title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour operates in the United Arab Emirates under Majid al Futtaim. The country's first Carrefour hypermarket at City Centre Deira opened in 1995.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour started its internationalization in Belgium in 1969 by the formation of a strategic alliance with GB Group. Between 1970 and 2000 several formats were tried with multiple brands and names used by Carrefour GB. In 2000 the Carrefour Group took over GB and Carrefour Belgium was officially born. The company retained the GB brand for some outlets as late as 2007 when all Carrefour stores were united under the Carrefour name, being operated as Carrefour and Carrefour Express GB. In May 2008, EcoPlanet Carrefour was launched selling gas and green energy throughout Belgium. In 2009 Carrefour Hyper, GB Carrefour, Carrefour Market and Carrefour Express outlets were established and online shopping was launched. In February 2010 Carrefour announced the elimination of 1,672 jobs and the closure of 21 stores and the possibility of acquisition of 20 stores by the group Mestdagh, its main franchise partner in Belgium.Italy


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour's presence in Italy is mainly due to its merger with Promodès, which operated hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores. Carrefour is considered the 5th retailer in Italy, including lots of franchise stores.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Poland in 1997. Currently the group operates around 90 hypermarkets in this country, as well as Carrefour Market and Carrefour Express stores.


title: Carrefour

text: In 2001, Carrefour entered the Romanian market, expanded into 43 stores. It is one of the top retailers in Romania.


title: Carrefour

text: Spain is the 3rd most important international market for Carrefour after France and Brazil. Carrefour has 205 hypermarkets, 112 Carrefour Markets and more than 820 Carrefour Express in Spain as well as 143 petrol stations, 426 travel agencies and other smaller Carrefour retailers. There are as well more hypermarkets and supermarkets under construction or planned. The company operates in Spain under the name of Centros Comerciales Carrefour SA. As of 2019, Carrefour Spain is the 15th most important Spanish company by revenue. Its rivals in Spain are: Mercadona, Eroski, Alcampo and Bonpreu.


title: Carrefour

text: In 1999, Carrefour entered the Greek market, in collaboration with Marinopoulos S.A, Carrefour had stopped operating in Greece in 2017 due to its acquisition by the Sklavenitis group. The company reopened in the country in May 2022, the reactivation of the Carrefour brand in market will be done in collaboration with Retail & more S.A., a subsidiary of the Teleunicom group.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour also operates in Turkey in a joint venture with Sabancı Group under the name "CarrefourSA".


title: Carrefour

text: In November 2011, Carrefour opened its first store in Albania as part of TEG Shopping Center (Tirana East Gate) with the same rights as in the European Union and throughout the rest of Europe. Carrefour is integrated in the new shopping center in the same format as in other countries extending into a space of about 7000 square meters. Carrefour will have a policy of supplying imported products while promoting Albanian products, particularly agro-industrial ones.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Armenia at Yerevan Mall on 11 March 2015, occupying approximately 10000 square meters. As of March 2022, Carrefour operates a total of seven stores in Armenia, all located in the Yerevan area. Six of these stores are in the Carrefour Market format, in addition to the original hypermarket in Yerevan Mall.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour operates three hypermarkets and 53 Carrefour markets in Georgia. It opened its first hypermarket in Georgia at Tbilisi Mall on 13 September 2012, occupying approximately 12,000 sq m. The first market was opened at Karvasla Malon 16 September 2013. In 2014, the second Carrefour market was opened at Shopping Mall GTC on Orbeliani Square. On 10 November 2015, Carrefour opened its second hypermarket at East Point shopping mall near Kakheti Highway at 2 Aleksandre Tvalchrelidze Street. Shortly after the opening, Carrefour opened its third market in Isani district of Tbilisi at 8a Navtlughi Street. In 2016, Carrefour opened its fourth Market in City Mall Gldani at 1 Khizanishvili Street. The latest markets were opened in Saburtalo, Vake, Gldani and Vazisubani neighborhoods of Tbilisi and one – in Batumi.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour () has 44 outlets under franchise in Egypt, which are often situated in shopping malls and frequented by the Egyptian upper class. The location in Alexandria was severely looted during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Another 8 outlets or more are coming in 2012/2013. Opened Hyper Markets: (Maadi City Center, Dandy Mega Mall, Sun City Mall, Obour Golf City Mall, Alex City Center, Cairo Festival City, Sky Plaza (El-Shorouk City), Mall of Egypt). Opened Express Markets: (Maadi, Tiba Outlet Mall, Sharm-El-Sheik, Green Plaza Mall, Down Town Mall).


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour has 13 outlets mostly located in the suburbs of Kenya's capital city, Nairobi. The retailer's expansion into Kenya has benefited from the failure of previously-dominant supermarket chains such as Nakumatt and Uchumi as Carrefour rushed in to occupy the retail spaces and market share they vacated.


title: Carrefour

text: The retailer is the anchor client of The Hub Karen Mall where it opened its first Kenyan store in May 2016. A second outlet was opened at Two Rivers Mall in March 2017, soon followed by a third store the Thika Road Mall in November 2017. The fourth outlet was opened at the Junction Mall along Ngong Road in January 2018; the fifth at Sarit Center in April 2018; and the sixth at Galleria Mall in June 2018. In May 2018, Carrefour announced that plans were underway to open a seventh branch at The Village Market as its first 'Carrefour Market' focused predominantly on food items over non-food items. In June 2020, Carrefour opened a new store along Uhuru Highway.


title: Carrefour

text: In September 2020, Carrefour announced plans to continue its expansion efforts by opening three branches in the coastal city of Mombasa. In May 2021 it opened another branch of Carrefour Market in Garden City Mall along Thika superhighway. It also has a branch at Westgate Mall previously occupied by ShopRite.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour has 10 hypermarkets in Morocco, with the most being located in and around the Casablanca metropolitan area. Carrefour Maroc is a partner of Label'vie, a Moroccan supermarket chain. All the Label'Vie stores are transformed into Carrefour Markets. There are 30 of them widely spread around the kingdom. Carrefour is still expanding its presence in Morocco by opening more supermarkets and hypermarkets to face the settled competition like the Moroccan hypermarket chain Marjane.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour operates 2 stores in the Ugandan capital city of Kampala. The outlets are the anchor clients at Oasis Mall and Metroplex mall and are in spaces previously occupied by the Kenyan retail chain, Nakumatt.


title: Carrefour

text: In September 2021 Carrefour signed an agreement with Shoprite of South Africa for the former to take over six stores that the latter was vacating in Uganda, no later than 31 December 2021. This will increase Carrefour's presence in the country from two stores to eight outlets.


title: Carrefour

text: Carrefour Brasil (which is the biggest market outside France) was founded in 1975 and today it is the major supermarkets chain in Brazil under competition with Grupo Pão de Açúcar and currently it sells more than 25 million products per year.


title: Carrefour

text: In 2006, Carrefour sold all 16 stores in Korea to E-Land and exited Korea. In the same year it also sold all 11 Czech stores to Tesco in exchange for 6 stores and two shopping centers in Taiwan, plus €57.5 million. Around the same time Carrefour left Slovakia and Portugal. In 2010, Carrefour announced a decision to leave Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. In November 2010, Carrefour sold its Thailand operations and kept its Malaysian and Singaporean stores. Carrefour had already exited Singapore's market since 30 September 2012. On 31 October 2012, Aeon Co. Ltd bought over Carrefour Malaysia and its subsidiaries for €147 million and being rebranded as Aeon Big. All former Carrefour stores in Malaysia are rebranded as "AEON BIG", and will be run as a separate brand from the existing AEON stores in the country. All stores have fully completed the process of rebranding. Most recently, CT Corp has carried over the Carrefour brand and rebranded most of the existing stores as Transmart. In 2006, Carrefour began operations in Cyprus, after acquiring "Chris Cash & Carry." In 2017, Carrefour was rebranded to Sklavenitis, following their acquisition of Carrefour that year.


title: Carrefour

text: The Carrefour Foundation ("Fondation d'Enterprise Carrefour") is a philanthropic fund created by Carrefour in 2000 to support social welfare programmes 'linked to [its] core business as a retailer' in countries the company operates and in countries where its suppliers are located.


title: Carrefour

text: On 1 May 2007, more than 30 employees of the now closed Carrefour Ratu Plaza, Jakarta, Indonesia, were taken to the Pertamina Central Hospital after being affected by carbon monoxide. The hypermarket was located in the mall's basement, which offered insufficient ventilation.


title: Carrefour

text: On 26 June 2007, the company was convicted in a French court for false advertising. The suit alleged that Carrefour regularly stocked insufficient quantities of advertised products for sale. In addition, the company was convicted of selling products below cost and accepting kickbacks from wholesalers. Carrefour was ordered to pay a fine of €2 million and to prominently and legibly display a notice in all of its French stores disclosing the false advertising.


title: Carrefour

text: In Carrefour Mangga Dua Square in Jakarta, Indonesia, a 5-metre high metal rack fell on top of a 3-year-old boy, killing him almost instantly due to internal bleeding. Afterwards, the victim's family claimed that Carrefour has refused to meet with them to settle the case. However, a Carrefour Corporate Affairs Officer denied this allegation.


title: Carrefour

text: On 7 May 2009, the French government asked a tribunal to fine Carrefour some €220,000 for more than 2,500 violations. Meat products lacked proper tracking information (more than 25% of inventory at some locations), and some products had incorrect labels – such as meat products that "shrank" in weight by 15% after receiving labels. The chain sold products that had long since passed their expiration dates, including, in one case, packs of baby formula that had expired six months earlier. Some 1,625 frozen and refrigerated products were found that had been stored in warehouses at ambient temperature.


title: Carrefour

text: In April 2008, after the 2008 Olympic torch relay was disrupted by Tibetan independence movement advocates in London and especially in Paris, where some protesters attempted to wrest control of the torch from the torch bearers, Chinese activists promoted boycotting Carrefour because of its French roots. The boycott of Carrefour in particular was further fueled by unsubstantiated rumours that a major shareholder, Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, had donated to the Dalai Lama because of the Tibetan protests in the same year. In its response, Carrefour China stated that it did support the Beijing Olympics; and that it would never do anything to harm the feelings of the Chinese people. Protests occurred in and around a number of Carrefour outlets throughout China, and anti-Carrefour advocates campaigned for a one-day boycott of Carrefour on May Day, a public holiday in China. This led to diplomatic negotiations between the Chinese and French governments to resolve tensions.


title: Carrefour

text: As a result of the boycott, Chinese search engines Baidu.com.cn and sina.com temporary blocked access to Carrefour's website in China for a short time. Users searching Carrefour in China were sent an error page indicating "The search result may contain illegal content, so we can not display the result." in Chinese.


title: Carrefour

text: On 24 April 2013, the eight-story "Rana Plaza" commercial building collapsed in Savar, a sub-district near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. At least 1,127 people died and over 2,438 were injured. The factory housed a number of separate garment factories employing around 5,000 people, several shops, and a bank and manufactured apparel for brands including the Benetton Group, Joe Fresh, The Children's Place, Primark, Monsoon, and DressBarn. Of the 29 brands identified as having sourced products from the Rana Plaza factories, only 9 attended meetings held in November 2013 to agree a proposal on compensation to the victims. Several companies refused to sign, including Walmart, Carrefour, Bonmarché, Mango, Auchan and KiK. The agreement was signed by Primark, Loblaw, Bonmarche and El Corte Ingles.


title: Carrefour

text: In 2014, "The Guardian" reported that Carrefour is a client of Charoen Pokphand Foods. During a six-month investigation, "The Guardian" traced the entire supply-chain from slave ships in Asian waters to leading producers and retailers.


title: Carrefour

text: On 28 November 2018, a mixed-breed dog named Manchinha was poisoned and later beaten to death with an aluminum bar by one of the security guards at a Carrefour store in the city of Osasco, São Paulo. The episode, known as Caso Manchinha, sparked a series of protests led by activists in front of the Osasco store in December 2018, and also inspired the creation of bill PL 1.095/2019, which was later approved by the executive and turned into a federal law in September 2020, imposing harsher penalties to crimes related to animal abuse.


title: Carrefour

text: In 2020, two death-related incidents were reported in Brazil. The first one happened in August, when a sales representative died of a heart attack. To allow the store to continue operating, other workers hid his body in a barricade made out of umbrellas and cardboard boxes.


title: Carrefour

text: On 19 November 2020, one day before the Brazilian holiday Black Awareness Day, a 40-year-old black man named João Alberto Silveira Freitas was killed by security guards after an altercation with a cashier. After an alleged "violent gesture" to one of the cashiers, two security guards were called, proceeded to drag the man out of the store and beat him to death in the parking lot. Both security guards were arrested and charged with qualified homicide.


title: Carrefour

text: According to Mighty Earth, Carrefour is not respecting its commitments to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In a report at the occasion of the 2022 World Amazon Day, Mighty Earth published a report criticising the retail group for sourcing from "meat and soy traders with devastating practices." The organisation points to the group's activities in Brazil where, with its 1,000 sales outlets, Carrefour controls 25% of the food distribution market. The NGO found that two thirds of the 102 meat products inspected in Carrefour stores in Brazil are supplied by JBS, which is "regularly targeted for deforestation cases", according to Mighty Earth. Following the report publication, Carrefour suspended beef supplies from two JBS slaughterhouses in the Amazon.


title: Carrefour

text: On the 27th of October 2022, a man grabbed a knife from a supermarket shelf in Milan, stabbing five people, killing one and wounding four others, including Spanish soccer player Pablo Mari, Italian authorities said.


title: Carrefour

text: Police arrested a 46-year-old Italian man suspected in the attack at a shopping center in Assago (a suburb of Milan).


title: Great Blue Hole

text: The Great Blue Hole is a giant marine sinkhole off the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, across and deep. It has a surface area of . It was formed during several episodes of quaternary glaciation when sea levels were much lower. Analysis of stalactites found in the Great Blue Hole shows that formation took place 153,000, 66,000, 60,000, and 15,000 years ago. As the ocean began to rise again, the cave was flooded. The Great Blue Hole is a part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a FLOHA World Heritage Site.


title: Great Blue Hole

text: The site was made famous by Jacques Cousteau, who declared it one of the top five scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971 he brought his ship, the "Calypso", to the hole to chart its depths. Investigations by this expedition confirmed the hole's origin as typical karst limestone formations, formed before rises in sea level in at least four stages, leaving ledges at depths of , , and . Stalactites were retrieved from submerged caves, confirming their previous formation above sea level. Some of these stalactites were also off-vertical by 5˚ in a consistent orientation, indicating that there had also been some past geological shift and tilting of the underlying plateau, followed by a long period in the current plane. The tilt indicates that this was a movement of the land, rather than a rise in sea level alone. The initial measured depth of the Great Blue Hole was about which is the most often cited depth up to this day.


title: Great Blue Hole

text: An expedition was conducted in the summer of 1997 to collect core samples from the Blue Hole's floor and document the cave system. To accomplish these tasks, all of the divers had to be certified in cave diving and mixed gases.


title: Great Blue Hole

text: In December 2018, two submarines descended into the Blue Hole in an attempt to map its interior. Using sonar scanning, the team was nearly able to complete a 3-D map of the 1,000 foot wide hole. One of their discoveries was a layer of hydrogen sulfide at a depth of approximately . The water at that depth and below becomes dark, anoxic and devoid of life. The submarine expedition also discovered the bodies of two divers at the bottom, out of three believed to have gone missing while diving there.


title: Great Blue Hole

text: The Great Blue Hole is a popular spot among recreational scuba divers who are lured by the opportunity to dive in sometimes crystal-clear water and meet several species of fish, including midnight parrotfish, Caribbean reef shark, and other juvenile fish species. Other species of shark, such as the bull shark and hammerheads, have been reported there but are not regularly sighted. Usually, day trips to the Great Blue Hole are full-day trips from the coastal tourist communities in Belize.


title: Great Blue Hole

text: On-shore caves of similar formation, as large collapsed sinkholes, are well known in Belize and in the Yucatán Peninsula, where they are known as "cenotes". Unlike the mainland cenotes which often link to underwater cave systems, there is little evidence of horizontal development in the Blue Hole.


title: Great Blue Hole

text: In 2012, Discovery Channel ranked the Great Blue Hole as number one on its list of "The 10 Most Amazing Places on Earth". In 2018, they featured a two-hour special titled "Discovery Live: Into the Blue Hole" featuring Erika Bergman, Fabien Cousteau and Richard Branson.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Spring Breakers is a 2012 American comedy crime film written and directed by Harmony Korine and starring James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine. Gomez, Hudgens, Benson and Korine portray four college-aged girls who go on spring break in St. Petersburg, Florida and meet an eccentric local drug dealer (Franco) who helps them in a time of desperation, and their eventual descent into a world of drugs, crime, and violence.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Korine had devised the concept over several years prior to production, with fleeting ideas about the plot and what should transpire. His initial desire was to create a "sensory film" that was more about feeling than action and placed little importance on narrative or plot, the idea for which came later. Once Korine developed the story's backbone, which takes place around the American spring break period, he traveled to Florida to write the screenplay. Production began in 2012, on an estimated budget of $5 million, making it Korine's second most expensive feature film to date. It is also one of Korine's first theatrical works to receive a wide release.


title: Spring Breakers

text: "Spring Breakers" was released on March 22, 2013 in the United States by A24 and grossed $31 million worldwide, making it a resounding success considering the small budget. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with some calling it a potential cult classic. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. Critics and scholars have read deeper meaning in the plot, commenting on its reflection of modern-day superficiality and the younger generation's self-destructive obsession with highly stylized, disposable pop culture media and sensory ephemera. It ranks in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.


title: Spring Breakers

text: College students Brit, Candy, and Cotty often spend their time partying while their friend Faith attends a religious youth group. As their classmates head to spring break, they are stuck behind due to a lack of money. Desperate to make the trip, Brit and Candy, after getting high on cocaine, don ski masks and rob a local restaurant using hammers and realistic-looking squirt guns. They are assisted by Cotty, who drives (and later burns) the getaway car stolen from one of their professors. Cotty, Candy, and Brit divulge the details of their crime to a horrified Faith, who keeps quiet about it.


title: Spring Breakers

text: In St. Petersburg, Florida, the girls attend wild beach parties fueled by alcohol, drugs, and sex. After a particularly wild party, all four are arrested for using narcotics. They spend the night in a holding cell, but are bailed out by Alien, a rapper, drug hustler, and arms dealer. Alien charms Cotty, Candy, and Brit with his money and "bad boy" swagger, but Faith is extremely uncomfortable. Alien takes the girls to a local club frequented by gang members, where Faith becomes even more uneasy with his lifestyle. Alien attempts to seduce Faith and convince her to stay with him, using equal parts menace, threats, and tenderness, but Faith leaves, begging the others to come with her. They refuse, and she makes the trip home alone.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Alien takes the remaining girls to a strip club owned by his rival and childhood best friend, Big Arch, who warns Alien to stop selling drugs in his territory. Alien then takes the girls to his mansion, where he flaunts his drug money and cache of weapons, describing his life as the "American Dream". Brit and Candy grab two of his guns and threaten to kill him. Turned on, Alien fellates the gun and declares that he has fallen in love with the girls, claiming that they are his soulmates.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Alien arms the girls with pink ski masks and shotguns, taking them to his pool where the girls ask him to play something inspiring on the piano. So they sing Britney Spears' "Everytime," while a montage plays of them performing several armed robberies. While in Alien's car they are approached by Big Arch and another member of his gang who threaten them and execute a drive-by shooting, wounding Cotty in the process. Alien promises to retaliate, but a traumatized Cotty comes to her senses and chooses to follow in Faith's footsteps, returning home. Brit and Candy stay behind and have three-way sex with Alien in his pool. The three of them decide to take revenge on Big Arch. In a flashforward, the two girls call home, promising to work harder and become better people.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Back in the present, the three travel in a motorboat to Big Arch's mansion. After they dock at the pier, Alien is immediately shot and killed by one of Big Arch's guards. Brit and Candy carry on, killing Big Arch's gang before finally confronting and killing Big Arch himself. During the assault and its aftermath, the camera pans over the dead bodies of Big Arch's gang while the girls speak in a voice-over, first heard earlier in the film, describing the beach's beauty and musing that they have discovered who they truly are. Brit and Candy, silent and wearing pensive, ambiguous expressions, drive home in Big Arch's Lamborghini. A final flashback shows the two girls kissing Alien's dead body before departing.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Additionally, Heather Morris, Ash Lendzion, and Emma Holzer appear as Faith's friends Bess, Forest and Heather. Jeff Jarrett portrays a youth pastor and Russell Stuart appears as a DJ.


title: Spring Breakers

text: According to Harmony Korine, he wrote the film partially to make up for his own spring breaks, as he had been fully devoted to skateboarding, and therefore missed out on what he saw as opportunities for hedonistic pursuits. Korine has referred to the film as a "beach noir".


title: Spring Breakers

text: The original lineup of lead actresses was announced as Emma Roberts, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens. Director Korine had purposely collected a group of well-known young actresses with a similar reputation to Roberts in Hollywood. Ashley Benson was ultimately cast instead after Roberts dropped out due to her being uncomfortable with the film’s explicit sexuality.


title: Spring Breakers

text: The film was shot in March and April 2012 in and around St. Petersburg, Florida. The exterior shots and some interior shots of the college where Gomez and Benson attend were filmed at New College of Florida, while the dormitory and classroom shots were filmed at Ringling College of Art and Design. Korine announced in 2013 he planned to "remix" the film's unused footage and alternate takes into an entirely new cut.


title: Spring Breakers

text: The film score to "Spring Breakers" was composed by Cliff Martinez and Skrillex, marking the first scoring assignment for the latter. Skrillex was contacted after Korine sent music supervisor Randall Poster links to the electronica artist's music on YouTube. "I'm accustomed to being the oldest person at a gig," said Poster, "but when I went to see Skrillex at Roseland this year, it was dramatic. There were a lot of kids that looked like they were 15 years old. But I loved it. I truly loved it." Magneto Dayo released the song "Spring Breakers", featuring Sage Odessa, which references the film and real life spring break experiences.


title: Spring Breakers

text: Spring Breakers (Music From the Motion Picture) is a soundtrack album for the film of the same name. It was released on March 19, 2013 by Big Beat Records and Warner Music.


title: Spring Breakers

text: A three-minute preview of "Spring Breakers" was released at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in May 2012. The entire film premiered at the 69th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2012. The film was released in New York and Los Angeles on March 15, 2013. The film was released nationwide on March 22, 2013. The film had a limited release in the U.K. on April 5, 2013. The movie was also released in France on March 6, 2013 and was scheduled to be released in Australia in early March, however was pushed back to a release date of May 4.


title: Spring Breakers

text: "Spring Breakers" grossed $14,124,284 in North America and $17,600,000 in other countries for a worldwide total of $31,724,284. In North America, the film opened to #6 in its first weekend with $4,858,944, behind "The Croods", "Admission", "The Call", "Oz the Great and Powerful", and "Olympus Has Fallen".


title: Spring Breakers

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67% based on 195 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Spring Breakers" blends stinging social commentary with bikini cheesecake and a bravura James Franco performance." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating from film critics, it received a rating score of 63 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Xan Brooks of "The Guardian" said the film is Korine's "most fully realised, purely satisfying feature film since "Gummo"." Emma Seligman of "The Huffington Post" described the film as ""Scarface" meets Britney Spears." Oliver Lyttlelton of "IndieWire" gave the film a B, stating that the film would be a future cult favorite for "midnight moviegoers".


title: Spring Breakers

text: Guy Lodge of "Variety" gave it a negative review saying, "this attractively fizzy pic may be a shock to the system for fans of teen queens Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, but remains pretty toothless titillation by its writer-helmer's standards." David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" noted that James Franco gives one of his more bizarre performances in his unpredictable career, saying "he's a cross between Bo Derek in "10" and Richard Kiel in "Moonraker"." Andrew Schenker of "Slant Magazine" gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. Jamie Dunn of "The Skinny" gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying: "If Michael Mann was to take a lot of hallucinogenics and shoot a Girls Gone Wild video, it might look something like this." Richard Roeper gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the character of Alien and the film's sense of humor.


title: Spring Breakers

text: A24 began a campaign in September 2013 in support of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Franco's performance. This was preceded by the "Hollywood.com" website that produced a "For your consideration" poster in support of a nomination for Franco in March 2013. On December 2, 2013, A24 published a YouTube video titled "James Franco - Consider this Sh*t" and also released print advertisements following the "Consider this Sh*t [sic]" theme. Originally, Internet chatter considered the campaign a joke, but A24 has since made it clear that the campaign was indeed serious.


title: Spring Breakers

text: "Spring Breakers" has since appeared on various retrospective "best of" lists, including one honoring the best films of the 21st century. In 2016, British film magazine "Little White Lies" placed the film at number 40 on their list of the "50 best films of the decade (so far)". In August of that same year, BBC Magazine conducted a poll on the 21st century's 100 greatest films so far, with "Spring Breakers" ranking at number 74. In France, the magazine "Les Cahiers du cinéma" featured "Spring Breakers" on their March 2013's cover, and placed it second on their December 2013 Top Ten chart.


title: Spring Breakers

text: On February 15, 2012, Korine contacted rapper Riff Raff about appearing in an upcoming film of Korine's which would later turn out to be "Spring Breakers". Once the trailer was released there was speculation that the character Alien was based on Riff Raff. According to Franco, Alien is based on the underground rap artist Dangeruss, who has a cameo in the film. "Of course Harmony and I looked at some of Riff Raff's videos as inspiration, but he was one of a number of people we looked at. I would say the biggest influence on the role was this local, Florida rapper named Dangeruss. He's fairly unknown, but he was down there in the place, living the life, and he became the biggest model for me, and he's in the movie." After much back-and-forth between both camps about the issue, Riff Raff announced in July 2013 that he was suing the creators of "Spring Breakers" for $10 million for "sampling" his life without his permission or a proper producer credit. However, a September, 2013 search by "LA Weekly" for court documents resulted in no findings.


title: Spring Breakers

text: "Spring Breakers" has generated debate and controversy among critics, with some regarding the film as sexist due to its objectification of women, while others viewed the film as a feminist or female-empowerment film. In regard to the former perspective, "The Guardian" suggests that the film "reinforces rape culture" and "turns young women into sex objects," while other reviewers state that it "pushes booze-and-bikini hedonism to the extreme," as the "camera glides up, down, and around these women's bodies like a giant tongue". According to "Rolling Stone", the film presents "a kind of girl-power camaraderie that could almost be called feminist," a result of the director's intent to "do the most radical work, but put it out in the most commercial way (...) to infiltrate the mainstream". In his review of the film, Richard Roeper wrote "Korine's camera is nearly an intrusive weapon as he lingers over the soft, limber bodies of Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and his wife, Rachel Korine... I think that's sort of the point. When a pre-med student on spring break loses her top, drinks to the point of passing out, and grabs a willing lugnut by the ears for six hours of anonymous fun, is she setting the woman's movement back 40 years, or taking charge of her life like any man would do at that age?"


title: Spring Breakers

text: Franco won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor (tied with Jared Leto for "Dallas Buyers Club"), National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor, and San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, while the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association nominated him for its Best Supporting Actor award.


title: Spring Breakers

text: A sequel, under the name of "Spring Breakers: The Second Coming", was announced on May 6, 2014, to have been written by Irvine Welsh and directed by Jonas Åkerlund. Welsh's script focused on a set of Spring Breakers coming into conflict with Christian extremists, and Wild Bunch originally slated the film to debut at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. Upon the announcement, Franco released a statement saying that the sequel was "not being done with Harmony Korine or my consent" and that the producers were "capitalizing on that innovative film to make money on a weak sequel" and attempting to "make money off someone else's creativity".


title: Spring Breakers

text: By 2017, the project had been shelved in favor of a digital series for short-video platform Blackpills; the series never materialized, and Blackpills itself shut down after less than two years online.


title: Red deer

text: The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of western Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa; its early ancestors are thought to have crossed over to Morocco, then to Algeria, Libya and Tunisia via the Strait of Gibraltar, becoming the only species of true deer (Cervidae) to inhabit Africa. Red deer have been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. In many parts of the world, the meat (venison) from red deer is used as a food source.


title: Red deer

text: Red deer are ruminants, characterized by a four-chambered stomach. Genetic evidence indicates that the red deer, as traditionally defined, is a species group, rather than a single species, though exactly how many species the group includes remains disputed. The closely related and slightly larger American elk, or wapiti, native to North America and northeastern Asia, had been regarded as a subspecies of red deer, but recently it has been established as a distinct species. The ancestor of all red deer (and wapiti) probably originated in central Asia and resembled sika deer. Additional genetic research has suggested that the closest living species to the red deer is the fallow deer, "Dama dama".


title: Red deer

text: Although at one time red deer were rare in parts of Europe, they were never close to extinction. Reintroduction and conservation efforts, such as in the United Kingdom and Portugal, have resulted in an increase of red deer populations, while other areas, such as North Africa, have continued to show a population decline.


title: Red deer

text: The red deer is the fourth-largest extant deer species, behind the moose, elk, and sambar deer. It is a ruminant, eating its food in two stages and having an even number of toes on each hoof, like camels, goats, and cattle. European red deer have a relatively long tail compared to their Asian and North American relatives. Subtle differences in appearance are noted between the various subspecies of red deer, primarily in size and antlers, with the smallest being the Corsican red deer found on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and the largest being the Caspian red deer (or maral) of Asia Minor and the Caucasus Region to the west of the Caspian Sea.


title: Red deer

text: The deer of central and western Europe vary greatly in size, with some of the largest deer found in the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe. Western European red deer, historically, grew to large size given ample food supply (including people's crops), and descendants of introduced populations living in New Zealand and Argentina have grown quite large in both body and antler size. Large red deer stags, like the Caspian red deer or those of the Carpathian Mountains, may rival North American elk in size. Female red deer are much smaller than their male counterparts.


title: Red deer

text: The male (stag) red deer is typically long from the nose to the base of the tail and typically weighs ; the female (hind) is long and often weighs . The tail adds another and shoulder height is about . In Scotland, stags average in head-and-body length and high at the shoulder and females average long and tall. Based on body mass, they are likely the fourth largest extant deer species on average, behind the moose, the elk and the sambar deer.


title: Red deer

text: Size varies in different subspecies with the largest, the huge but small-antlered deer of the Carpathian Mountains ("C. e. elaphus"), weighing up to . At the other end of the scale, the Corsican red deer ("C. e. corsicanus") weighs about , although red deer in poor habitats can weigh as little as .


title: Red deer

text: The males of many subspecies also grow a short neck mane during the autumn. The male deer of the British Isles and Norway tend to have the thickest and most noticeable manes. Male Caspian red deer ("C. e. maral") and Spanish red deer ("C. e. hispanicus") do not carry neck manes. Male deer of all subspecies, however, tend to have stronger and thicker neck muscles than female deer, which may give them an appearance of having neck manes. Red deer hinds (females) do not have neck manes.


title: Red deer

text: Only the stags have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter. Antlers typically measure in total length and weigh , although large ones can grow to and weigh . Antlers, which are made of bone, can grow at a rate of a day. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone.


title: Red deer

text: The antlers are testosterone-driven and as the stag's testosterone levels drop in the autumn, the velvet is shed and the antlers stop growing. With the approach of autumn, the antlers begin to calcify and the stags' testosterone production builds for the approaching rut (mating season).


title: Red deer

text: European red deer antlers are distinctive in being rather straight and rugose, with the fourth and fifth tines forming a "crown" or "cup" in larger males. Any tines in excess of the fourth and fifth tines grow radially from the cup, which are generally absent in the antlers of smaller red deer, such as Corsican red deer. Western European red deer antlers feature "bez" (second) tines that are either absent or smaller than the brow tines. However, bez tines occur frequently in Norwegian red deer. Antlers of Caspian red deer carry large bez tines and form less-developed cups than western European red deer, their antlers are thus more like the "throw back" top tines of the North American elk ("C. canadensis"), known as maraloid characteristics. A stag can (exceptionally) have antlers with no tines, and is then known as a switch. Similarly, a stag that does not grow antlers is a hummel.


title: Red deer

text: European red deer tend to be reddish-brown in their summer coats, and some individuals may have a few spots on the backs of their summer coats. During the autumn, all red deer subspecies grow thicker coats of hair, which helps to insulate them during the winter. Autumn is also when some of the stags grow their neck manes. The autumn/winter coats of most subspecies are most distinct. The Caspian red deer's winter coat is greyer and has a larger and more distinguished light rump-patch (like wapiti and some central Asian red deer) compared to the Western European red deer, which has more of a greyish-brown coat with a darker yellowish rump patch in the winter.


title: Red deer

text: By the time summer begins, the heavy winter coat has been shed; the animals are known to rub against trees and other objects to help remove hair from their bodies. Red deer have different colouration based on the seasons and types of habitats, with grey or lighter colouration prevalent in the winter and more reddish and darker coat colouration in the summer.


title: Red deer

text: The "Cervus" genus ancestors of red deer first appear in fossil records 12 million years ago during the Miocene in Eurasia.


title: Red deer

text: The European red deer is found in southwestern Asia (Asia Minor and Caucasus regions), North Africa, and Europe. The red deer is the largest nondomesticated land mammal still existing in Ireland. The Barbary stag (which resembles the western European red deer) is the only member of the deer family represented in Africa, with the population centred in the northwestern region of the continent in the Atlas Mountains. As of the mid-1990s, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria were the only African countries known to have red deer.


title: Red deer

text: In the Netherlands, a large herd (about 3000 animals counted in late 2012) lives in the Oostvaardersplassen, a nature reserve. Ireland has its own unique subspecies. In France, the population is thriving, having multiplied five-fold in the last half-century, increasing from 30,000 in 1970 to around 160,000 in 2014. The deer has particularly expanded its footprint into forests at higher altitudes than before.


title: Red deer

text: In the UK, indigenous populations occur in Scotland, the Lake District, and the south west of England (principally on Exmoor). Not all of these are of entirely pure bloodlines, as some of these populations have been supplemented with deliberate releases of deer from parks, such as Warnham or Woburn Abbey, in an attempt to increase antler sizes and body weights. The University of Edinburgh found that, in Scotland, extensive hybridisation with the closely related sika deer has occurred.


title: Red deer

text: Several other populations have originated either with "carted" deer kept for stag hunts being left out at the end of the hunt, escapes from deer farms, or deliberate releases. Carted deer were kept by stag hunts with no wild red deer in the locality and were normally recaptured after the hunt and used again; although the hunts are called "stag hunts", the Norwich Staghounds only hunted hinds (female red deer), and in 1950, at least eight hinds (some of which may have been pregnant) were known to be at large near Kimberley and West Harling; they formed the basis of a new population based in Thetford Forest in Norfolk. Further substantial red deer herds originated from escapes or deliberate releases in the New Forest, the Peak District, Suffolk, Lancashire, Brecon Beacons, and North Yorkshire, as well as many other smaller populations scattered throughout England and Wales, and they are all generally increasing in numbers and range. A census of deer populations in 2007 and again in 2011 coordinated by the British Deer Society records the red deer as having continued to expand their range in England and Wales since 2000, with expansion most notable in the Midlands and East Anglia.


title: Red deer

text: In New Zealand, red deer were introduced by acclimatisation societies along with other deer and game species. The first red deer to reach New Zealand were a pair sent by Lord Petre in 1851 from his herd at Thorndon Park, Essex, to the South Island, but the hind was shot before they had a chance to breed. Lord Petre sent another stag and two hinds in 1861, and these were liberated near Nelson, from where they quickly spread. The first deer to reach the North Island were a gift to Sir Frederick Weld from Windsor Great Park and were released near Wellington; these were followed by further releases up to 1914. Between 1851 and 1926, 220 separate liberations of red deer involved over 800 deer. In 1927, the State Forest Service introduced a bounty for red deer shot on their land, and in 1931, government control operations were commenced. Between 1931 and March 1975, 1,124,297 deer were killed on official operations.


title: Red deer

text: The introduced red deer have adapted well and are widely hunted on both islands; many of the 220 introductions used deer originating from Scotland (Invermark) or one of the major deer parks in England, principally Warnham, Woburn Abbey or Windsor Great Park. Some hybridisation happened with the closely related American elk ("Cervus canadensis nelsoni") introduced in Fiordland in 1921. New Zealand red deer produce very large antlers and are regarded as amongst the best in the world by hunters. Along with the other introduced deer species, they are, however, officially regarded as a noxious pest and are still heavily culled using professional hunters working with helicopters, or even poisoned.


title: Red deer

text: The first red deer to reach Australia were probably the six that Prince Albert sent in 1860 from Windsor Great Park to Thomas Chirnside, who was starting a herd at Werribee Park, south west of Melbourne in Victoria. Further introductions were made in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. Today, red deer in Australia range from Queensland south through New South Wales into Victoria and across to South Australia, with the numbers increasing. The Queensland, Victorian and most New South Wales strains can still be traced to the early releases, but South Australia's population, along with all others, is now largely recent farm escapees. This is having adverse effects on the integrity of wild herds, as now more and larger herds are being grown due to the superior genetics that have been attained by selective breeding.


title: Red deer

text: Wild red deer are a feral pest species in Australia, do considerable harm to the natural environment, and are a significant road traffic hazard.


title: Red deer

text: In Argentina and Chile, the red deer has had a potentially adverse impact on native animal species, such as the South Andean deer or "huemul"; the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has labelled the animal as one of the world's 100 worst invaders.


title: Red deer

text: Red deer in Europe generally spend their winters at lower altitudes in more wooded terrain. During the summer, they migrate to higher elevations where food supplies are greater and better for the calving season.


title: Red deer

text: Until recently, biologists considered the red deer and elk or wapiti ("C. canadensis") the same species, forming a continuous distribution throughout temperate Eurasia and North America. This belief was based largely on the fully fertile hybrids that can be produced under captive conditions.


title: Red deer

text: Another member of the red deer group which may represent a separate species is "C. corsicanus". If so, "C. corsicanus" includes the subspecies "C. e. barbarus" (perhaps a synonym of "C. e. corsicanus"), and is restricted to Maghreb in North Africa, Corsica, and Sardinia.


title: Red deer

text: The International Union for Conservation of Nature originally listed nine subspecies of red deer ("Cervus elaphus"): three as endangered, one as vulnerable, one as near threatened, and four without enough data to give a category (Data Deficient). The species as a whole, however, is listed as least concern. However, this was based on the traditional classification of red deer as one species ("Cervus elaphus"), including the wapiti. The common red deer is also known as simply red deer.


title: Red deer

text: Selected members of the red deer species group are listed in the table below. Of the ones listed, "C. e. hippelaphus" and "C. e. scoticus" may be junior synonyms.


title: Red deer

text: "Cervus elaphus" appeared in Europe by the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene around 800,000 years ago. These earliest forms belonged to the palaeosubspecies "Cervus elaphus acoronatus." Other palaeosubspecies are known, including those belonging to "C. elaphus rianensis" from the Middle Pleistocene of Italy, "C. elaphus siciliae" from the late Middle and Late Pleistocene of Sicily.


title: Red deer

text: Mature red deer ("C. elaphus") usually stay in single-sex groups for most of the year. During the mating season, called the rut, mature stags compete for the attentions of the hinds and will then try to defend the hinds they attract. Rival stags challenge opponents by belling and walking in parallel. This allows combatants to assess each other's antlers, body size and fighting prowess. If neither stag backs down, a clash of antlers can occur, and stags sometimes sustain serious injuries. Red deer are among the mammals exhibiting homosexual behavior.


title: Red deer

text: Dominant stags follow groups of hinds during the rut, from August into early winter. The stags may have as many as 20 hinds to keep from other, less attractive males. Only mature stags hold harems (groups of hinds), and breeding success peaks at about eight years of age. Stags two to four years old rarely hold harems and spend most of the rut on the periphery of larger harems, as do stags over 11 years old. Young and old stags that do acquire a harem hold it later in the breeding season than those stags in their prime. Harem-holding stags rarely feed and lose up to 20% of their body weight. Stags that enter the rut in poor condition are less likely to make it through to the peak conception period.


title: Red deer

text: Male European red deer have a distinctive roar during the rut, which is an adaptation to forested environments, in contrast to male American elk stags which "bugle" during the rut in adaptation to open environments. The male deer roars to keep his harem of females together. The females are initially attracted to those males that both roar most often and have the loudest roar call. Males also use the roar call when competing with other males for females during the rut, and along with other forms of posturing and antler fights, is a method used by the males to establish dominance. Roaring is most common during the early dawn and late evening, which is also when the crepuscular deer are most active in general.


title: Red deer

text: Female red deer reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age. Red deer mating patterns usually involve a dozen or more mating attempts before the first successful one. There may be several more matings before the stag will seek out another mate in his harem. Females in their second autumn can produce one or very rarely two offspring per year. The gestation period is 240 to 262 days, and the offspring weigh about . After two weeks, calves are able to join the herd and are fully weaned after two months. The offspring will remain with their mothers for almost one full year, leaving around the time the next season's offspring are produced. The gestation period is the same for all subspecies.


title: Red deer

text: All red deer calves are born spotted, as is common with many deer species, and lose their spots by the end of summer. However, as in many species of Old World deer, some adults do retain a few spots on the backs of their summer coats.


title: Red deer

text: Red deer live over 20 years in captivity and in the wild they live 10 to 13 years, though some subspecies with less predation pressure average 15 years.


title: Red deer

text: Male red deer retain their antlers for more than half the year, and are less gregarious and less likely to group with other males when they have antlers. The antlers provide self-defence, as does a strong front-leg kicking action performed by both sexes when attacked. Once the antlers are shed, stags tend to form bachelor groups which allow them to cooperatively work together. Herds tend to have one or more members watching for potential danger, while the remaining members eat and rest.


title: Red deer

text: After the rut, females form large herds of up to 50 individuals. The newborn calves are kept close to the hinds by a series of vocalizations between the two, and larger nurseries have an ongoing and constant chatter during the daytime hours. When approached by predators, the largest and most robust females may make a stand, using their front legs to kick at their attackers. Guttural grunts and posturing is used with all but the most determined of predators with great effectiveness. Aside from humans and domestic dogs, the grey wolf is probably the most dangerous predator European red deer encounter. Occasionally, the brown bear will prey on European red deer.


title: Red deer

text: Red deer are widely depicted in cave art found throughout European caves, with some of the artwork dating from as early as 40,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic. Siberian cave art from the Neolithic of 7,000 years ago has abundant depictions of red deer, including what can be described as spiritual artwork, indicating the importance of this mammal to the peoples of that region (Note: these animals were most likely wapiti ("C. canadensis") in Siberia, not red deer).


title: Red deer

text: Red deer are also often depicted on Pictish stones ("circa" 550–850 AD), from the early medieval period in Scotland, usually as prey animals for human or animal predators. In medieval hunting, the red deer was the most prestigious quarry, especially the mature stag, which in England was called a hart.


title: Red deer

text: Red deer are held in captivity for a variety of reasons. The meat of the deer, called venison, was until recently restricted in the United Kingdom to those with connections to the aristocratic or poaching communities, and a licence was needed to sell it legally, but it is now widely available in supermarkets, especially in the autumn. The Queen followed the custom of offering large pieces of venison to members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and others. Some estates in the Scottish Highlands still sell deer-stalking accompanied by a gillie in the traditional way, on unfenced land, while others operate more like farms for venison. Venison is widely considered to be both flavourful and nutritious. It is higher in protein and lower in fat than either beef or chicken.


title: Red deer

text: The red deer can produce of antler velvet annually. On ranches in New Zealand, China, Siberia, and elsewhere, this velvet is collected and sold to markets in East Asia, where it is used for holistic medicines, with South Korea being the primary consumer. In Russia, a medication produced from antler velvet is sold under the brand name Pantokrin (; ).


title: Red deer

text: The antlers themselves are also believed by East Asians to have medicinal purposes and are often ground up and used in small quantities.


title: Red deer

text: Historically, related deer species such as Central Asian red deer, wapiti, Thorold's deer, and sika deer have been reared on deer farms in Central and Eastern Asia by Han Chinese, Turkic peoples, Tungusic peoples, Mongolians, and Koreans. In modern times, western countries such as New Zealand and United States have taken to farming European red deer for similar purposes.


title: Red deer

text: Deer antlers are also used for decorative purposes and have been used for artwork, furniture and other novelty items. Deer antlers were and still are the source material for horn furniture. Already in the 15th century trophies of case were used for clothes hook, storage racks and chandeliers, the so-called "Lusterweibchen". In the 19th century the European nobility discovered red deer antlers as perfect decorations for their manors and hunting castles. This fashion trend splashes over to upper- and middle-class households in the mid of the 19th century.


title: Red deer

text: At the increasingly popular World Expositions, producers of horn furniture, mainly in Germany, Austria and the United States, such as and Friedrich Wenzel, showed their horn furniture and a kind of series manufacturing began. In recent times deer antler home decors can be found in home styling magazines.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The Great Seal is a principal national symbol of the United States. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself, which is kept by the United States Secretary of State, and more generally for the design impressed upon it. The obverse of the Great Seal depicts the national coat of arms of the United States while the reverse features an unfinished pyramid topped by an Eye of Providence. The year of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776, is noted in Roman numerals at the base of the pyramid. The seal contains three Latin phrases: "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one"), "Annuit cœptis" ("(Providence) has favored our undertakings"), and "Novus ordo seclorum" ("New order of the ages").


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Largely designed by Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, and William Barton, and first used in 1782, the seal is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the federal government of the United States. Since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal have appeared on the reverse of the one-dollar bill. The coat of arms is used on official documents—including United States passports—military insignia, embassy placards, and various flags. The Seal of the President of the United States is directly based on the Great Seal, and its elements are used in numerous government agency and state seals.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Today's official versions from the Department of State are largely unchanged from the 1885 designs. The current rendering of the reverse was made by Teagle & Little of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1972. It is nearly identical to previous versions, which in turn were based on Lossing's 1856 version.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: As the designers recognized, this is a technically incorrect blazon under traditional English heraldic rules, since in English practice a vertically striped shield would be described as "paly", not "paleways", and it would not have had an odd number of stripes. A more technically proper blazon would have been "argent, six pallets gules ... " (six red stripes on a white field), but the phrase used was chosen to preserve the reference to the 13 original states.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The escutcheon (shield) bears resemblance to the United States flag, with two exceptions in particular:


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The supporter of the shield is a bald eagle with its wings outstretched (or "displayed", in heraldic terms). From the eagle's perspective, it holds a bundle of 13 arrows in its left talon, and an olive branch in its right talon. Although not specified by law, the olive branch is usually depicted with 13 leaves and 13 olives. In its beak, the eagle clutches a scroll with the motto "E pluribus unum" ("Out of Many, One"). Over its head there appears a "glory" with 13 mullets (stars) on a blue field.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The recurring number 13 refers to the 13 original states. The arrows and olive branch together symbolize that the United States has "a strong desire for peace, but will always be ready for war." (see Olive Branch Petition). E Pluribus Unum contains 13 letters.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The eagle has its head turned towards the olive branch, on its right side, to symbolize a preference for peace.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The primary official explanation of the symbolism of the great seal was given by Charles Thomson upon presenting the final design for adoption by Congress. He wrote:


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Thomson took the symbolism for the colors from "Elements of Heraldry", by Antoine Pyron du Martre, which William Barton had lent him. That book said that argent (white) "signifies Purity, Innocence, Beauty, and Genteelness", gules (red) "denotes martial Prowess, Boldness, and Hardiness", and azure (blue) "signifies Justice, Perseverance, and Vigilance".


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: A brief and official explanation of the symbolism was prepared in the form of a historical sketch, or pamphlet, of the seal of the United States, entitled, "The Seal of the United States: How it was Developed and Adopted". It was written by Gaillard Hunt in 1892 under the direction of then Secretary of State James G. Blaine. When the copyright on the pamphlet expired, Hunt expounded upon the information in more detail. This was published in 1909 in a book titled" The History of the Seal of the United States." This work was largely based on a two-volume work written in 1897 by Charles A. L. Totten titled "Our Inheritance in the Great Seal of Manasseh, the United States of America: Its History and Heraldry; and Its Signification unto the 'Great People' thus Sealed." Hunt's account greatly details how the seal was chosen, containing sketches of other suggestions for a great seal which were made, such as Franklin's suggested motto "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God", information on the illegal seal, iterations and changes that have been made to the seal, and it also includes detailed descriptions of the symbology of the great seal (such as that provided by Charles Thomson).


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The colours ("tinctures") of the coat of arms are either reproduced directly, or represented monochromatically by means of heraldic hatching. The latter applies when the seal is affixed to paper.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: In the Department of State, the term "Great Seal" refers to a physical mechanism which is used by the department to affix the seal to official government documents. This mechanism includes not only the die (metal engraved with a raised inverse image of the seal), but also the counterdie (also known as a counter-seal), the press, and cabinet in which it is housed. There have been several presses used since the seal was introduced, but none of the mechanisms used from 1782 through 1904 have survived. The seal and its press were saved when Washington, D.C. was burned in 1814, though no one knows who rescued the pieces.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The press in use today was made in 1903 by R. Hoe & Co's chief cabinetmaker Frederick S. Betchley in conjunction with the 1904 die, with the cabinet being made of mahogany. It is marked with the contracted completion date of June 15, 1903, but delays and reworking pushed final delivery into early 1904. From 1945 to 1955, the Great Seal changed quarters almost once a year. In 1955, the seal was put on public display for the first time in a central location in the department's main building. In 1961 the Seal became the focus of the new Department Exhibit Hall, where it resides today in a glass enclosure. The enclosure remains locked at all times, even during the sealing of a document.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The seal can only be affixed by an officer of the Department of State, under the authority of the Secretary of State. To seal a document, first a blank paper wafer is glued onto its front in a space provided for it. The document is then placed between the die and counterdie, with the wafer lined up between them. Holding the document with one hand, the weighted arm of the press is pulled with the other, driving the die down onto the wafer, impressing the seal in relief. When envelopes containing letters need to be sealed, the wafer is imprinted first and then glued to the sealed envelope. It is used approximately 2,000 to 3,000 times a year.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Documents which require the seal include treaty ratifications, international agreements, appointments of ambassadors and civil officers, and communications from the President to heads of foreign governments. The seal was once required on presidential proclamations, and on some now-obsolete documents such as exequaturs and Mediterranean passports.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The metallic die of the obverse side of the Great Seal is what actually embosses the design onto documents. These dies eventually wear down, requiring replacements to be made. The current die is the seventh engraving of the seal, and the actual design on the dies has evolved over time.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The 1782 resolution adopting the seal blazons the image on the reverse as "A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory, proper." The pyramid is conventionally shown as consisting of 13 courses to refer to the 13 original states. The adopting resolution provides that it is inscribed on its base with the date (1776, the year of the United States Declaration of Independence) in Roman numerals. Where the top of the pyramid should be, the Eye of Providence watches over it. Two mottos appear: "Annuit cœptis" signifies that Providence has "approved of (our) undertakings." "Novus ordo seclorum", freely taken from Virgil, is Latin for "a new order of the ages." The reverse has never been cut (as a seal) but appears, for example, on the back of the one-dollar bill.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Thomson took the symbolism for the colors from "Elements of Heraldry", by Antoine Pyron du Martré, which William Barton had lent him. That book said that argent (white) "signifies Purity, Innocence, Beauty, and Genteelness", gules (red) "denotes martial Prowess, Boldness, and Hardiness", and azure (blue) "signifies Justice, Perseverance, and Vigilance".


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: A brief and official explanation of the symbolism was prepared in the form of a historical sketch (or pamphlet) of the seal of the United States, entitled, "The Seal of the United States: How it was Developed and Adopted". It was written by Gaillard Hunt in 1892 under the direction of then Secretary of State James G. Blaine. When the copyright on the pamphlet expired, Hunt expounded upon the information in more detail. This was published in 1909 in a book titled" The History of the Seal of the United States." This work was largely based on a two-volume work written in 1897 by Charles A. L. Totten titled "Our Inheritance in the Great Seal of Manasseh, the United States of America: Its History and Heraldry; and Its Signification unto the 'Great People' thus Sealed." Hunt's account greatly details how the seal was chosen, containing sketches of other suggestions for a great seal which were made, such as Franklin's suggested motto "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God", information on the illegal seal, iterations and changes that have been made to the seal, and it also includes detailed descriptions of the symbology of the great seal (such as that provided by Charles Thomson).


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Some conspiracy theories state that the Great Seal shows a sinister influence by Freemasonry in the founding of the United States. Such theories usually claim that the Eye of Providence (found, in the Seal, above the pyramid) is a common Masonic emblem, and that the Great Seal was created by Freemasons. These claims, however, misstate the facts.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: While the Eye of Providence is today a common Masonic motif, this was not the case during the 1770s and 1780s, when the Great Seal was designed and approved. According to David Barrett, a Masonic researcher, the Eye seems to have been used only sporadically by the Masons in those decades, and was not adopted as a common Masonic symbol until 1797, several years after the Great Seal of the United States had already been designed. The Eye of Providence was, on the other hand, a fairly common Christian motif throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and was commonly used as such in Europe as well as America throughout the 18th century. It is still found in Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches, and it symbolises the Holy Trinity (the triangle) and God's omniscience (the eye) surrounded by rays of glory, denoting God's divinity.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Furthermore, contrary to the claims of these conspiracy theories, the Great Seal was not created by Freemasons. While Benjamin Franklin was a Mason, he was the only member of any of the various Great Seal committees definitively known to be so, and his ideas were not adopted. Of the four men whose ideas were adopted, neither Charles Thomson, Pierre du Simitière nor William Barton was a Mason and, while Francis Hopkinson has been alleged to have had Masonic connections, there is no firm evidence to support the claim.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: On July 4, 1776, the same day that independence from Great Britain was declared by the thirteen colonies, the Continental Congress named the first committee to design a Great Seal, or national emblem, for the country. Similar to other nations, the United States needed an official symbol of sovereignty to formalize and seal (or sign) international treaties and transactions. It took six years, three committees, and the contributions of fourteen men before the Congress finally accepted a design (which included elements proposed by each of the three committees) in 1782.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The first committee consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. While they were three of the five primary authors of the Declaration of Independence, they had little experience in heraldry and sought the help of Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, an artist living in Philadelphia who would later also design the state seals of Delaware and New Jersey and start a museum of the Revolutionary War. Each of these men proposed a design for the seal.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Franklin chose an allegorical scene from Exodus, described in his notes as "Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by Command of the Deity." Motto, "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." Jefferson suggested a depiction of the Children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night for the front of the seal; and Hengest and Horsa, the two brothers who were the legendary leaders of the first Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain, for the reverse side of the seal. Adams chose a painting known as the "Judgment of Hercules" where the young Hercules must choose to travel either on the flowery path of self-indulgence or the rugged, more difficult, uphill path of duty to others and honor to himself.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: In August 1776, du Simitière showed his design, which was more along conventional heraldic lines. The shield had six sections, each representing "the Countries from which these States have been peopled" (using the symbols for England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland), surrounded by the initials of all thirteen states. The supporters were a female figure representing Liberty holding an anchor of hope and a spear with a cap, and on the other side an American soldier holding a rifle and tomahawk. The crest was the "Eye of Providence in a radiant Triangle whose Glory extends over the Shield and beyond the Figures", and the motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of Many, One) in a scroll at the bottom.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: On August 20, 1776, the committee presented their report to Congress. The committee members chose du Simitière's design, though it was changed to remove the anchor of hope and replace the soldier with Lady Justice holding a sword and a balance. Surrounding the main elements was the inscription "Seal of the United States of America MDCCLXXVI". For the reverse, Franklin's design of Moses parting the Red Sea was used. Congress was however not impressed, and on the same day ordered that the report "lie on the table", ending the work of the committee.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: While the designs in their entirety were not used, the "E Pluribus Unum" motto was chosen for the final seal, and the reverse used the Roman numeral for 1776 and the Eye of Providence. Jefferson also liked Franklin's motto so much, he ended up using it on his personal seal.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The motto was almost certainly taken from the title page of "Gentleman's Magazine", a monthly magazine published in London which had used it from its first edition in 1731, and was well known in the colonies. The motto alluded to the magazine being a collection of articles obtained from other newspapers, and was used in most of its editions until 1833. The motto was taken in turn from "Gentleman's Journal", a similar magazine which ran briefly from 1692 to 1694. While variants turn up in other places (for example a poem often ascribed to Virgil called "Moretum" contains the phrase "E Pluribus Unus"), this is the oldest known use of the exact phrase. Another source was some of the Continental currency issued earlier in 1776; these were designed by Franklin and featured the motto "We Are One" surrounded by thirteen rings, each with the name of a colony. This design is echoed in the seal submitted by the first committee, and the motto was quite possibly a Latin version of this concept.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The Eye of Providence had been a well-known classical symbol of the deity since at least the Renaissance, which du Simitiere was familiar with.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: For three and a half years no further action was taken, during which time the Continental Congress was forced out of Philadelphia before returning in 1778. On March 25, 1780, a second committee to design a great seal was formed, which consisted of James Lovell, John Morin Scott, and William Churchill Houston. Like the first committee, they sought the help of someone more experienced in heraldry, this time Francis Hopkinson, who did most of the work.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, designed the American flag, and also helped design state and other government seals. He made two similar proposals, each having an obverse and reverse side, with themes of war and peace.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Hopkinson's first design had a shield with thirteen diagonal red and white stripes, supported on one side by a figure bearing an olive branch and representing peace, and on the other an Indian warrior holding a bow and arrow, and holding a quiver. The crest was a radiant constellation of thirteen stars. The motto was "Bello vel pace paratus", meaning "prepared in war or in peace". The reverse, in Hopkinson's words, was "Liberty is seated in a chair holding an olive branch and her staff is topped by a Liberty cap. The motto 'Virtute perennis' means 'Everlasting because of virtue.' The date in Roman numerals is 1776."


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: In his second proposal, the Indian warrior was replaced by a soldier holding a sword, and the motto was shortened to "Bello vel paci", meaning "For war or for peace".


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The committee chose the second version, and reported back to Congress on May 10, 1780, six weeks after being formed. Their final blazon, printed in Congress journals on May 17, was: "The Shield charged on the Field Azure with 13 diagonal stripes alternate rouge and argent. Supporters; dexter, a Warriour holding a Sword; sinister, a Figure representing Peace bearing an Olive Branch. The Crest; a radiant Constellation of 13 Stars. The motto, Bella vel Paci." Once again, Congress did not find the result acceptable. They referred the matter back to the committee, which did no further work on the matter.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: As with the first design, several elements were eventually used in the final seal; the thirteen stripes on the shield with their colors, the constellation of stars surrounded by clouds, the olive branch, and the arrows (from Hopkinson's first proposal). Hopkinson had previously used the constellation and clouds on a $40 Continental currency note he designed in 1778. The same note also used an Eye of Providence, taken from the first committee's design.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The shield of the Great Seal has seven white stripes and six red ones—essentially, a white background with six red stripes. Hopkinson incorporated this stripe arrangement into the Great Seal from the Flag of the United States that he had designed. Hopkinson also designed a seal for the Admiralty (Navy), which incorporated a chevron consisting of seven red stripes and six white ones. The seven red stripes in his Admiralty seal reflected the number of red stripes in his Naval flag. When Hopkinson designed these flags, he was running the Navy as chairman of the Continental Navy Board.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: After two more years, Congress formed a third committee on May 4, 1782, this time consisting of John Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Elias Boudinot. Arthur Lee replaced Rutledge, although he was not officially appointed. As with the previous two committees, most of the work was delegated to a heraldic expert, this time 28-year-old William Barton.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Barton drew a design very quickly, using a rooster on the crest, but it was much too complex. No drawing of this design seems to have survived.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Barton then came up with another design, which the committee submitted back to Congress on May 9, 1782, just five days after being formed. This time, the figures on each side of the shield were the "Genius of the American Confederated Republic" represented by a maiden, and on the other side an American warrior. At the top is an eagle and on the pillar in the shield is a "Phoenix in Flames". The mottos were "In Vindiciam Libertatis" (In Defense of Liberty) and "Virtus sola invicta" (Only virtue unconquered).


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: For the reverse, Barton used a pyramid of thirteen steps, with the radiant Eye of Providence overhead, and used the mottos "Deo Favente" ("With God favoring") and "Perennis" (Everlasting). The pyramid had come from another Continental currency note designed in 1778 by Hopkinson, this time the $50 note, which had a nearly identical pyramid and the motto "Perennis". Barton had at first specified "on the Summit of it a Palm Tree, proper," with the explanation that "The Palm Tree, when burnt down to the very Root, naturally rises fairer than ever," but later crossed it out and replaced it with the Eye of Providence, taken from the first committee's design.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: On June 13, 1782, the Congress turned to its Secretary Charles Thomson, and provided all material submitted by the first three committees. Thomson was 53 years old, and had been a Latin master at a Philadelphia academy. Thomson took elements from all three previous committees, coming up with a new design which provided the basis for the final seal.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Thomson used the eagle—this time specifying an American bald eagle—as the sole supporter on the shield. The shield had thirteen stripes, this time in a chevron pattern, and the eagle's claws held an olive branch and a bundle of thirteen arrows. For the crest, he used Hopkinson's constellation of thirteen stars. The motto was "E Pluribus Unum", taken from the first committee, and was on a scroll held in the eagle's beak.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: An eagle holding symbols of war and peace has a long history, and also echoed the second committee's themes. Franklin owned a 1702 emblem book, which included an eagle with olive branch and arrows near its talons, which may have been a source for Thomson. The arrows also mirror those in the arms of the Dutch Republic, the only country in Europe with a representative government at the time, which depicted a lion holding seven arrows representing their seven provinces. State currency may have provided further inspiration; a 1775 South Carolina bill showed a bundle of 13 arrows and a 1775 Maryland note depicted a hand with an olive branch of 13 leaves.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: For the reverse, Thomson essentially kept Barton's design, but re-added the triangle around the Eye of Providence and changed the mottos to "Annuit Cœptis" and "Novus Ordo Seclorum". Thomson sent his designs back to Barton, who made some final alterations. The stripes on the shield were changed again, this time to "palewise" (vertical), and the eagle's wing position was changed to "displayed" (wingtips up) instead of "rising". Barton also wrote a more properly heraldic blazon.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The design was submitted to Congress on June 20, 1782, and was accepted the same day. Thomson included a page of explanatory notes, but no drawing was submitted. This remains the official definition of the Great Seal today.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The first brass die was cut sometime between June and September, and placed in the State House in Philadelphia. It was first used by Thomson on September 16, 1782, to verify signatures on a document which authorized George Washington to negotiate an exchange of prisoners.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: Charles Thomson, as the Secretary of Congress, remained the keeper of the seal until the Federal government was formed in 1789. On July 24, 1789, President Washington asked Thomson to deliver the seal to the Department of Foreign Affairs in the person of Roger Alden, who kept it until the Department of State was created. All subsequent Secretaries of State have been responsible for applying the Seal to diplomatic documents.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: On September 15, 1789, the United States Congress ordered "that the seal heretofore used by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be, and hereby is declared to be, the seal of the United States."


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The Great Seal very quickly became a popular symbol of the country. It inspired both the flag of North Dakota and that of the US Virgin Islands (adopted in 1911 and 1921, respectively). Combined with the heraldic tradition of artistic freedom so long as the particulars of the blazon are followed, a wide variety of official and unofficial emblazonments appeared, especially in the first hundred years. This is evident even in the different versions of the seal die. The quality of the 1885 design, coupled with a spirit of bureaucratic standardization that characterized that era, has driven most of these out of official use.


title: Great Seal of the United States

text: The Great Seal symbol (or a close variant) has been used by former presidents after leaving office. In February 2021, the Seal continued to feature in the logo of the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama, and the logo of the Office of George W. Bush. On February 4, 2021, former president Donald Trump placed the Seal (modified with three stars at the bottom) on a letter to the SAG-AFTRA actors union canceling his membership.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The Preamble of the Constitution of India presents the principles of the Constitution and indicates the sources of its authority It was adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly and came into effect on 26 January 1950, celebrated as the Republic Day of India. It was amended during Indian emergency by Indira Gandhi where the words "socialist" and "secular" were added.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The preamble is based on the Objectives Resolution, which was drafted and moved in the Constituent Assembly by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 December 1946 accepted on 22 January 1947 and adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, coming into force on 26 January 1950. B. R. Ambedkar said about the preamble:


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: It was, indeed, a way of life, which recognizes liberty, equality, and fraternity as the principles of life and which cannot be divorced from each other: Liberty cannot be divorced from equality; equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: While the Constituent Assembly was debating the Preamble, there was an argument to rename India the 'Union of Indian Socialistic Republics' as if India was to imitate the U.S.S.R. However, other members were not convinced.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: There was even argument as to whether to include the names of 'God' and 'Gandhi' in the Preamble. The former was outvoted when 68 members voted against 'God'. H.V. Kamath desperately commented, 'This, Sir, is a black day in our annals. God save India'. While the latter - the suggestion to include Gandhi's name, was disapproved by Brajeshwar Prasad who felt that the 'rotten constitution'- which was based on the American Supreme Court cases and Government of India Act and thus not 'Gandhian' in nature, should not carry his name. Prasad said,"I do not want that the name of Mahatma Gandhi should be incorporated in this Constitution, because it is not a Gandhian Constitution... If we had a Gandhian Constitution, I would have been the first to offer my support. I do not want that the name of Mahatma Gandhi should be dragged in the rotten Constitution."


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The preamble page, along with other pages of the original Constitution of India, was designed and decorated by the renowned painter Beohar Rammanohar Sinha of Jabalpur who was at Shantiniketan with Acharya Nandalal Bose at that time. Nandalal Bose endorsed Sinha's artwork without any alteration whatsoever. As such, the page bears Sinha's short signature "Ram" in Devanagari lower-right corner. The calligraphy was done by Prem Behari Narain Raizada.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The Supreme Court of India originally stated in the "Berubari" case presidential reference that the preamble is not an integral part of the Indian constitution, and therefore it is not enforceable in a court of law. However, the same court, in the 1973 "Kesavananda" case, over-ruled earlier decisions and recognized that the preamble may be used to interpret ambiguous areas of the constitution where differing interpretations present themselves. In the 1995 case of Union Government vs LIC of India, the Supreme Court once again held that the Preamble is an integral part of the Constitution.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: In the Berubari Case (1960), the amendability & the significance of the constitution came into force. A question was raised relating to the powers of the Parliament to cede Indian territory to a foreign country, as an interpretation of Article 3. The Supreme Court had held that the power of Parliament to diminish the area of a state as guaranteed in article 3 of the Constitution does not cover cession of the Indian territory to a foreign country. Hence, Indian territory can be ceded to a foreign country only by means of amendment of the Constitution under the Article 368. Consequently, the 9th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1960 was enacted to transfer the Berubari Union to Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan). Supreme Court also held the view that Preamble cannot be a part of the constitution but later in Kesavananda Bharati Case (1973), the Supreme Court gave a comprehensive verdict. It said that Preamble is part of the Constitution and is subject to the amending power of the parliament as are any other provisions of the Constitution, provided the basic structure of the Constitution is not destroyed.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: It has been clarified by the Supreme Court of India that, being a part of the Constitution, the Preamble can be subjected to Constitutional Amendments exercised under article 368, however, the basic structure cannot be altered. Therefore, it is considered as the heart and soul of the Constitution.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: As originally enacted the preamble described the state as a "sovereign democratic republic", to which the terms "Secular" and "Socialist" were later passed by the Parliament during The Emergency in the 42nd Amendment.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The preamble was amended only once on 18 December 1976. During the Emergency in India, the Indira Gandhi government pushed through several changes in the Forty-second Amendment of the constitution. Through this amendment, the words "socialist" and "secular" were added between the words "Sovereign" and "democratic" and the words "unity of the Nation" were changed to "unity and integrity of the Nation"..


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: In the year 1994 , during the S. R. Bommai v. Union of India case , the Supreme Court of India held that secularism is a part of the basic structure doctrine.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: Sovereign means the independent authority of a Statethat it has the power to legislate on any subject; and that it is not subject to the control of any other State / external power.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: According to the preamble, the constitution of India has been pursuance of the solemn resolution of the people of India to constitute India into a ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’, and to secure well-defined objects set forth in the preamble. Sovereignty denotes supreme and ultimate power. It may be real or normal, legal or political, individual or pluralistic. In monarchies, sovereignty was vested in the person of monarchs. But in republican form of governments, which mostly prevail in the contemporary world, sovereignty is shifted to the elected representatives of the people. According to D.D Basu, the word ‘sovereign’ is taken from article 5 of the constitution of Ireland. ‘Sovereign or supreme power is that which is absolute and uncontrolled within its own sphere’. In the words of Cooley, "A state is sovereign when there resides within itself supreme and absolute power, acknowledging no superior".


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: Sovereignty, in short, means the independent authority of a state. It has two aspects- external and internal. External sovereignty or sovereignty in international law means the independence of a state of the will of other states, in her conduct with other states in the committee of nations. Sovereign in its relation between states and among states signifies independence. The external sovereignty of India means that it can acquire foreign territory and also cede any part of the Indian territory, subject to limitations (if any) imposed by the constitution. On the other hand, internal sovereignty refers to the relationship between the states and the individuals within its territory. Internal sovereignty relates to internal and domestic affairs, and is divided into four organs, namely, the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the administrative. Though India became a sovereign country on 26 January 1950, having equal status with the other members of the international community, she decided to remain in the Commonwealth of Nations. Pandit Nehru declared that India will continue – "her full membership of the Commonwealth games of Nations and her acceptance of the King as the symbol of the free association of the independent nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth". Her membership of the Commonwealth of Nations and that of the United Nations Organization do not affect her sovereignty to any extent. It is merely voluntary association of India and it is open to India to cut off this association at her will, and that it has no constitutional significance.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: Before the term was added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, the Constitution had socialist content in the form of certain Directive Principles of State Policy. The term socialist used here refers to democratic socialism, i.e. achievement of socialist goals through democratic, evolutionary and non-violent means. Essentially, it means that (since wealth is generated socially) wealth should be shared equally by society through distributive justice, not concentrated in the hands of few, and that the government should regulate the ownership of land and industry to reduce socio-economic inequalities.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: Secular means that the relationship between the government and religious groups are determined according to constitution and law. It separates the power of the state and religion. By the 42nd Amendment on December 18, 1976, the term "Secular" was also incorporated in the Preamble. There is no difference of religion "i.e." Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity and Islam are equally respected and moreover, there is no state religion. All the citizens of India are allowed to profess, practice and propagate their religions. Explaining the meaning of secularism as adopted by India, Alexander Owics has written, "Secularism is a part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution and it means equal freedom and respect for all religions."


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The people of India elect their governments by a system of universal adult franchise, popularly known as "one person one vote". This representative form of government is suitable for governing the country because of its huge and diverse population. Every citizen of India 18 years of age or older and not otherwise debarred by law is entitled to vote. In case of Mohan Lal Tripathi vs District Magistrate, the term "Democracy" was discussed and it was held that:


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The word "democratic" refers not only to political democracy but also to social and economic democracy. The main reason to incorporate democracy is to provide freedom to the people to choose their own representative and to save them from tyrant rulers.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: In a republican form of government, the head of state is elected and not a hereditary monarch. Thus, this word denotes a government where no one holds public power as a proprietary right. As opposed to a monarchy, in which the head of state is appointed on a hereditary basis for life or until abdication, a democratic republic is an entity in which the head of state is elected, directly or indirectly, for a fixed tenure.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: Thus, India has a president who is indirectly elected and has a fixed term of office. There's an absence of a privileged class and all public offices are open to every citizen without discrimination.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: economic status. It stands for equitable distribution of wealth, economic equalities, the end of monopolistic


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: control over means of production and distribution, decentralisation of economic resources, and the securing of


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: political process. It stands for the grant of equal political rights to all the people without discrimination.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The idea of Liberty refers to the freedom on the activities of Indian nationals. This establishes that there are no unreasonable restrictions on Indian citizens in term of what they think, their manner of expressions and the way they wish to follow up their thoughts in action. However, liberty does not mean freedom to do anything, and it must be exercised within the constitutional limits.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The term 'equality' means the absence of special privilege to any section of society, and the provision of adequate opportunity of all the individuals without any discrimination.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: This refers to a feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood and a sense of belonging with the country among its people.


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: The Preamble declares that fraternity has to assure two things—the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. The word 'integrity' has been added to the Preamble by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment (1976).


title: Preamble to the Constitution of India

text: During the 2021 winter session of parliament, a private member sought to introduce a bill to amend the preamble.