‘Socialism’ is a concept or political and economic system which advocates that the means of
production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Socialism lays emphasis on the welfare of the people, it seeks to give equality to the people and tries
to remove exploitation of one class by the others and ensures economic and political equality to all.
Socialism in Indian Constitution:
The Preamble and Directive principles of state policy (article 38,39,39A,41,42,43,43A and 47)
explicitly mentions ‘socialism’ in Indian Constitution. The words secular and socialist were
introduced in the Indian Constitution during the Emergency through 42nd amendment in 1976.
It was that government’s attorney general, Niren De, who had argued before the Supreme
Court that the right to life is qualified during an Emergency. The words secular and socialist were
added to reassure the nation that minorities would be safe and the moneyed class would not
dominate the economy.
Even before the term was added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, the Constitution had a
socialist content in the form of certain Directive Principles of State Policy. In other words, what was
hitherto implicit in the Constitution has now been made explicit. Moreover, the Congress party itself
adopted a resolution to establish a ‘socialistic pattern of society’ in its Avadi session as early as in
1955 and took measures accordingly.
Notably, the Indian brand of socialism is a ‘democratic socialism’ and not a
‘communistic socialism’ (also known as ‘state socialism’) which involves the nationalisation of all
means of production and distribution and the abolition of private property. Democratic socialism, on
the other hand, holds faith in a ‘mixed economy’ where both public and private sectors co-exist side-
by-side. As the Supreme Court says, ‘Democratic socialism aims to end poverty, ignorance, disease
and inequality of opportunity. Indian socialism is a blend of Marxism and Gandhism, leaning
heavily towards the Gandhian socialism’.
The new Economic Policy (1991) of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation has driven
the country towards capitalism. Thus, it has diluted the socialist credentials of the Indian State.
However, there are still many government schemes like PDS food, MGNREGA, PM housing etc. as
well as labour laws that ensures socialism in India.
