Constitution Day: IIT-B professor Anush Kapadia explains what India's sovereignty means

Anush Kapadia, assistant professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences — IIT Bombay, speaks on the concept of ‘sovereignty’, in part 1 of IIT Bombay for Justice’s #PreambleLectures series. “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.” And yet, glibly though we pronounce these words, few among us have dwelt on and fully understood their meaning. Even as the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act in India has shown up the fault lines amid the people of this country, IIT-Bombay for Justice’s Preamble lecture series endeavours to go back to the basics; to examine what it means to be a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”, to reaffirm the ideals enshrined in the Constitution — justice, liberty, equality, fraternity — that Indians must hold on to, more than ever in these fractured times. *** In lecture 1, Anush Kapadia, assistant professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences — IIT Bombay, speaks on the concept of sovereignty.