CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA REMEMBERING MAHARISHI DAYANAND SARASWATI

 

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA  REMEMBERING MAHARISHI DAYANAND SARASWATI

 

 

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES

(PROCEEDINGS)-VOLUME II

Tuesday, the 21st January, 1947

 

Mr. R. V. Dhulekar:

 

Some say that the Constituent Assembly is not a sovereign body; it is a creation of the British; its very existence has no meaning and the Constitution drawn up by it has no importance. I cannot have the audacity to say that they are devoid of sense but I do say that they are ignorant of Indian history. I need not dwell much on this point. One thousand years ago, India, for some reason, was decentralised or divided and failing to withstand the invasions of foreignerscame under their sway. Since that very time the fire of freedom has been, constantly blazing in the hearts of the Indian people. It was never extinguished. On the one hand, this fire appeared in the form of sages. Swami Ramdas, Goswami Tulsidas, Guru Nanak, Swami Dayanand, Ram Krishna Paramhansa, Vivekanand and Ram Teerath are symbols of this very fire. On the other hand, statesmen and politicians like Shivaji, Guru Govind Singh, Rana Pratap Rani of Jhansi, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Lokmanya Tilak, Motilal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose were also political symbols of this very fire. Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan are saints and politicians both. The Indians owned Babar, Humayun and Akbar to the extent they indentified themselves with India. During the British regime in India not a single day has passed that has not seen some torture done to some Indian in jail for his zeal of freedom. The fight for freedom has been going on continuously for the--last two hundred years. The sixty years history of the Congress is a history of sufferings  and sacrifices. Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad  and many other patriots in thousands sacrificed their lives for the cause of India's independence.

 

 

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS) - VOLUME IX

Tuesday, the 23rd August 1949

 

Prof. Yashwant Rai

 

After thousands of years the Harijans for the first time under the leadership of Mahatma

Gandhi and thanks to Swami Dayanand felt encouraged to take to education and they began

to hope that untouchability would be eradicated from society and that they would enjoy equal rights with others. If we want to achieve these objects and to form a classless society, we should include a provision to that effect in the Constitution. Mr. Kamath has said that in article 10 of the Fundamental Rights it has been stated that there shall be equality of opportunity for  all irrespective of caste, creed and colour. We see that untouchability has been abolished under the clause regarding untouchability. But this has had no effect in the rural areas. You can find for yourselves that in the rural areas 85 per cent. of the people, who will have to follow this Constitution, are uneducated.

 

 

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS) -

VOLUME IX

Tuesday, the 13th September 1949

Shri R. V. Dhulekar : Some say "not yet", but I say that it is a fact. However much you may try to postpone the day-in your opinion it may be an evil day-in my opinion it is a fortunate day, it has come. However you may oppose it, it is a decision  that the country has taken. Some say that it is a concession to Hindi language I say  "no". It is a consummation of a historic process". It is the result of an historical  process which has been going for a long number of years, nay centuries. I may say that Swami Ramdas wrote in Hindi, Tulsi Das wrote in Hindi, then again the modern  Saint, Swami Dayanand wrote in Hindi. He was a Gujarati but he wrote in Hindi. Why did he write in Hindi? Because Hindi was the national language of this country.

 

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS) - VOLUME XI

Monday, the21st November 1949

Shri H.J. Khandekar

 

Well Sir, even the social, political and religious reformers in the country like Gautama Buddha, Ramanuja, Kabir, Sant Tukaram, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Paramahansa, Mahatma Joti Rao Fulley, Vithal Ramji Shinde, Thakkar Bapa and last but not the least, Mahatma Gandhi, found  it very difficult to get rid of this ghost of untouchability. They agitated in the country but they did not succeed. Now, Sir, we have embodied an article No. 17 in this Constitution to remove  untouchability and I am sure that untouchability will be removed, but I have seen Act for removing untouchability in the Provinces, the Temple Entry Act and the Removal of disabilities Acts passed by the different Provinces in this country. What is the effect of these laws? Not an inch of untouchability has been removed by these laws and, therefore, if this law of removing untouchability remains in the book of Constitution itself, I do not think that untouchability will be removed. If at all the ghost of untouchability or the stigma of untouchability from India should go the minds of these crores and crores of Hindu folks should be changed and unless their hearts are changed, I do not hope. Sir, that untouchability will be removed. It is now upto the Hindu society not to observe untouchability in any shape or form