GS4 PYQ (Mains Answer Writing): Constitutional Morality, Crisis of Conscience | UPSC Mains: Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude PDF Download

(A) What is meant by the term 'constitutional morality'? How does one uphold constitutional morality? (UPSC MAINS GS4)

Morality as we know is individual’s sense of right and wrong. Hence, constitutional morality is broadly a metric of what the constitution deems to be right or wrong. The values of any country’s constitution depends upon its tradition, its social and cultural movements, the vision of its founding fathers etc. 

• In case of India, the national freedom movement, socio-cultural reform movements, traditions of thousand years, the progressive radical outlook of constituent assembly went into defining what our constitutional morality would be. Very briefly, our constitution believes that inequality is not right (Article 14), injustice is wrong (Preamble), deprivation of human dignity is not right (Article 21) etc. It doesn’t deem right deprivation of some fundamental rights of individuals in the name of culture (Article 14).
• It doesn’t allow state to intervene into cultural practices if they don’t infringe upon basic rights (Article 29/30). So, these are some ideals our constitution gives to us based on which our society and state that repasts it takes decisions. This is the sum and substance of constitutional morality. This prefix clearly gives a special status to constitutional morality among other competing sources of morality like religion, culture, customs, laws etc.
• As we know, India society has unimaginable diversity of all kinds be it language, religion, caste, ethnicity, tribes etc. Each of these impose alternate versions of morality on an individual. They may also be at conflict. Religion ordinarily subjugates women but article 14 treats them equally. Hence, a mutually agreeable set of right and wrong is needed to resolve such conflicts. We cannot allow cultural relativism to prevail as it will lead to chaos.
• To uphold constitutional morality, first of all one should know what it is. One should be well versed with not only letter but spirit of constitution. Indian constitution keeps individual growth and progress at the center and attempts to reform existing social practices in this direction. Regressive practices like untouchability, child marriage, gender discrimination etc. have been banned. It upholds individual liberty and sense of dignity.
• It attempts to create a just society. Hence, in one’s actions, one must try to see if golden triangle of article 14, 19 and 21 are reflected or not. One should also keep essence of judicial pronouncements in mind as they clarify what our founding fathers envisaged while making the constitution. Constituent assembly debates can be another way to enter the minds of the makers of constitution. Part 3 and part 4 of the constitution are the most important parts that contain what kind of society India has to become.
• This part should guide one in taking actions on public life. If we take leaf from judicial verdicts of recent past, verdicts on section 377, Sabrimala judgment, Aadhar judgment etc. all are guided by this constitutional morality like freedom of individual, equality of treatment, respect for privacy etc. The doctrine of creative interpretation and a good sense is needed to grasp what this morality is. Even such laws which don’t go with this spirit should be opposed.

Topics Covered - Constitutional Morality

(B) What is meant by 'crisis of conscience'? How does it manifest in the public domain? (UPSC MAINS GS4)

Conscience and nature of its sanctions:

• Conscience is defined by its inward looking and subjective character, in the following sense, conscience is always knowledge of ourselves, or awareness of moral principles we have committed to, or assessment of ourselves, or motivation to act that comes from within us (as opposed to external impositions). 
• Through our individual conscience, we become aware of our deeply held moral principles, we are motivated to act upon them, and we assess our character, our behavior and ultimately our self against those principles. Reference to the self indicates that, from a psychological point of view, conscience involves introspection, awareness of one’s behavior, and self-assessment. Being ‘judged’ by one’s conscience can lead to guilt and other ‘punitive’ emotions. 
• Conscience refers to a person’s sense of right and wrong. Having a conscience involves being aware of the moral rightness or wrongness of one’s actions, or the goodness or badness of one’s intentions. In philosophical, religious, and everyday senses, the notion of conscience may include the following separable elements. 
• Firstly, conscience may refer to the moral principles and values that a person endorses. In this sense, one can be said to go against conscience, where this means going against one’s basic moral Convictions. 
• Secondly, conscience may refer to a faculty whereby human beings come to know basic moral Truths. 
• A third aspect closely associated with conscience pertains to self-scrutiny: conscience involves a person’s examination of his or her own desires, and actions, and connects with sentiments of selfevaluation, such as guilt, shame, regret and remorse. 
• This aspect of conscience is encapsulated in the expression “pangs of conscience,” which designates the painful experience of being found morally wanting by the lights of one’s own self-scrutiny. Living with painful emotions such as guilt and shame are elements in a “bad conscience”.

Freedom of conscience:

• Freedom of conscience is today protected by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” (art. 18). 
• Constitution of India also categorically says that freedom of conscience is a fundamental rights and stands to protect it through most immediate means like writ petitions. This is because of cardinal role of conscience in growth and self-realization of an individual. A society cannot become great by dwarfing its own people.

Crisis of conscience:

• Crisis of conscience is a situation in which someone feels worried or uncomfortable because they have done something which they think is wrong or immoral. It is the inability to act based on what one think to be right. It may be due to external obligations to act in certain specific ways. They may be structured customary morality, laws, rules, religion etc. 
• Whatever they may be, the point is a gap between internal and external calling and inability to defend call of conscience. It leads to erosion of freedom of conscience. Problematic is the moral and political debate about the freedom to act, or to refrain from acting, according to one’s conscience, especially where there are professional roles or legal obligations that would demand otherwise. 
• In fact, appeals to conscience and freedom of conscience are often deployed to claim and justify “conscientious objection” to certain activities that someone would otherwise be required to perform. According to those who are against a right to conscientious objection, professional obligations trump any value conscience might have and any principle that might justify conscientious objection.

Manifestations in public domain:

• Another example is conscientious objection to the military service where conscription is in place. Although originally conscientious objection to war was mainly a religious issue, in more recent times the objection to war has been put forward and granted without explicit reference to any religious justification. 
• There may be pacifist opposition to war. In health care, conscientious objection involves practitioners not providing certain treatments to their patients, based on reasons of morality or “conscience.” Crisis of conscience can at times be so strong that people are forced to commit suicide. This happened with a photo journalist who was covering apartheid Africa struck with famines. 
• His professional ethics didn’t allow him to touch any person in the famine ridden area and hence he couldn’t help a child. Though his photo shook the conscience of the world, the inability to help and save the child created crisis of conscience in him. Within few days of return from Africa, he committed suicide due to guilt. The person was Kevin Carter.

Topics Covered - Conscience