Which of the following statements with reference to the Preamble to the Constitution of India are correct ? 1. The word 'secular' comes before the word 'socialist'. 2. The word 'justice' comes before the word 'equality'. 3. The word 'fraternity' comes after the word 'liberty'. Select the answer using the code given below :

Correct — B, 2 and 3 only. The Preamble has a fixed word order and this item simply asks whether you can recite it. It describes India as a 'SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC' — socialist first, secular second — so statement 1 reverses the pair and fails. It then secures to all 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'. Justice therefore comes ahead of equality, which carries statement 2, and fraternity comes after liberty, which carries statement 3. The order of the four objectives is not accidental. Justice heads the list because the Constituent Assembly treated social and economic justice as the purpose of the whole enterprise, and fraternity closes it because it is the condition that makes the other three durable — a point Ambedkar pressed in his final speech to the Assembly, where he warned that political democracy without social democracy would not last.

• (a)1 and 2 only — Keeps the false statement 1. The Preamble reads socialist before secular, in the order the Forty-second Amendment inserted the two words.
• (c)1 and 3 only — Again certifies the reversed pair in statement 1, and throws out statement 2, which is sound — justice does precede equality.
• (d)1, 2 and 3 — The all-of-them pick. Statements 2 and 3 are right, but statement 1 puts secular ahead of socialist and the Preamble does the opposite.

The Preamble declares the source of the Constitution's authority, the character of the State, the objectives it secures to citizens, and the date of adoption. It has been amended exactly once. The Forty-second Amendment of 1976 inserted 'SOCIALIST' and 'SECULAR' into the description of the Republic and changed 'unity of the Nation' to 'unity and integrity of the Nation'. The Supreme Court held in Kesavananda Bharati that the Preamble is part of the Constitution, though it is not an independent source of power.

Word-order items are unpopular but they are also the cheapest marks in the polity syllabus, because the whole answer is one sentence you can rebuild in the margin. Two orders are worth fixing in memory. The description of the Republic runs sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic, and the two inserted words sit together in the middle in the order the amendment names them. The objectives run justice, liberty, equality, fraternity — deliberately not the French revolutionary sequence of liberty, equality, fraternity, because India places justice at the head. Note also what the Preamble does not contain: the word 'federal' appears nowhere in it, and neither does 'economic liberty', both of which are staple distractors. It is dated the twenty-sixth day of November 1949, the day of adoption, while the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.

• The Preamble describes India as a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic, in that order.
• Its four objectives appear in the order justice, liberty, equality, fraternity.
• The Forty-second Amendment of 1976 is the only amendment ever made to the Preamble; it inserted 'socialist' and 'secular' and changed 'unity of the Nation' to 'unity and integrity of the Nation'.
• The Preamble is dated the twenty-sixth day of November 1949, the date of adoption; the Constitution commenced on 26 January 1950.
• The word 'federal' does not appear in the Preamble at all.

• Reciting the objectives as liberty, equality, fraternity out of habit; the Preamble puts justice first.
• Reversing socialist and secular. They enter together in 1976, in that order.
• Treating 26 November 1949 as the date of commencement; it is the date of adoption, and the Constitution commenced on 26 January 1950.

As a word-order or word-presence item like this one, as a question on what the Forty-second Amendment inserted, or as a question on the Preamble's legal status after Kesavananda Bharati.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following words does NOT appear in the Preamble to the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Fraternity
  • (b)Federal
  • (c)Sovereign
  • (d)Republic

  Answer(b) Federal — the Preamble never uses it, though the Constitution's structure is federal in substance.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The expression 'unity and integrity of the Nation' entered the Preamble to the Constitution of India through which one of the following amendments?

  • (a)The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976
  • (b)The Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978
  • (c)The Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985
  • (d)The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002

  Answer(a) The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 — the same amendment that inserted 'socialist' and 'secular'. The word 'integrity' was added to what had read 'unity of the Nation'.