• There was an extraordinary sense of unity amongst the members of the Constituent Assembly. Each of the provisions of the future constitution was discussed in great detail and there was a sincere effort to compromise and reach an agreement through consensus.
• By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Indian national movement had been active in the struggle for independence from British rule for several decades. During the freedom struggle the nationalists had devoted a great deal of time to imagining and planning what a free India would be like.
• Under the British, they had been forced to obey rules that they had very little role in making. The long experience of authoritarian rule under the colonial state convinced Indians that free India should be a democracy in which everyone should be treated equally and be allowed to participate in government.
• What remained to be done then was to work out the ways in which a democratic government would be set up in India and the rules that would determine its functioning.
• This was done not by one person but by a group of around 300 people who became members of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and who met periodically for the next three years to write India’s Constitution.
• These members of the Constituent Assembly had a huge task before them. The country was made up of several different communities who spoke different languages, belonged to different religions, and had distinct cultures.
• Also, when the Constitution was being written, India was going through considerable turmoil. The partition of the country into India and Pakistan was imminent, some of the Princely States remained undecided about their future, and the socio-economic condition of the vast mass of people appeared dismal.
• All of these issues played on the minds of the members of the Constituent Assembly as they drafted the Constitution. They rose to the occasion and gave this country a visionary document that reflects a respect for maintaining diversity while preserving national unity.
• The final document also reflects their concern for eradicating poverty through socio-economic reforms as well as emphasing the crucial role the people can play in choosing their representatives.
• Dr Ambedkar believed that his participation in the Constituent Assembly helped the Scheduled Castes get some safeguards in the draft constitution. But he also stated that although the laws might exist, Scheduled Castes still had reason to fear because the administration of these laws were in the hands of ‘caste Hindu officers’. He, therefore, urged Scheduled Castes to join the government as well as the civil services.
• Listed below are the key features of the Indian Constitution. While reading these, keep in mind the above-mentioned concerns of diversity, unity, socio-economic reform and representation that the authors of this document were grappling with. Try and understand the ways in which they tried to balance these concerns with their commitment to transforming independent India into a strong, democratic society.

1. Federalism:

• This refers to the existence of more than one level of government in the country. In India, we have governments at the state level and at the centre. Panchayati Raj is the third tier of government.
• The vast number of communities in India meant that a system of government needed to be devised that did not involve only persons sitting in the capital city of New Delhi and making decisions for everyone. Instead, it was important to have another level of government in the states so that decisions could be made for that particular area.
• While each state in India enjoys autonomy in exercising powers on certain issues, subjects of national concern require that all of these states follow the laws of the central government.
• The Constitution contains lists that detail the issues that each tier of government can make laws on. In addition, the Constitution also specifies where each tier of government can get the money from for the work that it does.
• Under federalism, the states are not merely agents of the federal government but draw their authority from the Constitution as well.
• All persons in India are governed by laws and policies made by each of these levels of government.

2. Parliamentary Form of Government:

• The different tiers of government that you just read about consist of representatives who are elected by the people. The Constitution of India guarantees universal adult suffrage for all citizens.
• When the Constituent Assembly adopted the principle of universal adult franchise, Shri A.K. Ayyar, a member, remarked that this was done, “with an abundant faith in the common man and the ultimate success of democratic rule, and in the full belief that the introduction of democratic government on the basis of adult suffrage will bring enlightenment and promote the well-being, the standard of life, the comfort, and the decent living of the common man”.
• When they were making the Constitution, the members of the Constituent Assembly felt that the freedom struggle had prepared the masses for universal adult suffrage and that this would help encourage a democratic mindset and break the clutches of traditional caste, class and gender hierarchies.
• This means that the people of India have a direct role in electing their representatives. Also, every citizen of the country, irrespective of his/her social background, can also contest in elections.
• These representatives are accountable to the people.

Continue reading…

 

3. Separation of Powers:

• According to the Constitution, there are three organs of the State. These are the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
• The legislature refers to our elected representatives. The executive is a smaller group of people who are responsible for implementing laws and running the government. The judiciary refers to the system of courts in this country.
• Members of the Constituent Assembly feared that the executive might become too strong and ignore its responsibility to the legislature. The Assembly, therefore, included a number of provisions in the Constitution to limit and control the action taken by the executive branch of government as a whole.
• In order to prevent the misuse of power by any one branch of the State, the Constitution says that each of these organs should exercise different powers. Through this, each organ acts as a check on the other organs of the State and this ensures the balance of power between all three.
• The word ‘State’ does NOT refer to state governments. Rather when we use State, we are trying to distinguish it from ‘government’. ‘Government’ is responsible for administering and enforcing laws. The government can change with elections. The State on the other hand refers to a political institution that represents a sovereign people who occupy a definite territory. We can, thus, speak of the Indian State, the Nepali State etc. The Indian State has a democratic form of government. The government (or the executive) is one part of the State. The State refers to more than just the government and cannot be used interchangeably with it.

4. Fundamental Rights:

• The section on Fundamental Rights has often been referred to as the ‘conscience’ of the Indian Constitution.
• Colonial rule had created a certain suspicion of the State in the minds of the nationalists and they wanted to ensure that a set of written rights would guard against the misuse of State power in independent India.
• Fundamental Rights, therefore, protect citizens against the arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the State.
• The Constitution, thus, guarantees the rights of individuals against the State as well as against other individuals. Moreover, the various minority communities also expressed the need for the Constitution to include rights that would protect their group.
• The Constitution, therefore, also guarantees the rights of minorities against the majority.
• As Dr Ambedkar has said about these Fundamental Rights, their object is two-fold. The first objective is that every citizen must be in a position to claim those rights. And secondly, these rights must be binding upon every authority that has got the power to make laws.
• In addition to Fundamental Rights, the Constitution also has a section called Directive Principles of State Policy. This section was designed by the members of the Constituent Assembly to ensure greater social and economic reform, and to serve as a guide to the independent Indian State to institute laws and policies that help reduce the poverty of the masses.

5. Secularism:

• A secular state is one in which the state does not officially promote any one religion as the state religion.

The Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out the ideals that we would like all citizens of the country to adhere to, including the representatives that we elect to rule us. Just like in the game of football, a change of constitutive rules will affect the game. Indian Constitution has been changed over the years to reflect new concerns of the polity. Often a major change in the Constitution means a change in the fundamental nature of the country. We saw this in the case of Nepal and how it needs to adopt a new Constitution after it has recently become a democratic society.

Note:

AT the Time of signing a copy of the Constitution at its final session.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru – 1st Prime Minister

Dr Rajendra Prasad – President of the Constituent Assembly

Shri Jairamdas Daulatram – Minister for Food and Agriculture

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur – Health Minister

Dr John Mathai – Finance Minister

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – Deputy Prime Minister

Shri Jagjivan Ram – Labour Minister.