Six Guards at the Six Gates

Picture the Republic as a fortress with six gates, and each gate has one guard whose only job is to stop a specific kind of bully. The fortress has a birthday twice over: the guards were sworn in on 26 November 1949, and the gates opened to the public on 26 January 1950. Two dates, both the 26th — one is Constitution Day, the other Republic Day.

Gate one is Equality. Its guard wears no uniform of rank; at this gate a judge's child and a labourer's child stand in the same line, and the words untouchability and discrimination are written on the wall in ink that cannot be scraped off. That is Articles 14 to 18.

Gate two is Freedom, and this guard carries six whistles in his pocket: speak, assemble, move about, reside, earn a living, and practise a belief. He is the loudest guard but not the least restricted — the whistles are blown only so far as public order, decency and the rest of reasonable restrictions allow. Articles 19 to 22.

Gate three is Against Exploitation. This guard turns away two vehicles: the wagon that pays no wages, and the lamp that is handed to a child down a mine. Begar and trafficking, Articles 23 to 24.

Gate four keeps all shrines open at once. No one is made to pay for a prayer they do not say, and no gate prefers one god to another. Articles 25 to 28.

Gate five is quieter. Behind it stands a school that belongs to a small community, and the guard's order is that the language, script and culture taught inside must be allowed to survive. Articles 29 and 30.

Gate six is the one examiners love. This guard does not stop anyone himself — he holds a telephone that rings directly in the Supreme Court. If any of the first five gates is forced, you ask him, and he moves at once; that is Article 32, the right to constitutional remedies, and Dr B. R. Ambedkar's famous verdict on it: the heart and soul of the Constitution. Without this guard the other five are only notices on a wall.

Last, one distinction that decides many objective questions. The six guards are enforceable — you can go to court about them; that is what justiciable means. On the far hill there is a second list, the Directive Principles in Part IV, which tell the government what it should build but cannot be enforced in a court. Guards at the gate, not wishes on the hill.