Sovereignty: Its Attributes, Limitations & Sovereignty in India

• Context (PIB): Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar strongly asserted that India is a sovereign nation and no external force can dictate its internal or foreign policy decisions.

• His remarks come amid rising global narratives and pressures attempting to influence India’s autonomous decision-making. He stressed that India’s sovereignty is supreme, rooted in the Constitution.

What is Sovereignty?

• Sovereignty refers to the supreme and independent authority of a state to legislate, govern, and enforce its decisions without external interference.
  • It encompasses both legal and political supremacy within a territory.
• Defined Jurisdiction: Sovereignty requires defined control over land, airspace, and maritime zones.

Its Aspects

• Internal Sovereignty: The supreme legal authority over individuals and institutions inside the state.
  • It enables full control over all individuals and institutions within state borders.
• External Sovereignty: The ability to engage in foreign affairs free from external interference.
  • It ensures complete independence in foreign affairs and international decision-making.

Key Attributes

• Absoluteness: Sovereignty implies final and unquestionable authority within state boundaries.
• Indivisibility: Sovereignty cannot be shared among parallel or competing institutions.
• Permanence: Sovereign authority continues through constitutional or political transitions.
• Originality: Sovereignty emerges internally from the state, not conferred by others.
• Inalienability: Sovereignty cannot be legally surrendered or permanently transferred.
• Universality: Sovereignty applies to all persons, laws, and institutions under the state.

Limitations to Sovereignty

• Moral Limits: Sovereignty is checked by moral values, divine law, and natural rights.
• Constitutional Limits: Sovereignty must operate within the Constitution’s basic structure.
• International Commitments: Treaties and global legal norms constrain sovereign freedom.
• Popular Legitimacy: Sovereignty in democracies depends on ongoing public consent.
• Secession Ban: Sovereignty excludes any legal right to secede under global law.

Pluralistic View of Sovereignty

• The Pluralistic view denies sovereignty as the state’s absolute and indivisible supreme power.
• French Philosopher Michel Foucault was of the view that power does not exist in a centralised form, but in far more diffuse, peripheral, capillary and subtle forms.
• English pluralists such as Harold Laski argued that associations and groups that existed at an intermediate level between the state and the individual such as trade guilds or trade unions also retained aspects of sovereignty. Thus, rather than maintaining special pre-eminence, the state was an association among many others.
  • Just as an association coordinates the activities of its members, the state also coordinates the activities of the other associations in the society. These associations are equally powerful with the state in their own spheres. Hence, the state cannot claim any superior position.
• The parts of the State are as real as the whole. The State is, therefore, distributive, not collective. The state does not possess unlimited and absolute power. Its powers are limited by the social customs and conventions in the internal sphere and by the international laws and treaties in the external sphere.
• According to them, laws are obeyed not because of fear of punishment. People obey laws because of the force of public opinion, utility, and social significance.

Sovereignty in India

• Preamble declares India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, which signifies:
  • Freedom from colonial or external control,
  • Independent law-making and foreign policy,
  • Power rooted in the people, expressed through elections and constitutionalism.
• India adopts constitutional supremacy, not parliamentary sovereignty like the UK.

Constitutional Provisions Supporting Sovereignty

• Article 1: Declares India a “Union of States“, affirming indivisible territorial sovereignty.
• Article 2: Authorises Parliament to admit or establish new states under sovereign control.
• Article 51: Encourages international peace but preserves India’s external sovereign discretion.
• Article 51A(c): Makes it a citizen’s duty to uphold India’s sovereignty and integrity.
• Article 53: Vests executive power in the President, centralising sovereign authority in the Union.
• Third Schedule: Requires public office-holders to affirm loyalty to India’s sovereignty via oaths.

Non-Constitutional Elements Supporting Sovereignty

• Armed Forces: Protect India’s territorial and political sovereignty from external threats.
• Foreign Policy: Reflects sovereign independence in global strategy and alliances.
• RPA Section 29A(5): Requires political parties to affirm allegiance to national sovereignty.
• National Symbols: Flags, anthems, and pledges reinforce civic allegiance to sovereign authority.

Challenges to India’s Sovereignty

• Territorial Disputes: China’s and Pakistan’s border claims pose a threat to India’s territorial sovereignty.
• Terrorism: Cross-border militancy undermines India’s internal and security sovereignty.
• Cyber Threats: Foreign surveillance and spyware compromise India’s digital sovereignty infrastructure.
• Trade Restrictions: WTO rulings constrain sovereign discretion over domestic trade policies.
• Investor Cases: Foreign tribunals bypass Indian courts, weakening legal sovereignty mechanisms.
• Policy Influence: Foreign-funded NGOs distort India’s legislative sovereignty and narrative control.
• IMF–WTO Mandates: Global institutions restrict sovereign fiscal and economic policymaking authority.