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Technology Transformation and the Crises of Caste and Population in the
Republic of India
- S.M. Mishra
The Constitution of India is a landmark document in the history of India. Never before 26 January 1950, the declared intent and purpose of the polity 'to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST 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 to the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation',' was specifically laid down.
1.1
But the moot question is: whether it was possible to ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION in pre-industrial India, where the chief means of production was land, and all the labourprocesses of social production and service were manual. Perhaps not.
Also, the history of pre-Republic India - colonial or precolonial – is the history of an undemocratic society where the claim based on custom, agreement and religion could be overriden by royal charter. In other words, a rājasāsana would prevail over dharma, vyavahāra and carita'.?
2.1 The manual technology base of this pre-industrial society, could not
afford to guarantee democracy, justice, liberty and equality at the cost of
creating disruption and anarchy in the manual labour-processes of social 114 Allllllll||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||ll TM 451 312 108
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