How to cultivate democracy in a soil that is essentially undemocratic: The Ambedkar way

Democracy is not a form of government but essentially a form of society. It is incompatible and contradictory with isolation and exclusivity, leading to a distinction between the privileged and the underprivileged. For Ambedkar, a democratic society is a prerequisite for a democratic form of government. He expressed this concern in many speeches about democracy as a form of government.

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Babasaheb's commitment to democracy and constitutional morality is the first thing that strikes the mind as we commemorate Ambedkar Jayanti. Democracy was a 'way of life' for him, not just a political tool to gain power and rule the masses. He strived for the destruction of the caste system and the creation of an egalitarian society.

Ambedkar theorised substantive democracy, wherein a 'social and economic democracy' would breathe life into political democracy. His quest for a meaningful democratic society led him to explore the concept of 'constitutional morality'.

Ambedkar's oft-quoted reference to constitutional morality is from his speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948, when he was responding to criticism of the draft Constitution.

Quoting George Grote from his work History of Greece at length, Ambedkar said: "By constitutional morality, Grote meant …  a paramount reverence for the forms of the Constitution, enforcing obedience to authority and acting under and within these forms, yet combined with the habit of open speech, of action subject only to definite legal control, and unrestrained censure of those very authorities as to all their public acts combined, too with a perfect confidence in the bosom of every citizen amidst the bitterness of party contest that the forms of the Constitution will not be less sacred in the eyes of his opponents than his own."