Obligations

We at Brihati Reforms Foundation truly believe that we all are under obligation to work towards an egalitarian society. Following are the major documents that bind us all and inspire us to make every step possible to improve lives of our fellow brethren

Preamble of the Indian 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: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; 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 twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION

Article 14 of the Indian Constitution

The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Article 1 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Dr. B R Ambedkar's speech on 25th Nov 1949

"The third thing we must do is not to be content with mere political democracy. We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced from equality, equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty equality could not become a natural course of things. It would require a constable to enforce them. We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane, we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up."

Indra Sawhney vs Union Of India And Others on 16 November, 1992, Supreme Court of India

Para 340 : Secularism is the basic feature of the Indian Constitution. It envisages a cohesive, unified and casteless society. The constitution has completely obliterated the caste system and has assured equality before law. References to caste under Article 15(2) and 16(2) is only to obliterate it. The prohibition on the ground of caste is total, the mandate is that never again in this country caste shall raise its head.

Para 341: The caste system which has been put in the grave by the framers of the constitution is trying to raise its ugly head in various forms. Caste poses a serious threat on the secularism and as a consequemce to the integrity of the country. Those who do not want to learn from the events of history are dommed to suffer again.