Little Citizens #4: India's Guardian

Priya's class was learning about famous buildings in India, and today the teacher had brought in a big glossy photograph of a grand white palace with tall pillars and endless windows.

"This," said the teacher, pinning it to the board, "is Rashtrapati Bhavan. It's where the President of India lives and works."

Priya raised her hand immediately. "Is the President the boss of the Prime Minister?"

A few classmates giggled, but the teacher smiled kindly. "That's a wonderful question, and the answer is a little surprising. The President isn't exactly the boss of the Prime Minister. Think of the President more like a guardian, someone whose job is to protect India's biggest rulebook, called the Constitution."

"What does a guardian do?" Priya asked.

"Well, imagine your school has a rulebook, and imagine there's one very trusted teacher whose whole job is making sure every new rule the school makes actually follows the spirit of that rulebook, fits with it, doesn't break it secretly. That's a little like what the President does for the whole country. Every new law that Parliament agrees on has to be signed by the President before it truly becomes real."

Pause & Wonder:

• Why do you think it's important to have someone whose job is to protect the country's biggest promises?
• Who is someone in your life you trust to keep an important promise?

"So the President checks everything Parliament does?" Priya asked.

"In a way, yes. And there's another important part of the job too. Whenever leaders from other countries visit India, the President welcomes them, almost like the host of the biggest, most important house in the country. When India needs one person to represent every single citizen at once, in a formal way, it's the President who does that."

"Is it a hard job?"

"Very hard," the teacher said. "It's a job built entirely on trust. The President doesn't have an army of friends to keep them company through it, or a captain's bat to swing. Just a very old, very important promise to protect, on behalf of over a billion people."

Priya stared at the photograph again, at all those tall white pillars, and tried to imagine what it would feel like to be trusted with something that enormous, a promise so big it belonged to an entire country and had to be kept safe every single day, whether anyone happened to be watching or not.

"I think I'd be nervous," she admitted.

"So would I," the teacher laughed. "That's probably exactly why it's given to someone very experienced, and never to someone in a hurry."

Did You Know? India's President lives in Rashtrapati Bhavan, one of the largest presidential homes in the world, with hundreds of rooms and a beautiful Mughal garden.

New Word for You — CONSTITUTION: India's rulebook, the most important set of promises and rules that guides the whole country.

The Magic Lesson: Trust is like a promise you keep even when no one is watching.