Skip to main content

Meta-narratives of Constituted Powers: Republican Ideals in a Post-Question Society

Every  transformative  process  brings  with  its  fruits  some  painful  scars  for  healing becomes  a  liberatory  task.  To  adopt  the  republican  ideals  for  India  was  a  courageous leap  of  imagination  from  the  colonial  era  oppressions,  maladministration,  and pervasive  exploitations  by  rational  masters,  and  their  calculative  adventures diminished  the  very possibility  to  stand  up  once  again,  to  dare  to  dream  even  if  future appears  to  be  hopelessly  darker  and  stranger.  And  the  world  was  cynical  about  the potentiality  of  India  as  an  emerging  republic  whose  past  were  at  equal  footing,  if  not more than that,  to the  logocentric culture of knowledge tradition,  emerged from  the Greek, and  flourished  as  enlightenment  ideals  after  Augustine’s  city  of  God  banished  in disenchantment  of  the  world  (Max  Weber).  The  onerous  task  of  the  civilized  authors ceased  to  an  end  the  moment  other  cultures  started  to  practice  courage,  to  dream,  to decide  for  self.  It  was  a  true  awakening,  the  freedom  from  all  around  tutelage,  from outside  and  within.   

Seventy  years  ago,  ‘the  dream  of  contradiction’  and  an  ‘ethical  code  of  ambiguities’ (Simone  de  Beauvoir)  were  firmly  established  in  India,  whereas  subjects  were transformed  into  the  citizenship  and  the  throne  of  queen,  a  symbol  of  divine  justice, were  replaced  by  earthly  ideals  of  just  and  good,  for  the  sake  of  sacred  symbiosis  of governors  and  governed,  authority  and  liberty,  freedom  and  responsibility.  It  was  an age  of  reason  and  spirit  of  will,  which  witnessed  the  history  in  making,  amidst  the  mad dance  of  blood-thirsty  discord,  whereas  ‘fundamental  rights  framed  against  the carnage  of  fundamental  wrongs”  (Granville  Austin). After  seventy  years  of  Indian  republic,  many  a  dream  have  been  shattered  and  a  few have  been  realised  in  its  essence,  but  the  potentiality  of  the  republic  dreams  is  not  at rest.  It  is  progressing  and  aspiring  to  achieve  all  the  possible  good  for  its  citizens  and also facing some  new  challenges,  which  are  required  to be  taken  very  seriously. To  deduce  the  theme  from  ‘abstract  generality’  to  ‘concrete generality’  (Hegel),  it  is  required  to  revisit  the  preamble  of  Indian  Constitution  to  see if  constitutional  dreams,  or  in  contemporary  time  popularly  known  as  constitutional morality  is  being  translated  into  practices,  or  is  it  still  flourishing  as  ideals?  How  to  see the  Constitution  in  a  quantum  world,  whereas  ‘credulity  of  metanarratives’  (Lyotard) are  ‘under  erasure’  (Heidegger)?  What  ideals  need  to  be  reinvented;  which  principle ought  to  be  instilled?  Reflectivity,  evaluation,  and  revaluation,  the  whole  process  must go  on.  In  the  age  of  robotic  intelligence,  how  to  raise  these  ethical  questions  is  really  an onerous  task.  On  the  completion  of  the  seventy  years  of  Indian  Republic  can  we  say with  certainty  that  India  has  achieved  so  much  as  to  uplift  its  citizens  from  the  daily cries  of  basic  needs?  What  role  a  governor  or  governed  may  play  to  ensure emancipatory  governance?  These  ethical  questions  are  required  to  be  reframed  and re-analysed.  It  seems,  we  are  susceptible  to  the  zeal  of  answering  many  a  triviality,  but where  is  a  single  authentic  question  to  raise?  A  ‘post-question’ human colony  seems  to  be mimetic  and  mechanical  one.  Only  invention  of  authentic  questions  may  redeem  the authenticity  and  meaning of  the  republic  whose  future  is  awaiting for  true  insights.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meeting Justice Rohinton Nariman in a Sunday Morning

Aristotle once wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics that there are four significant virtues for human beings, namely Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Courage. There are a few judges who have courage and sense of justice, both. Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rohinton Nariman has been truly an exemplar judge and erudite historian, theologian and philologist, a great scholar of music as well as a courageous and meticulous jurist of our country. He did his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1980-81 and taught by one of the finest jurists of the last century, Roberto Unger. He became Senior Advocate in 1993 in the age of 37 and also served as Solicitor General of India in 2011 before he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India in 2014. He delivered many landmark judgments, including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. There are a few people with whom time moves too fast, but to count that experience takes ages. Justice Rohinton Nariman is one of those great jurists with whom a meet
1 comment
Read more

Same Sex Marriage Verdict: Apolitical Politics of Court

Every judgment of the Constitutional court solves and unsolves certain fundamental questions. Court often takes two steps forward and one step backward (Shklar). Navtej Johar was rightly celebrated as a progressive judgment which recognised same sex relationships on the touchstone of constitutional morality. In a way, judgment progressively explored the colonial and post-colonial politics and reviewed Section 377, IPC from the perspective of constitutional morality emanating from the "objective purposive interpretation",  a concept devised by Justice Aharon Barack, a former judge of Israel Supreme Court. NALSA judgment already went ahead with the recommendations to broaden the scope of reservation policy in India to allow the constitutional protection of sexual minorities. The latest judgment has attracted widespread criticism from the intellectuals. Many of them have argued that the Court has not taken its responsibility in protecting the rights of sexual minorities. There i
Post a Comment
Read more

The Rhythm of Law: A Book Review

Book Cover of the Book Law is the subject and object of curiosity since the ancient civilizations started its journey of contemplation about the order within the nature; its mysterious paths inspired the germination of metaphysics. Initially, human's mode of existence lived as instinctual life as per the call of nature. Instincts were primarily used as a medium for survival and to receive the call of wisdom from the “order of nature”. Humans are primarily one of the modes of expression of the nature, as Spinoza calls it attributes which express the essence of God and modes which are derived from the essence of God or nature (Spinoza, Ethics). The doorway of all the laws, as brooding presence of harmony, may be received if one is alert to recognize its call. Prof. Raman Mittal has penned a beautiful book titled “The Rhythm of Law”. The uniqueness of the book is its potentialities to express the inexpressible wisdom. Martin Heidegger in his Magnum Opus, Being and Time, expresses the
Post a Comment
Read more