It was not just the procedure of adoption that singled out the author. The content, too, revealed Dr Ambedkar’s composition. The closing line: ‘Fraternity assuring the dignity of every individual without distinction of caste . . .’ had Dr Ambedkar’s fingerprints all over it. And his pragmatic genius as well. If we dissect this first iteration of the new, Ambedkarian draft preamble, we can see traces of every document mentioned till now. Notably, from the ‘declaration’ we have freedom of thought, belief, vocation, association and action; supplemented by the freedoms introduced by the ‘Objectives Resolution’, and expression, faith, and worship.

Also, from both these predecessors, there was the ‘solemn resolve’, the ‘sovereign independent’, the ‘Justice, social, economic and political’, and the ‘Equality of status, and of opportunity’. From B.N. Rau’s draft, there was ‘We, the people of India’, and the ‘adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution’. Dr Ambedkar thus gave something to all the stakeholders present. In the process, he added terms that could not have been anticipated: fraternity, dignity and caste.

From the ‘proposed preamble’ of States and Minorities, we see how the impulse arose for Dr Ambedkar to add to the Nehruvian phrase ‘to secure to’, the more active supplement of ‘or promote among’. If you recall, where Nehru’s Objectives Resolution spoke of securing justice (social, economic and political), Dr Ambedkar reshaped the role of the state into a more active one—to remove social, political and economic inequalities, which it would do by promoting affirmative action policies and hence, Dr Ambedkar’s introduction of the word ‘caste’.