What are the Nature & Objectives of the State?

The Preamble declares India a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India is a free and supreme power. It is internally as well as externally supreme. It is not subject to any external control. India’s membership of the Commonwealth of Nations does not violate its sovereignty. There is equality among all members of the Commonwealth Nations.

In the original Preamble, the words, ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ were not included. These two words were added to the original Preamble by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976. The same amendment also included in the Preamble ‘unity and integrity of the nation’ in place of ‘unity of the nation’.

India is a democracy. It is also a republic. The Head of State is elected to the office. He is not hereditary. India’s goal is socialism. It seeks to establish a socialistic pattern society. India is also a secular State.

Objectives of the State:

The Preamble embodies some valuable goals and objectives to be achieved by state of India. It is the duty of the government and people of India to try to attain these objectives. These objectives are social justice, economic justice and political justice. In should be made a Welfare State.

Fraternity should be ensured and there should be harmony between the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. The Preamble contains the date of birth of the Constitution of India. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949.

Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava observed, “The Preamble is the most precious part the Constitution. It is the soul of the Constitution. It is a key to the Constitution It is proper yardstick with which one can measure the worth of the Constitution. All the 3 articles of the Constitution have to be measured with the yardstick of the preamble.”