Modernisation as a Value

In one line

The question is whether modernisation is a description of what happened or a preference for what should, and Indian law has answered it by writing the preference into the Constitution.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: to call modernisation a VALUE is to say that it is not merely a description of a direction societies have taken but a state of affairs that is BETTER and ought to be pursued. Indian law takes that position expressly. The Preamble resolves to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity, which are the values of a modern and not a traditional order; article 17 abolishes an inherited status; article 44 directs the State to ENDEAVOUR to secure a uniform civil code; articles 38, 39 and 46 set out a programme; and article 51A(h) makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen to develop the SCIENTIFIC TEMPER, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. The criticisms are that the thesis smuggles in one civilisation's history as a universal standard; that it treats tradition as an obstacle rather than as a resource; that it is measured by institutions rather than by outcomes; and that it has been used to justify displacing people in the name of progress.

Description against preference

As a DESCRIPTION. A statement that societies have moved from status to contract, from custom to rule and from the local to the national. It can be tested against evidence and it is true of many societies and untrue of parts of every one.

As a PREFERENCE. A statement that this direction is better: that a society in which a person's occupation is not fixed by birth is a better society than one in which it is. That cannot be tested against evidence, because it is a judgment about what is good.

The move from one to the other is where the argument is. A writer who describes the direction and then treats a society that has not gone that way as BACKWARD has changed the kind of claim being made without saying so.

Where Indian law makes the preference explicit. The Preamble's four values; article 17's abolition of untouchability, which does not ask whether the practice is traditional; article 25(2)(b)'s permission to legislate for social welfare and reform notwithstanding the freedom of religion; article 44's direction on a uniform civil code; and article 51A(h)'s duty to develop the SCIENTIFIC TEMPER, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform, which is the only place in the Constitution where a habit of MIND is made a duty.

Read article 51A(h) closely, because it is the strongest textual evidence that the Constitution treats modernisation as a value and not only as a fact.