Gandhian

🎯 How This Word Works in UPSC Writing

Reflecting Gandhi's constructive programme. The group comprises Article 40 on organising village panchayats as units of self-government, Article 43 on promoting cottage industries, Article 43B on cooperative societies, Article 46 on promoting the educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections, Article 47 on prohibiting intoxicating drinks and drugs, and Article 48 on prohibiting the slaughter of cows and other milch and draught cattle. Their fate illustrates the practical difference between a directive and a right. Article 40 lay largely unimplemented for four decades until the 73rd Amendment gave panchayats constitutional status in 1992, which is the standard example of a directive converted into an obligation by amendment rather than by judicial interpretation, and Article 43B was inserted later by the 97th Amendment. Note that Article 48 is framed in terms of agriculture and animal husbandry rather than religious observance, which is how it is textually justified.