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It will soon be time to celebrate our Independence Day again as India completes 58 years of free existence, after suffering almost 200 years of humiliating British colonialism. The shocking realization that dawned on me during one of our law classes is that even the most educated of our citizens are unaware of the charter of citizen's rights known as the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India. What I've tried to prepare is almost like a concise and ready reckoner of our Fundamental Rights(*).

The Constitution of India, the world's lengthiest written constitution (with 395 articles and 8 schedules) was passed by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949. It has been in effect since January 26, 1950, which is celebrated as Republic Day in India. Adopted after some two and one-half years of deliberation by the Constituent Assembly that also acted as India's first legislature. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a Dalit who earned a law degree from Columbia University, chaired the drafting committee of the constitution and shepherded it through Constituent Assembly debates.

The Fundamental Rights embodied in the Indian Constitution are guaranteed to all Indian citizens. These civil liberties take precedence over any other law of the land. They include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights such as habeas corpus.

In addition, the Fundamental Rights for Indians are aimed at overturning the inequities of past social practices. They abolish "untouchability"; prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth; and forbid traffic in human beings and forced labor. They go beyond conventional civil liberties in protecting cultural and educational rights of minorities by ensuring that minorities may preserve their distinctive languages and establish and administer their own education institutions.

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* Contributed by: -
Arnab Pal,
Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneswar.