Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai has described the Constitution as a “quiet revolution etched in ink” and a transformative force that not only guarantees rights but actively uplifts the historically oppressed.
Speaking at the Oxford Union in London on the theme ‘From Representation to Realisation: Embodying the Constitution’s Promise’ on Tuesday, the CJI, the second Dalit and the first Buddhist to hold India’s highest judicial office, highlighted the positive impact of the Constitution on marginalised communities and gave his example to drive home the point.
“Many decades ago, millions of citizens of India were called ‘untouchables’. They were told they were impure. They were told that they did not belong. They were told that they could not speak for themselves. But here we are today, where a person belonging to those very people is speaking openly, as the holder of the highest office in the judiciary of the country,” the CJI said. He said the Constitution told the citizens that “they belong, that they can speak for themselves, and that they have an equal place in every sphere of society and power”.
“At the Oxford Union today, I stand before you to say (that) for India’s most vulnerable citizens, the Constitution is not merely a legal charter or a political framework, it is a feeling, a lifeline, a quiet revolution etched in ink. In my own journey, from a municipal school to the office of the Chief Justice of India, it has been a guiding force,” he said.
He said India’s Constitution was not merely a legal framework but a social and moral document crafted amidst deep inequality.
Its drafters, he noted, included representatives from some of the most marginalised communities in India — Dalits, Adivasis, women, religious minorities, persons with disabilities and even those formerly labelled “criminal tribes”.
“The Constitution is a social document, one that does not avert its gaze from the brutal truths of caste, poverty, exclusion, and injustice. It does not pretend that all are equal in a land scarred by deep inequality. Instead, it dares to intervene, to rewrite the script, to recalibrate power and to restore dignity,” he said.
The CJI said the Constitution carries within it the “heartbeat of those who were never meant to be heard, and the vision of a country where equality is not just promised, but pursued”.
“It compels the State not only to protect rights but to actively uplift, to affirm, to repair,” he added.
Referring to BR Ambedkar’s legacy, the CJI said he was a visionary who transformed his lived experience of caste discrimination into a global understanding of justice.