Franchise, secularism and reading the debates

The Constitution gave the vote to every adult, at once. This was an unprecedented act of faith in the people.

Elsewhere, the vote came in stages: first to men with property, then to the educated, then to working-class men, and to women last of all, often after long struggles.

The Constitution also built secularism, not by declaring it in words at first, but through rights:

• freedom of religion (Articles 25-28);
• cultural and educational rights of minorities (Articles 29-30);
• equality before the law and in public employment, and the abolition of untouchability (Articles 14, 16, 17).

There would be no religious instruction in schools run by the State. Yet the State kept a legal space to reform religious practices: for example, banning untouchability. The idea was a judicious distance between State and religion, not complete separation.

Reading the debates shows that members often changed their views as they argued, and that ideals were reworked to fit the Indian context.