January 23, 2025 

On January 26, the country celebrates India’s Republic Day. It was on this day, 75 years ago, in 1950 that the Constitution of India came into force and to mark the occasion, the nation is observing the day as Republic Day. 

          However, the country became free and independent on August 15, 1947, which is observed as the Independence Day. 

          Independence Day and Republic Day are two significant signposts in the country’s nationhood. 

          The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of India was established in November 1946 to draft the Indian Constitution. The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly was held on December 9, 1946, with Dr Sachchidananda Sinha as the chairman. Dr Babu Rajendra Prasad, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and a prominent member of Indian National Congress, was elected on December 11, 1946, as its first President. Harendra Coomar Mookerjee was chosen as the Vice President and Benegal Narsing Rau as the Constitutional Adviser with Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee. 

          Incidentally, Benegal Narsing Rau is a Mangalorean Saraswat Brahmin, who had his early education in Canara High School, Mangalore. Benegal Rama Rau, Governor of Reserve Bank of India, and Benegal Shiva Rau, eminent journalist and politician, are his illustrious brothers. 

          The Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of the country on November 26, 1949, and the Constitution’s Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in November last year and the Indian Parliament held a special sitting to commemorate the event. Incidentally, the country started observing November 26 as Constitution Day or Law Day since 2015, for which a formal notification was issued on November 19 of that year. 

Though August 15, 1947, the day the country became a free and independent nation, is observed as India’s Independence Day, it is the Constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, guaranteeing the rights and duties of the citizens, is the most important factor when India became a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of governance. 

          Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity were the guiding principles enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. However, the words Socialist and Secular were included in the Constitution when the Preamble was amended in 1976. 

          Despite being a Hindu majority country with 80% of the population being Hindus, India consciously decided to be a secular country with people of all religions and faiths enjoying equal rights at the time of Independence and deliberately chose not to become theocratic as Mahatma Gandhi was firm that it should be a secular country with no religion gaining preference. 

          The speeches and writings of Gandhi outside the Constituent Assembly and the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as well as Dr Ambedkar and many other stalwarts inside and outside the Constituent Assembly make it abundantly clear that they firmly believed State is State and shall always be State, and Religion is nothing but that, and the two shall not mix and shall always remain separate! 

          In the landmark judgement on March 11, 1994 in the S R Bommai x Union of India case, the Supreme Court ruled that India was already a Secular state from the time it adopted its Constitution. 

The apex court has held that what was actually done through the 42^nd Constitutional amendment was to explicitly state what was earlier contained implicitly under Article 25 to 28 guaranteeing Freedom of Religion as a Fundamental Right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. 

          In fact, Dr Ambedkar, Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, had stoutly opposed the demand for inclusion of the words Secular, Socialist and Federal made by Prof K T Shah, economist, advocate and socialist from Bihar, in the Preamble (as can be read in the Constituent Assembly debates of November 15, 1949), on the ground that the entire Constitution embodies the concept of a Secular State and the term Socialist was best left to people to decide themselves instead of being tied down to a particular form, and mentioning Federal was superfluous as the country is an Union of States. 

God restricted to Schedule III 

          Surprisingly God does not find the place in the entire Constitution, which is regarded as the most elaborate in the entire world. 

Unlike many constitutions of different countries in the world, ours does not mention God in its ‘body!’ 

Most of the members of the Constituent Assembly (and even Gandhi, who was not a member) were firm “believers” and obviously “deeply religious” in their hearts and outlook. 

Still, they evidently preferred to keep their `beliefs’ to themselves and did not think it necessary to bring the `almighty’ in the text of the Constitution when the task at hand was to build a modern and secular nation with everybody enjoying the same rights and freedom. 

          Despite the firm beliefs and fervent convictions of the framers of the Constitution, God had to `stealthily’ make His entry in the Schedule III. Evidently, God being Omnipotent (all powerful, being the almighty or supreme power), Omniscient (all knowing, fount of all knowledge – past, present and future) and Omnipresent (present everywhere, at all times) – was not able to find a place like the constitutions of several other countries. 

In the Indian Constitution, God is scheduled in the form of an Oath prescribed in the Third Schedule like the dozen or so Schedules including the Scheduled subjects in the Union, State or Concurrent List or the Scheduled Languages! 

The Third Schedule prescribes the form of oath that MPs, MPs, MLA/MLCs, Supreme Court/High Court judges/Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and other Constitutional functionaries before taking up office. 

The President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Ministers and Chief Ministers as well as Governors are sworn in under different Articles but follow similar oaths. They have the option to `Swear in the Name of God’ or `Solemnly Affirm’ that they will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and the law. 

Whether the constitutional functionaries `Swear in the Name of God’ or `Solemnly Affirm,’ it is done with just a vow to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution and be devoted to the “service and well-being of the people of India.”      

Countries with God in Constitutions 

Constitutions of many countries specifically mention God either in their preamble or in the body. But generally the references are mostly symbolic, reflecting the cultural, historical or religious identity rather than being a strict basis of governance. 

Some of the countries which mention God in their constitutions are:

• The constitution of the Switzerland is very explicit in its affirmation of God as it begins with the words, “In the name of Almighty God!”
• Similarly, the constitution of Zambia, is more explicit when it says: “We, the people of Zambia, acknowledge the supremacy of Almighty God”
• The constitution of Ethiopia too acknowledges Almighty God with the words, “In the name of the Almighty God, we the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia …”
• The preamble of constitution of Philippines, states: “We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society…”
• The preamble of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany includes a reference to God: “Conscious of their responsibility before God and man …”
• But the preamble of the constitution of Ireland begins with the words, “In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred…”
• The constitution of Greece also invokes Holy Trinity, when it opens with the phrase, “In the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity.”
• However, the US constitution does not have an explicit reference to God. But the Declaration of Independence includes the phrase: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”
• Surprisingly, the preamble of the constitution of Poland refers to God and also the non-believers: “We, the Polish Nation, all citizens of the Republic, both of those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good and beauty, as well as those not sharing such faith but respecting those universal values …”
• The constitution of Argentina has an elaborate reference to God in its preamble: “We, the representatives of the people of the Argentine Nation, assembled in General Constituent Congress, by the will and election of the Provinces which compose it, in fulfilment of a pact solemnly made, with the object of constituting the national union, ensuring justice, preserving domestic peace, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves, to our posterity, and to all men in the world who wish to dwell on Argentine soil: invoking the protection of God, source of all reason and justice, do ordain, decree, and establish this Constitution for the Argentine Nation.”
• Expectedly, the constitutions of some of the predominantly Muslim countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia etc. are based on Islamic principles and explicitly mention Allah.