Constitution is quiet revolution empowering marginalised: CJI Gavai
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: 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.
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