Gandhian principles

Topic: Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Gandhian principles are the Directive Principles in Part IV that come from Gandhi's programme. They cover village self-rule, cottage industries and cooperatives, help for weaker sections, banning alcohol, and protecting cattle. They are found in Arts. 40, 43, 43B, 46, 47 and 48.

They matter because they bring Gandhi's idea of gram swaraj (villages that govern themselves) into the Constitution. Several of them were later turned into binding law, such as the 73rd Amendment, KVIC and the NFSA 2013. Others, like prohibition and cattle slaughter, are still debated in courts and politics.

Explanation

The three main ideas

• Gram swaraj (village self-rule)

• Art. 40: organise village panchayats as units of self-government, meaning bodies that run their own local affairs.

• Simple living and local industry

• Art. 43: promote cottage industries in rural areas. These are small-scale industries run at home or in a village, such as khadi, handloom or pottery.

• Art. 43B: promote cooperative societies. These are bodies owned and run by their members for their shared benefit.

• Social reform

• Art. 46: protect the weaker sections, especially SCs and STs.
• Art. 47: bring about prohibition (a ban) of intoxicating drinks and harmful drugs.

• Art. 48: prohibit the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle.

• The Class 11 NCERT lists them in its policies box under four heads: prohibition, cottage industries, cattle and village panchayats.

What each article says

Article	Directive	How it was put into practice
40	Organise village panchayats	73rd Amendment, 1992 (Part IX)
43	Cottage industries in rural areas, run by individuals or cooperatives	KVIC (1957)
43B	Promote cooperatives	97th Amendment, 2011
46	Educational and economic interests of weaker sections, especially SCs and STs	Reservations
47	Nutrition and public health; prohibition	PM POSHAN, ICDS, NFSA 2013; state prohibition laws
48	Prohibit the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle	State cattle-protection laws

• Art. 43B asks the State to promote the "voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of co-operative societies" [1].
• Art. 47 calls better nutrition, a higher standard of living and better public health "primary duties" of the State. It asks the State to ban intoxicating drinks and harmful drugs "except for medicinal purposes" [4].
• Art. 48 sits inside a clause on organising agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines [7].
• Milch cattle give milk. Draught cattle pull ploughs and carts.
• The article is framed in economic and farming terms, not religious ones.

Mixed articles and limits

• Some articles are only partly Gandhian:
• Art. 43 also contains a socialist directive: a living wage (enough pay for a decent life) for all workers.

• Art. 47 has a welfare half (nutrition and public health) and a Gandhian half (prohibition).

• They are non-justiciable (Art. 37):

• No court can force the State to carry them out.

• Even so, they are "fundamental in the governance of the country".

• Federal limits:

• Cooperatives (Entry 32) and cattle "stock" (Entry 15) are on the State List.
• So most action on Arts. 43B and 48 depends on the states, and state laws differ widely.

In the Constitution and practice

• Art. 40 → 73rd Amendment, 1992
• It added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects).
• Panchayats got constitutional status. Before this, they depended on ordinary state laws, which states could ignore.

• Art. 40 itself is still a directive. Part IX is the binding law that carries it out.

• Art. 43 → KVIC (1957)

• The Khadi and Village Industries Commission is a statutory body set up under the KVIC Act, 1956.

• Art. 43B → 97th Amendment Act, 2011. Art. 43B was not in the original Constitution [1]. The amendment made three changes: 1. It added the right to form cooperative societies to Art. 19(1)(c), making it a Fundamental Right. 2. It added the directive in Art. 43B. 3. It added Part IXB (Arts. 243ZH–243ZT), which gives cooperatives constitutional status [2].

• Union of India v. Rajendra N. Shah (20 July 2021) [3]

• The problem: an amendment that changes state powers needs ratification (formal approval) by at least half the state legislatures under the Art. 368(2) proviso. Part IXB never got this approval.
• The holding: Part IXB applies only to multi-state cooperative societies and societies in Union Territories. It does not apply to cooperatives inside a single state [3].

• Arts. 19(1)(c) and 43B were left untouched.

• Art. 46 → reservations

• It works together with Arts. 15(4), 16(4), 17, 330, 332 and 338/338A.

• Art. 47 → nutrition schemes and prohibition

• PM POSHAN is the school mid-day meal scheme. It was renamed in 2021 from the National Programme for Mid-Day Meal in Schools [5].
  • It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (paid for jointly by the Centre and the states) for 2021-22 to 2025-26. The outlay is ₹54,061.73 crore from the Centre and ₹31,733.17 crore from states and UTs [5].
  • It gives one hot cooked meal to children in government and government-aided schools [6].
• NFSA 2013 gives pregnant women, lactating mothers and children aged 6 months to 14 years a legal right to meals, delivered through ICDS and PM POSHAN [6].
• States and UTs with total prohibition: Gujarat, Bihar (2016), Mizoram, Nagaland and Lakshadweep. Check the current list, because states often bring in or drop such laws.
• State of Bombay v. F.N. Balsara (1951): the Supreme Court upheld the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949, as a reasonable restriction on trade. A reasonable restriction is a fair limit on a Fundamental Right in the public interest. The Court used Art. 47 to support this view.

• Drafting: it was Draft Article 38. The prohibition clause and the words "except for medicinal purposes" were added in debate, and the article was adopted on 24 November 1948 [4].

• Art. 48 → state cattle laws

• It was not in the Draft Constitution of 1948. It was added as Draft Article 38-A on 24 November 1948, after a split debate between religious and economic arguments [7].
• Mohd Hanif Qureshi v. State of Bihar (1958, 5 judges):
  • A total ban on killing cows and calves is valid.
  • A ban on killing bulls and bullocks past usefulness is an unreasonable restriction on the butchers' trade under Art. 19(1)(g).
  • DPSPs cannot override Fundamental Rights.
• State of Gujarat v. Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab Jamat (2005, 7 judges):
  • The Court upheld Gujarat's total ban on killing cow progeny, including old bulls.
  • It read Art. 48 with Art. 51A(g), the Fundamental Duty to have compassion for living creatures.

Don't confuse with

• Socialist principles: these aim at economic equality, for example a living wage (also in Art. 43), equal pay and fair distribution of wealth. Gandhian principles aim at village self-rule, small industry and moral reform. Art. 43 belongs to both groups.
• Liberal-intellectual principles: these include the Uniform Civil Code, separating the judiciary from the executive, and environment protection. Note that Art. 48 (cattle and scientific farming) is Gandhian, but Art. 48A (environment, forests and wildlife) is not.
• Part IX and Part IXB: these are binding constitutional provisions on panchayats and cooperatives. Arts. 40 and 43B are the non-justiciable directives behind them.
• Art. 46 and OBC reservation: Art. 46 names only SCs and STs. It does not mention OBCs.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 40 → village panchayats as units of self-government. It was put into practice by the 73rd Amendment, 1992 (Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule).
• 97th Amendment, 2011 added "cooperative societies" to Art. 19(1)(c), inserted Art. 43B and created Part IXB [2]. Rajendra N. Shah (2021) limited Part IXB to multi-state cooperatives and UT societies [3].
• Art. 47: the ban on intoxicating drinks and harmful drugs is "except for medicinal purposes", and nutrition and public health are "primary duties" [4]. F.N. Balsara (1951) upheld prohibition as a reasonable restriction.
• Art. 48 was not in the Draft Constitution. It covers cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle, inside a clause on scientific agriculture [7].
• Mirzapur Moti Kureshi (2005, 7 judges) upheld a total ban by reading Art. 48 with Art. 51A(g). Hanif Qureshi (1958) had protected the slaughter of bulls past usefulness.
• Common trap: Art. 43 is both Gandhian (cottage industries) and socialist (living wage). KVIC (1957) is the body linked to Art. 43.

Mains Points

• The balance between DPSPs and Fundamental Rights has shifted over time:
• In Hanif Qureshi (1958), Art. 19(1)(g) won over Art. 48.
• In Mirzapur (2005), Arts. 48 and 51A(g) helped decide what counts as a "reasonable restriction".

• Some questions are still open: food choice as part of personal liberty under Art. 21, the cost of stray cattle to farmers, and cow vigilantism as a public-order problem.

• Prohibition as policy:

• For: it is a Gandhian moral goal and a constitutional aim, and it protects poor families and public health.
• Against: hooch deaths, lost excise revenue, black markets, and a heavy load on police and courts, as seen in Bihar after 2016.

• Many experts suggest regulation and de-addiction programmes instead of a total ban.

• From directive to enforceable right:

• Through the NFSA 2013 and PM POSHAN, an Art. 47 goal became a legal right that courts can enforce [6]. This answers the claim that DPSPs are only "pious wishes".
• Rajendra N. Shah (2021) shows the federal limit [3]. Even directive-based reforms on state subjects need state consent, which is a lesson in cooperative federalism.

Related concepts

• Organisation of village panchayats
• Promotion of cottage industries
• Promotion of interests of weaker sections
• Nutrition and public health directive
• PM POSHAN
• Prohibition of intoxicating drinks
• Prevention of cattle slaughter

Read more

• Gandhian directives: village, cottage, weaker sections, prohibition and cattle