"Literacy in itself is no education. Literacy is not the end of education or even the beginning. By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man-body, mind and spirit.” -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
THESE words were said during the freedom struggle. Then India attained freedom on August, 15, 1947. In 1950, it became a republic with the world's lengthiest Constitution. But in the 21st century, the question that requires a serious answer is: What does it really mean to be a Republic? To know the answer, one has to understand the constitutional conundrum around us and the tool to do so is the concept of constitutional literacy. As Gandhi said, literacy is not the end of education and neither is it the beginning; rather, it is a spontaneous process, something that keeps on happening.
To mark our 75 years of Independence, we are celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, but as Thomas Jefferson, America's 3rd president, said: “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone.” The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree and this can only be done with education.
Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School, improved and energised, may become the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilisation. Constitutional literacy will act as the most effective tool of affirmation of society. Constitutional literacy does not only mean that the people should know about the law(s), the Constitution, their rights and more importantly, their duties. But it is something more. As Professor Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law School argued, the efforts at civic or constitutional education should focus less on "factual knowledge” and more on “civic capacity”.
This story is from the April 11, 2022 edition of India Legal.
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This story is from the April 11, 2022 edition of India Legal.
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