Which of the following words were NOT present in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution adopted on November 26, 1949? (1) Republic (2) Reliable (3) Socialist (4) Non-religious
- (a)(1), (2), (3)
- (b)(2), (3), (4)
- (c)(1), (2), (4)
- (d)(3), (4)
Correct — B, (2), (3), (4).
The Preamble adopted on 26 November 1949 described India as a Sovereign Democratic Republic. Of the four words listed, only Republic was on the page that day. Reliable, Socialist and Non-religious were not, which is exactly the set in (2), (3), (4).
Socialist entered the Preamble only through the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, which made the phrase Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with effect from 3 January 1977. Reliable and Non-religious match nothing in the 1949 text or the present one; the word the amendment chose for the religious idea is Secular.
The idea to carry away: the date in the stem decides which Preamble you check. Against the 1949 text, everything the 42nd Amendment later added counts as absent; against today's text, Socialist would count as present and the answer set would change.
- (a)(1), (2), (3) — This set counts Republic as missing and leaves out Non-religious. Republic was in the 1949 text: the Assembly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Democratic Republic, so any set containing (1) fails. Non-religious, meanwhile, was absent.
Among the four words, Republic is the one that was present on 26 November 1949, which is the opposite of what the stem asks for.
- (c)(1), (2), (4) — This set also counts Republic as missing, and it drops Socialist, which the 1949 text did not contain. Both moves are wrong.
Socialist is a 42nd Amendment insertion of 1976, so on the adoption date it was just as absent as Reliable and Non-religious.
- (d)(3), (4) — This is the pair you reach by treating the stem as 'what did the 42nd Amendment add': Socialist, and Secular, for which Non-religious stands in. It stops one word short.
That pairing answers a question about the 1976 insertions. This stem asks what was missing on 26 November 1949, and Reliable was missing too, so the set must be three words.
The Preamble is the introductory statement of the Constitution. Its original text, adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Democratic Republic and to secure Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation.
The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 is the only amendment to have altered the Preamble. It substituted Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic for Sovereign Democratic Republic, and unity and integrity of the Nation for unity of the Nation, with effect from 3 January 1977.
The Preamble carries its own adoption date, so a question can test the text of that day or the text as it stands now, and the answer changes between them. The 42nd Amendment was enacted during the Emergency, which is why the insertion of Socialist and Secular has been challenged in court.
On 25 November 2024, in Dr Balram Singh v. Union of India, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar dismissed petitions seeking removal of the two words, holding that the adoption date of 26 November 1949 does not curtail the amending power under Article 368.
- The Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949; it came into force on 26 January 1950.
- The 1949 Preamble described India as a Sovereign Democratic Republic, so Republic has been in the text from the start.
- The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 inserted Socialist and Secular before Democratic, with effect from 3 January 1977.
- The same amendment changed 'unity of the Nation' to 'unity and integrity of the Nation'.
- The 42nd Amendment is the only amendment that has altered the Preamble.
- Justice, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and the phrase 'dignity of the individual' were all in the 1949 text.
- The Preamble draws on the Objectives Resolution moved by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 December 1946 and adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1947.
- In Kesavananda Bharati (1973) the Supreme Court held that the Preamble is part of the Constitution, departing from its Berubari Union opinion of 1960.
- On 25 November 2024, in Dr Balram Singh v. Union of India, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions challenging the words Socialist and Secular in the Preamble.
Republic was there in 1949; Socialist and Secular arrived with the 42nd Amendment, in force from 3 January 1977. Reliable and Non-religious appear in neither version, so the three words absent in 1949 are (2), (3), (4).
- Reading the stem against the present Preamble instead of the text of 26 November 1949: today Socialist is present, and the answer set changes.
- Translating Non-religious into Secular and then counting it as present because Secular is in today's text; on the adoption date Secular was absent as well.
- Forgetting that Reliable belongs to no version of the Preamble, which shrinks the answer to the two-word set (3), (4).
- Mixing up which words the 42nd Amendment inserted (Socialist, Secular, integrity) with the words that were original (Sovereign, Democratic, Republic).
The Preamble is tested as a which-words-are-in-it item in two settings: against the present text, or, as here, against the text adopted on 26 November 1949. A date in the stem, or a mention of the 42nd Amendment, signals which version to check.
The same vocabulary also appears as a list-of-insertions question (which words did the 42nd Amendment add) and as an odd-one-out (which word is NOT in the Preamble, with an intruder such as Federal or Reliable).
UPPSC_2025_PRE_GSI_Q562025Asks which words the 42nd Amendment inserted, from a list that mixes Socialist and Secular with the original words Sovereign and Republic. The same original-versus-1976 sorting, but framed from the amendment's side rather than from the 26 November 1949 adoption date, and without an invented word like Reliable.
UPPSC_2021_PRE_GSI_Q492021Asks for the one word NOT in the Preamble, with Federal as the intruder among Sovereign, Democratic and Secular. The same test of Preamble vocabulary, but against the present text, so Secular counts as present there while against the 1949 text here it is absent.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In the Preamble as adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, India was described as a:
- (a)Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic
- (b)Sovereign Democratic Republic
- (c)Sovereign Secular Democratic Republic
- (d)Sovereign Socialist Democratic Republic
Answerb — the 1949 text read Sovereign Democratic Republic. (a) is the wording in force since 3 January 1977 after the 42nd Amendment; (c) and (d) each carry one of the 1976 words on its own and match no version of the Preamble. - practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following words or phrases in the present Preamble were NOT part of the text adopted in 1949? (1) Fraternity (2) integrity of the Nation (3) dignity of the individual (4) Secular
- (a)(1), (3)
- (b)(2), (4)
- (c)(2), (3)
- (d)(1), (2), (4)
Answerb — integrity and Secular both came with the 42nd Amendment of 1976. Fraternity and dignity of the individual were in the 1949 text, so (a), (c) and (d) each include a word that was original. - practice — not a real PYQ
The Preamble to the Constitution of India has been amended:
- (a)never
- (b)once, by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976
- (c)twice, by the 42nd and 44th Amendment Acts
- (d)once, by the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978
Answerb — the 42nd Amendment is the one amendment that has changed the Preamble. (a) fails because the 1976 change did happen; (c) and (d) fail because the 44th Amendment of 1978 reversed several 42nd Amendment provisions but did not amend the Preamble. - practice — not a real PYQ
In which case did the Supreme Court hold that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution of India?
- (a)Berubari Union (1960)
- (b)Golaknath (1967)
- (c)Kesavananda Bharati (1973)
- (d)Minerva Mills (1980)
Answerc — Kesavananda Bharati (1973) held that the Preamble is part of the Constitution. (a) is the opinion in which the Court had said the opposite; (b) dealt with Parliament's power to amend Fundamental Rights; (d) struck down parts of the 42nd Amendment on the basic structure doctrine but is not the Preamble ruling.