SOCIAL REVOLUTION

A social revolution is a fundamental change

in a society. It involves a shift in power in a
society. Revolutions occur when a number of
people in a society feel discontent with the
current order and agree that change is
necessary. When we stop wanting to live the
way we're living, or if we stop believing in
the legitimacy of our current social or
political order, we may turn to revolution.
It's important to note that revolution is
different than reform, which seeks to change
small parts of an existing system, but
ultimately keep it in place. Revolution seeks
to overthrow this whole system. Revolution
can bring about important social, political,
and economic changes.

K.Santhanam described three revolutions

which are
:-
1) Economic Revolution
2) Political Revolution
3) Social Revolution

* The core commitment of the social

revolution lies in PARTS III and IV, that is the
Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles
of State Policy respectively. They give
strength to the pursuit of the social
Revolution in India. It will however be wrong
to conceive social revolution only in terms
of the means to bring about the economic
betterment of the people. The
economic well-being of the masses is
ofcourse the basic criterion of the
success of the revolution, but the
relationship between man and man, and
between man and woman, the relationship
between the people and the State,
between the people and the production, the
product and the instruments of
production; the economic, political and
social structure of the society and
the place of the individual in the same, the
values to be cherished in the
private and the public life, the ethics and
ideals to be followed by the
individuals and institutions in their daily
functioning, the kind of institutions
to be organised to carry on the activities of
the society, and the manner and
the method of constituting them, the
procedures to be followed by them in
the discharge of their duties, and their
relation with each other and with the
people etc., all form the subject matter of
the revolution
Both the Fundamental Rights and Directive
Principles of State Policy aim at the establishment
of a true democracy, with the Fundamental Rights
focusing on political democracy by emphasizing
on individual welfare and the Directive Principles
of State Policy focusing on socio-economic
democracy by emphasizing on general welfare.

Both the Fundamental Rights and the Directive

Principles of State Policy are concerned with State
actions. While the Directive Principles of State
Policy are positive directives that have to be kept
in mind while framing laws, the Fundamental
Rights place limitations on the State to prevent
the arbitrary use of State power.

The Fundamental Rights, being justiciable in

nature stand legally superior to the non-
justiciable Directive Principles of State Policy.
Thus, the Fundamental Rights stand at a higher
position than the Directive Principles of State
Policy.

With the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 adding

the word ‘Socialist’ to the Preamble, general
welfare had to be given more importance, and
this could only be achieved by giving the Directive
Principles of State Policy predominance over the
Fundamental Rights.

The 42nd Amendment Act established the

supremacy of Parliament and curtailed the
powers of Judiciary. The fundamental rights,
including those of life and liberty, granted to
citizens were now capable of being taken away by
a small majority. Hence, it was important to
provide adequate safeguards against the
occurrence of such an event in the future and to
ensure that the people had an effective voice in
determining the form of government under which
they were to live.
Hence, the 44th Amendment Act of 1978 once
again reversed the status of the Fundamental
Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy by
re-establishing the predominance of the
Fundamental Rights over the Directive Principles
of State Policy.
Granville Austin combinedly defines Fundamental
Rights and Directive Principle of
the state policy as "Conscience of the
Constitution". B.R Ambedkar defines them as
'novel features' of the constitution as although
ideas are being borrowed but the deriving force
for the Constitution is novel in its own sence.

GAUTAM BHATIA SAYS The objective of the

fundamental rights is to provide congenial
environment for the fullest development of the
personality of the Indian citizens. For the
fulfillment of this objective the individual has
been given a good number of freedoms. The
objective of Directive Principles of State Policy is
to provide the individual with socio-economic and
political justice. Indian Constitution on the one
hand declares that the Directive Principles of
State Policy are not justiciable but on the other
hand observes that these will be fundamental in
the governance of the country. It makes a
responsibility of the State to implement the
Directive Principles through appropriate
legislation. In doing so, government often finds
itself limited by existence of constitutionally
guarded and legally sanctioned fundamental right
of the people.

Because of these two major reasons, there has

been present the problem of relationship
between the Fundamental Rights and Directive
Principles of State Policy. There exists a
discernible difference between the perceptions of
the Parliament and the Supreme Court over the
issue of the relationship between these two vitally
important parts of the Constitution. In Granville
Austin , Directive Principles are helpful in giving
proper direction to fundamental rights. Rights are
changed with the passage of time and Directive
Principles of State Policy which have been
embodied in the Indian Constitution keeping in
view the demands of the future, help in giving
proper direction to Fundamental Rights e.g. in
order to implement Articles 39 (b) and 39 (c)
concerned with the Directive Principles of State
Policy, 44th constitutional amendment was
passed which has made the Right to Property a
mere legal right.

Article 39 (b) and (c) of the Indian Constitution

provide for the control and ownership of means
of material resources with the main aim of public
good and to prevent the concentration of wealth
in a few hands. Infact, the first, fourth twenty
fourth and twenty fifth Amendments were passed
with the aim of the implementation of the
Directive Principles of State Policy .