As the nation prepares to celebrate yet another Republic Day on 26th January, 2026, some serious reflections on the health of the republic are the need of the hour. While institutions and ideas forming the bedrock of our constitutional edifice are under intense scrutiny, it is also pertinent to reflect on the inner dynamics of ‘We, the People of India’ who enacted, adopted and gave to themselves the hallowed Constitution of India.

The quality of human resource is a very significant marker of a nation’s power which again depends on variables like access to nutrition, health care, education, and skill. Of equal importance are subjective factors like fellow feeling, cooperative spirit, ability for team work, empathy for the less privileged, respect for other’s rights, intolerance towards injustice and agency to fight for vindication of citizens’ rights. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s emphasis on the principle of Fraternity, as the most significant cohesive factor joining together the values of Liberty Equality and Justice, is particularly noteworthy as one tries to fathom the nuances of India’s nationhood.

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At the beginning of its journey as the world’s largest democracy, 345 million people started a ‘tryst with destiny’, to borrow a phrase immortalized by India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It was a stupendous challenge for every Indian and the leaders as they embarked on a journey to lift millions above the poverty line, to ensure universal education, health care, and meaningful employment, and perhaps most daunting, to eradicate entrenched divisive factors like casteism, communalism , patriarchy, linguistic chauvinism and ethnic animosities so as to create a truly cohesive nation, a rock solid edifice of the “we, the people of India”.

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During the last seven decades, the trajectory of India’s journey has been an awe-inspiring one. Proving wrong many Western scholars who predicted the imminent collapse of democracy in a semi-literate, underdeveloped country, India has muddled through, despite occasional hiccups. One of the........

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