Media Release

Mangaluru, Nov 26: St Aloysius Deemed to be University celebrated the 75th Constitution Day on November 26 in Sanidhya Hall to mark our respect to the Indian Constitution and persons who have been instrumental in drafting the Constitution.

Dr Rose Veera D’Souza, dean, school of arts and humanities, was the chief guest. Dr Praveen Martis SJ, vice chancellor of the University presided over the programme. Dr Melwyn D’Cunha SJ pro vice chancellor, Dr Alwyn D’Sa and Dr Ronald Nazareth, registrars, directors, deans, teaching and non-teaching staff members were present for the programme.

Dr Rose Veera D’Souza, in her speech, spoke about the conceptualisation of the Constitution. She spoke about the Constitution of India which introduced with the three goals i.e., colonial powers, significant values which include Social revolution precepts and constitutional remedies. She elaborated the word ‘Secular’ which holds equal respect to all the religions and ‘Socialist’ which indicates to eliminate all forms of exploitation such as social, political and economic. She made a note of the contribution of three stalwarts who are the real heroes of our nation, Dr BR Ambedkar, MK Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and their contributions in preparing the Constitution.

President of the programme, Dr Praveen Martis, in his speech emphasized to give awareness to the common people about our Constitution which was introduced only for the people of India. He also the stressed the importance of celebrating the Constitution Day to rededicate ourselves to the subline values enshrined in our Constitution. He shared the plans of organising intensive awareness programmes on the campus and the surroundings during the next 14 months as per UGC guidelines.

Dr Melwyn D’Cunha read out the Preamble of the Constitution.

Dr Dinesh Nayak, assistant professor of Kannada, compered the programme and proposed the vote of thanks.

Facts about the formation of the Constitution

The Constitution of India is one of the greatest constitutions in the world that has provided equality, justice and freedom to every citizen of this country. Therefore, as citizens of India, we all need to understand the importance of the values of the Constitution and also pay tribute to the architect of our Constitution, Dr B R Ambedkar. It is also an occasion for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the sublime values enshrined in our Constitution.

The Constitution of India did not formulate everything on its own. It has incorporated some of the aspirations and values of many countries that were already independent republics and had constitutions at that time.

India has adopted the concept of Five Year Plans from the Constitution of Soviet Russia, the concept of socio-economic rights from the Constitution of Ireland, the phrase ‘We the People’ from the Constitution of America, and the concept of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ from the Constitution of France.

During the formation of the Constitution, an attempt was made to formulate customs and laws that were suitable for this land to the extent possible. Even though our Constitution is 75 years old, it is still respected and if there is a pulse of life in it, it is because at that time this country was comprehensively understood and the challenges were more concretely understood and cared for.