THE PATH TO CONSTITUTION

Like South Africa, India’s Constitution was also drawn up under very difficult circumstances. The making of the constitution for a huge and diverse country like India was not an easy affair. At that time the people of India were emerging from the status of subjects to that of citizens. The country was born through a partition on the basis of religious differences. This was a traumatic experience for the people of India and Pakistan.

Atleast ten lakh people were killed on both sides of the border in partition related violence. There was another problem. The British had left it to the rulers of the princely states to decide whether they wanted to merge with India or with Pakistan or remain independent. The merger of these princely states was a difficult and uncertain task. When the constitution was being written, the future of the country did not look as secure as it does today. The makers of the constitution had anxieties about the present and the future of the country.

Despite all these difficulties, there was one big advantage for the makers of the Indian Constitution. Unlike South Africa, they did not have to create a consensus about what a democratic India should look like. Much of this consensus had evolved during the freedom struggle. Our national movement was not merely a struggle against a foreign rule. It was also a struggle to rejuvenate our country and to transform our society and politics. There were sharp differences of opinion within the freedom struggle about the path India should take after Independence. Such differences exist even today. Yet some basic ideas had come to be accepted by almost everyone.

As far back as in 1928, Motilal Nehru and eight other Congress leaders drafted a constitution for India. In 1931, the resolution at the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress dwelt on how independent India’s constitution should look like. Both these documents were committed to the inclusion of universal adult franchise, right to freedom and equality and to protecting the rights of minorities in the constitution of independent India. Thus some basic values were accepted by all leaders much before the Constituent Assembly met to deliberate on the Constitution.

The familiarity with political institutions of colonial rule also helped develop an agreement over the institutional design. The British rule had given voting rights only to a few. On that basis the British had introduced very weak legislatures. Elections were held in 1937 to Provincial Legislatures and Ministries all over British India. These were not fully democratic governments. But the experience gained by Indians in the working of the legislative institutions proved to be very useful for the country in setting up its own institutions and working in them. That is why the Indian constitution adopted many institutional details and procedures from colonial laws like the Government of India Act, 1935.

Years of thinking and deliberation on the framework of the constitution had another benefit. Our leaders gained confidence to learn from other countries, but on our own terms. Many of our leaders were inspired by the ideals of French Revolution, the practice of parliamentary democracy in Britain and the Bill of Rights in the US. The socialist revolution in Russia had inspired many Indians to think of shaping a system based on social and economic equality. Yet they were not simply imitating what others had done. At each step they were questioning whether these things suited our country. All these factors contributed to the making of our Constitution.

Activity:

Speak to your grandparents or some other elders in your locality. Ask them if they have any memory of partition or independence or the making of the constitution. What were their fears and hopes about the country at that time? Discuss these in the classroom.

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Who, then, were the makers of the Indian Constitution? You will find here a very brief sketch of some of the leaders who played an important role in making the Constitution.

The drafting of the document called the constitution was done by an assembly of elected representatives called the Constituent Assembly. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in July 1946. Its first meeting was held in December 1946. Soon after, the country was divided into India and Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly was also divided into the Constituent Assembly of India and that of Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly that wrote the Indian constitution had 299 members. The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 but it came into effect on 26 January 1950. To mark this day we celebrate January 26 as Republic Day every year.

Members of Constituent Assembly

1.  Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel

(1875-1950)

Born: Gujarat.

Minister of Home, Information and Broadcasting in the Interim Government. Lawyer and leader of Bardoli peasant satyagraha. Played a decisive role in the integration of the Indian princely states.

Later: Deputy Prime Minister         

2.  Abul Kalam Azad

(1888-1958)

Born: Saudi Arabia.

Educationist, author and theologian; scholar of Arabic. Congress leader, active in the national movement. Opposed Muslim separatist politics.

Later: Education Minister in the first union cabinet

3.  T.T.Krishnamachari

(1899-1974)

Born: Tamil Nadu.

Member, Drafting Committee. Entrepreneur and Congress leader.

Later: Finance Minister in the Union Cabinet.

4.  Rajendra Prasad

(1884-1963)

Born: Bihar.

President of the Constituent Assembly. Lawyer, known for his role in the Champaran satyagraha. Three times the president of Congress.

Later: the first President of India

5.  Jaipal Singh

(1903-1970)

Born: Jharkhand

A sportsman and educationist. Captain of the first national Hockey team. Founder President of Adivasi Maha Sabha.

Later: founder of Jharkhand Party

6.  H. C. Mookherjee

(1887-1956)

Born: Bengal.

Vice-Chairman of the Constituent Assembly. Reputed author and educationist. Congress leader. Member of All India Christian Council and Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Later: Governor of West Bengal

7.  G. Durgabai Deshmukh

(1909-1981)

Born: Andhra Pradesh.

Advocate and public activist for women’s emancipation. Founder of Andhra Mahila Sabha. Congress leader.

Later: Founder Chairperson of Central Social Welfare Board.

8.  Baldev Singh

(1901-1961)

Born: Haryana.

A successful entrepreneur and leader of the Panthic Akali Party in the Punjab Assembly. A nominee of the Congress in the Constituent Assembly.

Later: Defence Minister in the Union Cabinet

9.  Kanhaiyalal Maniklal Munshi

(1887-1971)

Born: Gujarat.

Advocate, historian and linguist. Congress leader and Gandhian.

Later: Minister in the Union Cabinet. Founder of the Swatantra Party.

10.  Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

(1891-1956)

 Born: Madhya Pradesh.

Chairman of the Drafting Committee. Social revolutionary thinker and agitator against caste divisions and caste-based inequalities.

Later: Law minister in the first cabinet of post-independence India. Founder of Republican Party of India

11.  Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

(1901-1953)

 Born: West Bengal.

Minister for Industry and Supply in the Interim Government. Educationist and lawyer. Active in Hindu Mahasabha.

Later: Founder President of Bharatiya Jansangh

12.  Jawaharlal Nehru

(1889-1964)

Born: Uttar Pradesh.

Prime Minister of the interim government. Lawyer and Congress leader. Advocate of socialism, democracy, and anti-imperialism.

Later: First Prime Minister of India

13.  Sarojini Naidu

(1879-1949)

Born: Andhra Pradesh.

Poet, writer, and political activist. Among the foremost women leaders in Congress.

Later: Governor of Uttar Pradesh

14.  Somnath Lahiri

(1901-1984)

Born: West Bengal.

Writer and editor. Leader of the Communist Party of India.

Later: Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly

Why should we accept the Constitution made by this Assembly more than six decades ago? We have already noted one reason above. The Constitution does not reflect the views of its members alone. It expresses a broad consensus of its time. Many countries of the world have had to rewrite their Constitution afresh because the basic rules were not acceptable to all major social groups or political parties. In some other countries, the Constitution exists as a mere piece of paper. No one actually follows it. The experience of our Constitution is different. Over the last half a century, several groups have questioned some provisions of the Constitution. But no large social group or political party has ever questioned the legitimacy of the Constitution itself. This is an unusual achievement for any constitution.

The second reason for accepting the Constitution is that the Constituent Assembly represented the people of India. There was no universal adult franchise at that time. So the Constituent Assembly could not have been chosen directly by all the people of India. It was elected mainly by the members of the existing Provincial Legislatures that we mentioned above. This ensured a fair geographical share of members from all the regions of the country. The Assembly was dominated by the Indian National Congress, the party that led India’s freedom struggle. But the Congress itself included a variety of political groups and opinions. The Assembly had many members who did not agree with the Congress. In social terms too, the Assembly represented members from different language groups, castes, classes, religions and occupations. Even if the Constituent Assembly was elected by universal adult franchise, its composition would not have been very different.

Finally, the manner in which the Constituent Assembly worked gives sanctity to the Constitution. The Constituent Assembly worked in a systematic, open, and consensual manner. First some basic principles were decided and agreed upon. Then a Drafting Committee chaired by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar prepared a draft constitution for discussion. Several rounds of thorough discussion took place on the Draft Constitution, clause by clause. More than two thousand amendments were considered. The members deliberated for 114 days spread over three years. Every document presented and every word spoken in the Constituent Assembly has been recorded and preserved. These are called ‘Constituent Assembly Debates’. When printed, these debates are 12 bulky volumes! These debates provide the rationale behind every provision of the Constitution. These are used to interpret the meaning of the Constitution.

Activity:

1.  Find out more about any member of the Constituent Assembly from your state or region who is not mentioned here. Collect a photograph or make a sketch of that leader. Write a short note on him or her, following the same style as used here: Name (year of birth-year of death), place of birth (by current political boundaries), a brief description of political activities; the role played after the Constituent Assembly.

2.  Read the information about all the makers of the Indian Constitution given in the side columns here. You don’t need to memorise this information. Just give examples from these to support the following statements:

       a) The Assembly had many members who were not with the Congress

       b) The Assembly represented members from different social groups

        c) Members of the Assembly believed in different ideologies

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK