Unsung Heroes: An ordinary Bengaluru citizen spreads knowledge about the Constitution

“The Constitution was drafted after hundreds of people from diverse backgrounds came together, held civil debates, and tried to be the real voice of the people. There was a lengthy debate in the Constituent Assembly. The original handwritten book of our Constitution is a true reflection of who we are as a country. Each page was decorated by some of the best artists. It is a totally Indian design. It has 22 pieces of art and a lot of thought has gone into it to capture 4000 years of history of our land,” Kumar said.

‘Reclaim Constitution’

The ‘Reclaim Constitution’ initiative by Kumar has printed a booklet and 22 postcards with artwork and passages from Constituent Assembly debates for distribution to emphasise constitutional values. “It is indeed a marvel that our Constitution has kept a diverse country together for seven decades, thanks largely to its foundation built of ideas such as freedom, fraternity, fundamental rights, and federalism,” Kumar says in an introduction to the booklet.

“Reclaim Constitution revisits the founding value of our Constitution to remind us of their emergence from the Independence movement. It is a call to understand the contemporary relevance of the valuable gifts of our freedom struggle and safeguard them for our present and future generations,” it states.

“Drawing inspiration from the debates during the Constitution-making process this book reiterates that ‘We, the people of India’ are the actual rulers of this country. This moment in our history asks us to uphold the fundamental values of our Constitution and engage with the Constitution in a manner envisaged by the framers of our Constitution. Can we keep alive the spirit of our Constitution that was born out of sweat and blood to give us 75 years of a free nation?” asks the introduction.

The awareness of the depth and implication of the Constitution and the need to spread knowledge about what it enshrines dawned upon Kumar barely two years ago.

“I was like any other ordinary person. My knowledge of the Constitution was limited to what I was taught at school, that the Constitution was drafted by Dr B R Ambedkar. Beyond that, being a philatelist I used to see images on stamps of Dr Ambedkar and the Constitution he drafted,” he said. “I have a background in science, I knew that scientific temper was one of the values enshrined in the Constitution. We have been observing August 20 as the National Scientific Temper Day to mark the date of the death of the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar who was killed in 2013,” he added.

Scientific temper

One of the inspirations for Kumar to pursue scientific temper as a way of life was Dr H Narasimhaiah, a revered physicist, science teacher, freedom fighter, and rationalist from Bengaluru who was an influential figure in the lives of hundreds of science students for decades. Kumar said he traces his attempts to convey the spirit of the Constitution to people to his learning of the scientific temper from Dr Narasimhaiah. “Dr H N played a key role in helping me understand the role of science in society. He believed that science cannot improve humanity by being restricted to a laboratory. H N embodied scientific thinking. His mission was to improve scientific temper in society. He communicated by his conduct, not by preaching. We desperately need such people today,” he added.

In 2020 during the anti-CAA protests, Kumar got deeply involved in understanding the issue and got into a lot of debates but did not know what was credible. He joined a Constitution reading group comprising lawyers and activists to understand the issue.

“The Constitution is not only what is written, which is mostly in the realm of the judiciary, lawyers, and law practitioners. The spirit of our freedom struggle lives in our Constitution. To see the Constitution only as a legal document and a tool for governance is a narrow way of looking at things,” he said.

“The debate on the national flag shows that the founding mothers and fathers wanted a flag that represents freedom, beauty, and values that embody the freedom struggle. These days, the values that the flag signifies are distorted,” he said.

“There were 15 women in the Constituent Assembly debates as well as representatives of Adivasis, Dalits, and minorities. Kengal Hanumanthaiah spoke extensively about decentralisation. He stressed that states must be given more autonomy. The debate is very relevant today. It shows how far we have moved away from constitutional values,” Kumar pointed out.

The Reclaim Constitution initiative has won a lot of support in Bengaluru and other places. Recently, 1,000 copies of the booklet were ordered and 50 were distributed at an event held by civic activists to oppose plans to build a flyover at the Sankey Tank in Bengaluru.

“This is a small scratch on the surface. I intend to translate the material into all the languages of India and also Braille and Indian Sign Language in the spirit of inclusiveness that is present in the Constitution. The hope is that it reaches more people and that it will inspire people to do something more than writing social media posts, that they will question elected representatives and raise a voice against injustice,” he said.