Mr. President, we the people of this country have secured our independence and freedom – We are going to have a Republic of our own as also a Democratic State. We have been assured that during our present life we shall be provided with economic prosperity and social progress. But, Sir, a question yet remains still unsolved. I do not find in this Constitution any reference to the position of our ancient culture. Whenever any nation, such as British in India sought to consolidate their rule by striking deeper the roots of their domination into the heart of the subject nation, struck at the very cultural bonds of that nation and thereby enfeebled it altogether. They take three steps to reach this objective-an attach on the language, an attack on the religion and an attack on the historic ideals of the subject nation. This was what England also did with us. It brought our religion into contempt. But I need not go here into the question of how it was done. But it is sufficient to say that they gave no place to religion in the sphere of the State. Moreover this significant word of the Sanskrit language was equated by them the Englishmen and their camp bearers to religion which is much narrower and restricted than the former. The fact is that Dharma never meant and can never mean religion. I think the word Panthe may properly be translated as Religion but I do not think that Religion can ever be taken to connote Dharma. But the Englishmen made a deliberate use of this for their own ulterior purposes.
