How was the Indian Constitution made


Last Updated : 11-10-2024 07:52:09
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  • The Constitution was made by the Constituent Assembly which had been elected for undivided India.
  • It held its first sitting on 9 December1946 and re-assembled as Constituent Assembly for divided India on 14 August 1947.
  • Its members were elected by 15 indirect election by the members of the Provisional Legislative Assemblies that had been established in 1935.
  • The Constituent Assembly was composed roughly along the lines suggested by the plan proposed by the committee of the British cabinet, known as the Cabinet Mission.
  • According to this plan: Each Province and each Princely State or group of States were allotted seats proportional to their respective population roughly in the ratio of 1:10,00,000.
  • As a result the Provinces (that were under direct British rule) were to elect 292 members while the Princely States were allotted a minimum of 93 seats.
  • The seats in each Province were distributed among the three main communities, Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their respective populations.
  • Members of each community in the Provisional Legislative Assembly elected their own representatives by the method of proportional representation with single transferable vote.
  • The method of selection in the case of representatives of Princely States was to be determined by consultation.

Composition of the Constituent Assembly

  • As a consequence of the Partition under the plan of 3 June 1947 those members who were elected from territories which fell under Pakistan ceased to be members of the Constituent Assembly.
  • The numbers in the Assembly were reduced to 299 of which 284 were actually present on 26 November 1949 and appended their signature to the Constitution as finally passed.
  • The Constitution was thus framed against the backdrop of the horrendous violence that the Partition unleashed on the sub-continent. But it is a tribute to the fortitude of the framers that they were not only able to draft a constitution under immense pressure, but also learnt the right lessons from the unimaginable violence that accompanied Partition.
  • The Constitution was committed to a new conception of citizenship, where not only would minorities be secure, but religious identity would have no bearing on citizenship rights.
  • Although, the members of the Assembly were not elected by universal suffrage, there was a serious attempt to make the Assembly a representative body. Members of all religions were given representation under the scheme described above; in addition, the Assembly had twenty- six members from what were then known as the Scheduled Classes.
  • In terms of political parties, the Congress dominated the Assembly occupying as many as eighty-two per cent of the seats in the assembly after the Partition. The Congress itself was such a diverse party that it managed to accommodate almost all shades of opinion within it.

The Principle of Deliberation

  • The authority of the Constituent Assembly does not come only from the fact that it was broadly, though not perfectly, representative.
  • It comes from the procedures it adopted to frame the Constitution and the values its members brought to their deliberations.
  • While in any assembly that claims to be representative, it is desirable that diverse sections of society participate, it is equally important that they participate not only as representatives of their own identity or community.
  • Each member deliberated upon the Constitution with the interests of the whole nation in mind.
  • There were often disagreements amongst members, but few of these disagreements could be traced to members protecting their own interests. There were legitimate differences of principle. And the differences were many: should India adopt a centralised or decentralised system of government? What should be the relations between the States and the centre? What should be the powers of the judiciary? Should the Constitution protect property rights?
  • Almost every issue that lies at the foundation of a modern state was discussed with great sophistication.
  • Only one provision of the Constitution was passed without virtually any debate: the introduction of universal suffrage (meaning that all citizens reaching a certain age, would be entitled to be voters irrespective of religion, caste, education, gender or income).
  • So, while the members felt no need at all to discuss the issue of who should have the right to vote, every other matter was seriously discussed and debated. Nothing can be a better testament to the democratic commitment of this Assembly.
  • The Constitution drew its authority from the fact that members of the Constituent Assembly engaged in what one might call public reason.
  • The members of the Assembly placed a great emphasis on discussion and reasoned argument. They did not simply advance their own interests, but gave principled reasons to other members for their positions.
  • The very act of giving reasons to others makes you move away from simply a narrow consideration of your own interest because you have to give reasons to others to make them go along with your view point.
  • The voluminous debates in the Constituent Assembly, where each clause of the Constitution was subjected to scrutiny and debate, is a tribute to public reason at its best. These debates deserved to be memorialised as one of the most significant chapters in the history of constitution making, equal in importance to the French and American revolutions.

Procedures

  • The importance of public reason was emphasised in the mundane procedures of the Assembly as well.
  • The Constituent Assembly had eight major Committees on different subjects.
  • Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad or Ambedkar chaired these Committees.
  • These were not men who agreed with each other on many things. Ambedkar had been a bitter critic of the Congress and Gandhi, accusing them of not doing enough for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes.
  • Patel and Nehru disagreed on many issues. Nevertheless, they all worked together. Each Committee usually drafted particular provisions of the Constitution which were then subjected to debate by the entire Assembly.
  • Usually an attempt was made to reach a consensus with the belief that provisions agreed to by all, would not be detrimental to any particular interests. Some provisions were subject to the vote.
  • But in each instance every single argument, query or concern was responded to with great care and in writing.
  • The Assembly met for one hundred and sixty six days, spread over two years and eleven months. Its sessions were open to the press and the public alike.

Inheritance of the nationalist movement

  • But no constitution is simply a product of the Assembly that produces it. An Assembly as diverse as the Constituent Assembly of India could not have functioned if there was no background consensus on the main principles the Constitution should enshrine.
  • These principles were forged during the long struggle for freedom. In a way, the Constituent Assembly was giving concrete shape and form to the principles it had inherited from the nationalist movement.
  • For decades preceding the promulgation of the Constitution, the nationalist movement had debated many questions that were relevant to the making of the constitution — the shape and form of government India should have, the values it should uphold, the inequalities it should overcome.
  • Answers forged in those debates were given their final form in the Constitution. Perhaps the best summary of the principles that the nationalist movement brought to the Constituent Assembly is the Objectives Resolution (the resolution that defined the aims of the Assembly) moved by Nehru in 1946.
  • This resolution encapsulated the aspirations and values behind the Constitution.
  • Based on this resolution, our Constitution gave institutional expression to these fundamental commitments: equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan identity.
  • Thus, our Constitution is not merely a maze of rules and procedures, but a moral commitment to establish a government that will fulfil the many promises that the nationalist movement held before the people.

Main points of the Objectives Resolution

  •  India is an independent, sovereign, republic;
  •  India shall be a Union of erstwhile British Indian territories, Indian States, and other parts outside British India and Indian States as are willing to be a part of the Union;
  • Territories forming the Union shall be autonomous units and exercise all powers and functions of the Government and administration, except those assigned to or vested in the Union;
  •  All powers and authority of sovereign and independent India and its constitution shall flow from the people;
  • All people of India shall be guaranteed and secured social, economic and political justice; equality of status and opportunities and equality before law; and fundamental freedoms – of speech, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action – subject to law and public morality;
  • The minorities, backward and tribal areas, depressed and other backward classes shall be provided adequate safeguards;
  • The territorial integrity of the Republic and its sovereign rights on land, sea and air shall be maintained according to justice and law of civilized nations;
  • The land would make full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and welfare of mankind.

Institutional arrangements

  • The third factor ensuring effectiveness of a constitution is a balanced arrangement of the institutions of government.
  • The basic principle is that government must be democratic and committed to the welfare of the people.
  • The Constituent Assembly spent a lot of time on evolving the right balance among the various institutions like the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
  • This led to the adoption of the parliamentary form and the federal arrangement, which would distribute governmental powers between the legislature and the executive on the one hand and between the States and the central government on the other hand.
  •  While evolving the most balanced governmental arrangements, the makers of our Constitution did not hesitate to learn from experiments and experiences of other countries.
  • Thus, the framers of the Constitution were not averse to borrowing from other constitutional traditions. Indeed, it is a testament to their wide learning that they could lay their hands upon any intellectual argument, or historical example that was necessary for fulfilling the task at hand.
  • So they borrowed a number of provisions from different countries. But borrowing these ideas was not slavish imitation. Far from it. Each provision of the Constitution had to be defended on grounds that it was suited to Indian problems and aspirations.
  • India was extremely lucky to have an Assembly that instead of being parochial in its outlook could take the best available everywhere in the world and make it their own.
  • In the words of Dr. Ambedkar ,“One likes to ask whether there can be anything new in a constitution framed at this hour in the history of the world… The only new thing, if there can be any, in a constitution framed so late in the day are the variations, made to remove the failures and accommodate it to the needs of the country.”

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