In 1954, Justice Vivian Bose of the Supreme Court proclaimed that the Indian Constitution had “blotted out, in one magnificent sweep, all vestiges of despotic power in India; that the colonial past was obliterated and a new order born”. This is a half-truth.

The enactment of India’s Constitution marked the demise of imperialism and the dawn of democratic republicanism. But it failed to embrace the philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi who symbolically continues to lead the long and unfinished march to India’s redemption, carrying the torch of ahimsa and swaraj – the refusal to harm and the sovereignty of the self.

Gandhi’s philosophy is especially urgent in light of Congress veteran C Rajagopalachari ’s prophetic warning in 1922, written from a prison cell: “Swaraj will not at once, or even

See Full Page