Speaking at his alma mater, Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, a few days ago, Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, highlighted the importance of constitutional values, religious understanding and fraternity in India’s path forward. He emphasized that India’s path to a peaceful and harmonious future depended on citizens gaining a true understanding of each other’s faiths, saying, “Being informed about other faiths is the only way forward.”

Justice Nariman noted that this conclusion arose as he was authoring his most recent work, ‘An Ode to Fraternity’, a study of world faiths. “The conclusion was to get from each faith so that one can live one’s life in conformity with what is best… Being informed about other faiths is according to me the only way in which the Indian citizen can step forward in peace and harmony. This is in fact in our Constitution and constitutional values which are contained largely in its great preamble,” he shared.

He further observed that all religions, though differing in metaphysics, rest on a shared ethical truth: ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. He reminded the audience that the Preamble of India’s Constitution begins with, “We, the people of India,” – a powerful affirmation of unity in diversity. He stressed that the Preamble enshrines India’s values as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, each term carrying profound meaning for the nation’s character. While political justice was secured with universal adult franchise at midnight in 1950, he cautioned that the greater goals of social and economic justice are yet to be realized.

Out of liberty, equality and fraternity, Justice Nariman called ‘Fraternity’, “The greatest cardinal virtue of all without which liberty and equality will not exist. Fraternity assures two things. One, the dignity of the individual… And second, the unity and integrity of the country,” he said, urging students to internalize fraternity as a personal ethic and a national duty.

Describing his years on the Supreme Court bench as the toughest of his life, he said, “My retirement is the happiest phase of my life incidentally because judgeship was imprisonment which was not simple but rigorous… Seven years were very, very, very difficult. And in the last four years, I’ve got back to sanity!”

Recounting his school days as a microcosm of India, Justice Nariman shared, “Nobody ever thought of a fellow student as either an Anglo-Indian, a Jew or a Hindu. In fact, some of my best friends were from all communities!” He lamented that the value of fraternity today was under siege. “Only if you transcend all barriers which are religious, social etc. can you achieve fraternity or what is called common brotherhood in the fundamental duties chapter.”