Fraternity : Constitutional Norm and Human Need

There’s no dearth of references to a sense of kinship beyond one’s family or tribe in ancient Indian texts. We know from anecdotes in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Upanishads and epigraphic sources like Ashoka’s 12th Major Rock Edict, that our ancestors were no strangers to an expansive understanding of fraternity. Therefore, although the earliest adoption of fraternity as state motto happened in 18thcentury France, the West cannot claim to have taught fraternity to India. Even so, it took our freedom struggle and the writing of the Constitution for it to become an integral value governing our lives.