Political Science · Political Institutions in India
UGC NET Nov 2017 Political Science
According to whom the Indian Constitution aimed at the tripartite goal of national unity, democracy and social revolution as three distinct strands interwoven into a 'seamless web'?
AWH Morris Jones
BRajni Kothari
CGranville Austin ✓ Correct
DSunil Khilnani
Correct answer: (C) Granville Austin — The view that the Indian Constitution aimed at the tripartite goal of national unity, democracy and social revolution, woven into a seamless web, comes from Granville Austin, which is option…
Explanation
★The view that the Indian Constitution aimed at the tripartite goal of national unity, democracy and social revolution, woven into a seamless web, comes from Granville Austin, which is option (3).
★Austin saw these three goals as distinct strands that the makers of the Constitution interlaced into a single fabric.
★National unity meant holding together a diverse country through a strong but federal structure.
★Democracy meant universal adult franchise, representative institutions and fundamental rights.
★Social revolution meant using the Constitution to transform an unequal society, mainly through the Directive Principles.
★Austin argued that these aims could not be separated, since unity, democracy and reform reinforced one another.
★The phrase seamless web captures his idea that the Constitution was a single, cohesive design rather than a patchwork.
★This analysis appears in his classic work, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, of 1966.
★Granville Austin was an American historian and the leading scholar of how the Indian Constitution was made.
★The option W.H. Morris Jones is wrong, since he is known for analysing the idioms and the working of Indian politics, not this phrase.
★The option Rajni Kothari is wrong, since he is associated with the idea of the Congress system of one party dominance.
★The option Sunil Khilnani is wrong, since he is known for his book The Idea of India, a later reflection on Indian democracy.
★Austin's seamless web idea is one of the most quoted interpretations of the spirit of the Constitution.
★It links the political goals of unity and democracy with the socio economic goal of a just society.
★For NET, attribute the seamless web of national unity, democracy and social revolution to Granville Austin in Cornerstone of a Nation.
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