the strong front of SCs, STs and OBCs for common socio-political struggle could not been established and thus according to him social justice is in dilemmas (Kothari, 1998). Some of the reasons for such rivalries are: (a) still quite significant socio-cultural differences exist among these social groups especially in rural India; (b) vested interest among elites of these groups do not allow them for united strong front, as some of these elites are afraid of losing power; (c) other antagonistic groups very often create misunderstanding among them. Despite such, due to some of the contention policies of the government, the Dalits are expected to launch common and better socio-political struggle with enlightened vision. Moreover, all the people cannot be brought under the same umbrella. Only those who realizes the situations and become conscious enough of their ‘social being’ would participate in such socio-political struggle. The people belonging to so-called upper castes can also participate on humanistic ground, as it is the struggle of social freedom through social transformation and development.

 

Suggestions

The downtrodden struggle to rule the nation through political mobili-zation however, requires some cautions too. First, if the downtrodden party’s captures the state it should not reverse the exploitation to so-called upper castes as previously dalits were exploited by them, but firmly practice the principles of equality, liberty and fraternity. Second, within the given hierarchical social order, social justice is a mere dream as several studies point out; hence, the emphasis should be on ‘social transformation’ – that is total destruction of caste and other inhuman social system. Third, the policy of state should be carried on for fullest development of mankind and bring equality in its fullest possible form rather than evolving new type of systems of inequality. In sum, after independence ‘state’ (based on unequal social system) gives birth to ‘social justice’; social justice leads to formation of ‘base class’; base class initiates and matures ‘social movements’; social movements gives boost to ‘political parties’; political parties capture the state to rule; and the state makes social system on the basis of equality, liberty and fraternity through social transformation and social reconstruction.

 

Testing of Hypothesis

If the hypothesis stated above is succeeded and materialized, the programme of social justice for weaker sections would become non-functional and unnecessary and no need for further social justice would be felt. In new type of social system, the state should give emphasis on building strong socio-economic development and enhancement of creativity and development of human personality through the process of social transformation and development. The hypothetical prediction about just society should not be considered as illusion or Utopia; rather the intellectuals should optimistically strive to promote such a system to occur.

 

Conclusion

Ambedkar made valuable contribution to the social and political thinking. He strongly denounced the outrageous attitude of the Brahmanical Hinduism towards the untouchables and worked for the liberation of the untouchables from the oppression of the higher caste Hindus. Through his writings and speeches, he made the people conscious of the political, economic and social problems of the untouchables and impressed the need of paying social attention to the amelioration of the miserable condition of the untouchables. The influence of his ideas is evident from the fact that the new Constitution not only ensured equality to all the citizens but also took definite steps to abolish untouchability and made its practice in any form an offence punishable under law. In short, the legal remedies taken to uplift the untouchables were due to the influence of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.