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INTRODUCTION
Right from the formation of the Indian National Congress to Religious Nationalism today, India’s political movements have had a huge impact on the policymaking process. But, it is important, right now, to question whether be it good to make an impact on the policymaking process through these National movements. Irrespective of what base such a movement has, it is our supreme laws, which should be focused on while framing a law or any policymaking for that matter. This article will analyze and will bring a balance between the impact of two main national movements that is, Secular Nationalism and Identity Nationalism or Nationalism on a Religious or race, or caste basis. One, that has framed India and another in a rise as a counterpart to the well-settled earlier movements. Both form as part of Leftist and Rightist movements in India. Hence this article will have a critical analysis of the impact of a national movement on lawmaking in India.
Defining Nationalist Movement:
An understanding of what Nationalist movement and what are the factors that lead or form the basis for the Nationalist movement are much-required qualifications for anyone to know different movements that caught their base in the Indian subcontinent. Referring to the definition defined in Encyclopedia.com, A nationalist movement is nothing but a social and political movement that is performed to obtain and maintain the national identity and autonomy among the group of people. In other words, any movement that exhibits or shows the signs of national identity among the people of that group would be considered a National Movement for that matter. The driving factor or the source for such a movement of nationalism should be to uphold or enhance the national interest or the national identity, which is primary to it. It is important to notice that these driving factors have influenced the political decisions of any country.
Secular Nationalism and Lawmaking in India:
The pre-1990s, as far as the sources have cited, would be regarded as the era of Secular nationalism. Few Indian nationals namely Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and the Indian National congress portrayed the secular Nationalism in India. But, what exactly is Secular Nationalism? Secular Nationalism would generally mean that the citizens of the nation identify each other on economic, social, political, and other secular grounds. They perform functions for progressive growth and on the national interest. This indirectly means that the country prefers secular policies over non-secular ideas and policies that deter the national Interest and is indifferent to the concept of secular nationalism.
India can be taken as an example for the application of secular nationalism as a national movement pre-1990 period. Now, many argue that there were religious movements that took place even before the emergence of religious or identity-based nationalism. We can never deny the fact that they existed earlier, but the question arises again as to whether they had an impact on the lawmaking process in India positively or negatively? The answer would mostly be on a positive note, as there are examples of how secular nationalism had a positive note on lawmaking policy. One important lawmaking policy that was influenced or impacted by secular nationalism came in the year of 1976. It was in this year, Government of India enacted the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, which added the Concept of Secularism in the Preamble of India. Recently, there has been a hue and cry over the nature of India’s political system because of misuse of powers. Many and as per The Week, as a secular nationalist, Nehru recognized the multiculturalism in India and termed it as the strength of India. This was also a reason which impacted India’s policies to be in focus on shared values enunciated in the Indian Constitution.
Religious Nationalism in India:
Let us look into another social movement called Religious Nationalism which according to Rieffer, Religious Nationalism is the presence of nationalism and religion in such a manner where both would be inseparable. As per Greenfeld, both nationalism and religion are ‘order-creating cultural systems’. In simpler terms, religious Nationalism would rely on Religious identity in order to define their form of Nationalism and their goals.
Many Leftist groups and those who base their nationalism on secular grounds in any country would form a counterpart to religious nationalism, as they think the same would not come under the purview of Nationalism-which according to them deter the concept of nationality in a multicultural society. In India, the radical identity political movements and politics paved way for the rise of identity politics, which bases its ideology on one nation, one identity. Even though this religious movement exists for more than 100 years, the same has attained its shape and objectives in recent years and has been influencing/impacting the lawmaking policies of the government.
One of the examples for such an impact came in the year 2019, where the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 completely ruined the Secular nature of the Indian constitution and overridden Article 14 of the constitution. With its validity is yet to be answered through hearings in the Supreme Court, the same was seen as an example of how religious or identity politics have influenced the lawmaking policy in India.
Conclusion:
The above facts and issues must have confirmed that politics in India should never go against the national interest, to be precise, it should be in line with Constitutional principles and rule of law doctrine. Any movement on contrary would term them unconstitutional and never be entertained by citizens of the nation. These national movements, across the world, have been influencing the policy decisions or law-making bodies as they have been reflected by the majority. Indian subcontinent should abide by the supreme power of the land. In case, if there is an issue of inconsistency with the constitution, then the Judiciary should step in to clear the validity of laws made through the influence of unjustified national movements. India has committed to its constitution the whole power and sovereignty rests in the constitution and not in the parliament.
