History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s2.91

v7.c96.s2.91

No great Indian leader of the present day has offered a lucid and considered statement of what the philosophical foundations of Indian socialism are or should be, nor has any leader placed before the people a clear and full picture of the Indian socialistic pattern of the future in all its aspects. In the Plan structures welfare seems to be identified with bread, physical and material comforts. Marx denied God and advocated the forcible liquidation of the exploiting classes. Our Constitution does not mention God (except in schedule III about oaths and affirmations of Ministers and M. P.'s) nor does it emphasize moral and spiritual values, though the founding fathers of the U.S.A. prescribe (in the Declaration of American Independence) "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. Of course it is wrong and unscientific to say that all men are created equal if literally construed (as even children of the same parents are not equal in height, strength and mental equipment). All that is meant is that all men are equal in the eye of the law or have the same rights before the law. Truth and non-violence are not mentioned in our Constitution, though these were the basic principles from Upaniṣad and Smṛti times (as in Chāndogya III. 17.4, Manu X. 63, Yāj I. 122) and for Gandhiji by whom all Congressmen and their leaders swear. Lands of thousands of men of the middle class of small means were taken away from them by changing the fundamental right to property bestowed by Art 31 (as originally enacted), by preventing recourse to law courts and by giving illusory hopes of some compensation not yet even determined after several years. This may not be liquidation of opponents, yet it is a cruel thing all the same in the name of democracy and Welfare State.²⁶⁵³