Liberty, equality and fraternity
Topic: Preamble and the Philosophy of the Constitution · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Equality"; Class 11, Ch 1 "Constitution: Why and How?"
Meaning
Liberty, equality and fraternity are three Preamble ideals taken from the French Revolution (the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man). Ambedkar called them a "union of trinity" in the Constituent Assembly on 25 November 1949. He meant that none of the three can be separated from the other two. Each one protects the others.
Example
Ambedkar explained the link in three lines:
- "Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many."
- "Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative."
- "Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things."
Don't confuse with
- Social, economic and political justice: this is a separate Preamble ideal. It is usually traced to the Russian Revolution, not the French Revolution.