The experiences bestowed by Kanchi-Mahaswami — Part 25
Religions freed from the government intervention: sowed by Kanchi Mahaswami
(A humble translation of the original article by Sri S.Gurumurthy, as it had appeared in Thuglak Tamil Magazine) —
https://www.thuglak.com/thuglak/main.php?x=curissue/ninaithu_paarkiraen_21_04_2021.php
In 1946 Apr-Jun, Cabinet mission that recommended for the political constitution was visiting India and Muslim league was splitting the nation. On 4th Nov 1946, the constituent assembly was formed in the unified Bharath. The first session was held on 11th Dec. After 8 months, the 2nd session was held on 29th Aug 1947 after the independence. What was the reason for the long gap? The elections for the constituent assembly were completed in Aug 1946. In that election, Congress won 208 seats and the Muslim League won 73 seats. Muslim league refused to join that and demanded a separate constituent assembly for Muslims. Congress refused to support the demand. Jinnah’s direct action call to the Nation in 1946 led to bloodied riots. To manage the situation that went out of control, the British government dumped the elected constituent assembly and brought in India Independence act to create India — Pakistan on 3rd Jun 1947. It announced independence for both the countries o 15th Aug 1947. It led to more riots.
Mahaswami appearing before the Assembly
During that time, no one had the time to think about the details of the constitution, we deserved. Even the Congress leaders, who were part of the government thought that this act would be sorted out by the constituent assembly. Religions are the backbone of our spiritually oriented country. Due to the Muslim league’s separatism, our nationalists avoided talking about religion. Mahaswami guessed that scholars & leaders may not care about the fundamentals of this country, during those troubled times (It turned out to be true when religion was not mentioned in the 1st draft of the constituent assembly).
Mahaswami, who was staying in a village had a vision for the future and started preparing for that. The constituent assembly was formed in mid-1946 and its first meeting was held at the end of 1946. Whereas, before Dec 1945, Mahaswami made the important leaders to think about the constitution. To fulfill the needs of Sardar Patel, he had sent emissaries to the mutts of different sampradayas and made them arrive at a unified thought.
The time was not ripe enough for the mutts to meet and our country’s situation made it further difficult. Based on his requests, the following mutts met on 14th Nov 1946 in Chennai and decided to have an All India mutt conference in the 1st week of Dec — Ahobilam, Dharmapuram, Bargala, Sringeri, Raghavendraswamy, Utthradi, Thiruvaduthurai, Vyasarayam, Sangeswar karaveer mutts & mutts based in Udupi. In that conference, it was decided to give the following requests to constituent assembly — fundamental religious freedom, property rights for the religious denominations, non-interference of government in the mutts, etc (Ref the news item from The Hindu newspaper). Before the 1st session of the assembly and formation of a committee under Ambedkar, the requests were given to the government. Mahaswami was the preceptor for the religious freedom acts in the constitution.
Patel’s recommendation & Mahaswami’s draft
Mahaswami through a committee gave the declarations of the conference to Sardar Patel. Then, Patel had requested to give the draft in English. Immediately, Mahaswami had requested the leading lawyers of Chennai to draft the necessary laws. On seeing the complexity of the word jugglery in the laws, the government lawyers had requested to make it simple & easily interpretable, which was done by B.N.Rao.
Agnihotra Thatachariar gave the draft to Mahaswami and mentioned its simplicity & cogency. Mahaswami identified few errors and requested them to correct. On hearing this, Rao was pleasantly surprised and remarked, “ Who is leading the law practitioner gave such brilliant suggestions”? When he came to know that the suggestions had come from Mahaswami, he was happy.
What was the main amendment he had made? The word religion is apt for Abrahamic religions that have — one God, One book & One prophet. It does not fully represent pluralistic Hinduism. Mahaswami added, ’every religious denomination or section thereof. Hinduism that has many sampradayas and sub-sampradayas is not a monotheistic religion. Hence, he added this phrase to grant independence to all the sects & sub-sects. What is the meaning? The sampradaya of the common people like walking-on-the-fire, piercing-with-spear (practices despised by the higher strata of the society) receives recognition and cannot be stopped by the government. Rao was surprised by this.
Ambedkar’s approval
There was another problem. Some politicians thought, “Even though the govt’s interference in religion is not required, there should be a lawful provision for the parliament to enact laws”. This is related to Article 26 of the constitution. In this article four items of religion are related:
- Every sect & its sub-sects have the right to have their setup & trust
- To protect & manage their sect
- The right to own (im)movable assets to manage their sect
- The right to administrate those assets
In the 1st draft, there was a provision to control the four rights in accordance with the law.
Kanchi Mahaswami felt that the first three rights should stay out of Parliament’s purview since it would them a lever to reduce or deny those rights. He was fine with the fourth right to be managed by the law. Thatachari committee made the changes and submitted to the assembly. To be inducted into the 2nd draft, it would need the approval of Ambedkar.
Thatachari was skeptical about Amberdkar’s approval with the presumption that he might carry a different opinion on those areas. But, Ambedkar agreed to that proposal. Thatachari felt that it was due to the Tapas of Mahaswami.
In the 1st constitutional draft presented on 21st Feb 1948 by Ambedkar drafting committee, these rights were incorporated under Article 19,20 (https://www.constitutionofindia.net/historical_constitutions ). Those fundamental rights in the 1st draft took a different shape but those religious rights were retained (Articles 25,26).
There is one more important item. In the political constitution, there are 3 areas — central subjects, state subjects, and common subjects. Mahaswami felt that religion should not be part of the state subjects. Nehru wanted to bring in many things under state subjects. Finally, Mahaswami’s view prevailed and Thatachari mentioned that it was also accepted by Nehru. Because of Mahaswami’s efforts, unlike many other nations, we have had detailed provisions related to religion in our constitution. Even the skeptical Nehru felt the necessity.
Religious Rights for all religious denominations
Though Islam operates politically as one entity, they have multiple divisions within them — Deobandi, Barelvi, Sunni, Shia, Bora, Goja, Sufi, Ahmadiyas, etc. They fight among themselves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadari_in_Lucknow). In the Varanasi Shia burial ground, there was a case in the courts to remove the burial of Sunni Muslims that ran for 100 years. The Supreme court has given the judgment to remove those bodies from there. If it is implemented then there is every possibility of a riot (India Today, 15th Apr 1984).
Ahmadiyas brought in the Sunni Muslim Jinnah from London and sowed the seeds for partition (http://www.thepersecution.org/50years/mov4.html ). Later, those Ahmadiya were declared that are no more Muslims and denied voting rights in Pakistan (https://medium.com/@hinatai/ahmadis-disenfranchised-from-pakistanis-first-democratically-held-elections-3486e48e0cfa). Sunni Muslims have so much animosity against Ahmadiyas, Shia and they keep attacking them regularly (Sectarian violence in Pakistan from Wikipedia). Though Pakistan is an Islamic state, the subsects of Islam do not have separate privileges. In contrast, our constitution provides such rights to all the subsects of all the religious denominations.
Based on the religious articles, SC pronounced judgments in the Kerala Malankara church case as well disputes among different denominations of Christians (Indian Express, 19th Jun 2019). PM Modi was reached out for compromise.
The glorious summary is that because of the distinguished efforts of Kanchi Mahaswami, the religious rights of all denominations were protected
