Making of the Constitution

 In 1935, INC, for the first time officially demanded a constituent assembly to frame the constitution of India. In 934, First time, Idea was given by M.N roy a pioneer of Communist movement in India.

Composition of Constituent assembly: The Constituent assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the cabinet Mission Plan.

The feature of the scheme were:

  • The total strength of the Constituent assembly was to be 389. Of these, 296 seats were alloted to British India and 93 seats to the princely states.
  • Each province and princely state were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population.
  • Seat allocated to each province were to be divided among the three principal communities-Muslims, Sikhs, General.
  • The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly.
  • The representatives of the princely states were to be nominated by the head of the princely states.

** It is, thus, clear that the constituent assembly was to be partly elected and partly nominated body.  

The election to the Constituent Assembly were held in July-August 1946. The Indian national congress won 208 seats, the Muslim League 73 seats and small groups and independents got the remaining 15 seats.

Princely state decided to stay away from assembly.

Working of the Constituent Assembly:

First meeting, Dec 1946 

The Muslim League boycotted the meeting and insisted on a separate state of Pakistan. The Meeting was thus attended by only 211 members. Dr Sachidananda Sinha was elected as the temporary president  of assembly.

Later, Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected as the president of the assembly. H.C. Mukherjee and V.T Krishnmachari were elected as the VP of the assembly.

Objective Resolution: 

It laid down the fundamentals and philosophy of the constitutional structure.

This resolution was unanimously adopted by the assembly on january 22, 1947.

  • "This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn resolve  to proclaim India as as Independent Sovereign Republic and to draw up for her future governance a Constitution"
  • The territories that now comprise British India, the territories that now from Indian states and such other parts of India are outside India and the state as well as other territories as are willing to Constituted into the independent Sovereign India, shall be union of them all.
  • Wherein all power and authority of the sovereign independent India, its constituent parts and organs of Government are derived from people.
  • Wherein shall be guaranteed and secured to all people of India justice, social, economic and political; equality of status of opportunity, and before and before the law; freedom of thought, expression, belief , faith, worship, vocation, association and action, subject to law and public morality.
  • Wherein adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes.
  • Whereby shall be maintained the integrity of the territory of the republic and its sovereign right of land, sea and air.
  • This ancient land attains its rightful and honoured place in the world and makes its full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and welfare of mankind
Changes by Independence Act:

The representative of princely states who had stay away from Constituent assembly, gradually joined it.
It made the following three changes in the position of the assembly.
  • The act empower the assembly to abrogate or alter any law made by the British Parliament in relation to India.
  • The assembly also become legislative body. Its started to perform two separate tasks: making of the constitution of free India and enacting of ordinary laws for the country. whenever the assembly met as the constituent body it was chaired by Dr Rajendra prasad and when it met as the legislative body, it was chaired by G.V Mavlankar. These two functions continued till November 26,1949, when the task of making the Constitution was over. Assembly became the first parliament of free India.
  • The Muslim League members withdrew from the Constituent Assembly for India. and the strength of assembly came down to 299 (229 British Province and 70 Princely state).
Other Function Performed:
  • It ratified the India's membership of the Commonwealth in may 1949
  • It adopted the national flag on july 22, 1947.
  • It adopted national anthem on January 24, 1950.
  • It adopted the national song on January 24,1950.
  • It elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as the first president of India.
Some More important point:

Session: 11
Time: 2 yr 11 month,18 days
Countries: 60
Draft Constitution: 114 days
Amount: 64 Lakhs
Final Session: 24 Jan, 1950

Committees of The Constituent Assembly:

Major Committees

  1. Union Power Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
  2. Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
  3. Provincial Constitution Committee – Sardar Patel
  4. Drafting Committee – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
  5. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas - Sardar Patel. This committee had the following sub-committees:
    • Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee – J.B. Kripalani
    • Minorities Sub-Committee – H.C. Mukherjee
    • North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee – Gopinath Bardoloi
    • Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee – A.V. Thakkar
  6. Rules of Procedure Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
  7. States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) – Jawaharlal Nehru
  8. Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Minor Committees

  • Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly – G.V. Mavalankar
  • Order of Business Committee – Dr. K.M. Munshi
  • House Committee – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
  • Ad-hoc Committee on the National Flag – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
  • Special Committee to Examine the Draft Constitution – Jawaharlal Nehru
  • Credentials Committee – Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar
  • Finance and Staff Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
  • Press Gallery Committee – Usha Nath Sen
  • Committee to Examine the Effect of Indian Independence Act of 1947
  • Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
  • Commission on Linguistic Provinces – S.K. Dar
  • Expert Committee on Financial Provisions – Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
  • Ad-hoc Committee on the Supreme Court – S. Varadachari
  • Ad-hoc Committee on citizenship – S Varadachari
Drafting Committee: Among all the committee of constituent Assembly, the most important committee was drafting committee set up on august 29, 1947.

Seven members of the Drafting Committee:

  • Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Chairman)
  • Gopalaswamy Ayyangar
  • Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar
  • Dr. K.M. Munshi
  • Syed Mohammad Saadullah Madhava Rau (He replaced B.L. Mitter who resigned due to ill-health)
  •  T. Krishnamachari (He replaced D.P. Khaitan who died in 1948)
Drafting Committee prepared the first draft of constitution of India, Which was published in February,1948. The people of India were given eight months to discuss the draft and propose amendments. The drafting committee prepared a second draft, which was published in October, 1948.

Enactment of Constitution: 
First Reading: Nov 4, 1948 (The assembly had general discussion on it for 5 days)
Second Reading: Nov 15,1948 - 17 Oct, 1949.
Third Reading: Nov 14, 1949. Dr BR Ambedkar moved a motion. The motion on Draft Constitution was declared as passed on 26 Nov, 1949.

** The Constitution as adopted on November 26, 1949, contained a preamble, 395 Articles and 8 Schedules.

Enforcements of Constitution:

January 26 was specifically chosen as the 'date of commencement of' of the Constitution because of its historical importance.

** With the commencement of the Constitution, the independence act 1947, Government of India Act 1935 were repealed. The Abolition of privy Council Jurisdiction act was however continued.

Criticism of Constituent Assembly: 

Not a Representative body: Members were not directly elected by people of India
Not a Sovereign Body: as it was created by proposal of the British Government.
Time Consuming: Nazruddin Ahmed called it a "Drifting Committee"
Dominated By congress:
Lawyer Politician Domination: 
Dominated By Hindu:

Other Important fact: Elephant was adopted as the symbol of Constituent Assembly.

Hindi text of Constitution:

58 Constitutional amendment act of 1987 made a provision to make authoritative text of constitution in the Hindi language. This Amendment Act inserted a new Article 394-A in the last part of constitution.

Conclusion




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