Making of the Indian Constitution

• It was in 1934 that the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was put forward for the first time by M.N. Roy, a pioneer of the communist movement in India.
• In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India.
• In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf of the INC, declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise.’
• The demand was finally accepted in principle by the British Government in what is known as the ‘August Offer’ of 1940.
• The Constituent Assembly was formed as per the Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946. The mission was headed by Pethick Lawrence and included two other members apart from him – Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander.

COMPOSITION OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. Of these, 296 seats were to be allotted to British India and 93 seats to the Princely States. Out of 296 seats allotted to the British India, 292 members were to be drawn from the eleven governors’ provinces and four from the four chief commissioners’ provinces, one from each.
Each province and princely state (or group of states in case of small states) were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population. Roughly, one seat was to be allotted for every million population.
Seats allocated to each British province were to be divided among the three principal communities – Muslims, Sikhs, and General (all except Muslims and Sikhs), in proportion to their population.

WORKING OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The Constituent Assembly held its first meeting on December 9, 1946. The Muslim League boycotted the meeting and insisted on a separate state of Pakistan. The meeting was, thus, attended by only 211 members (princely states seats were not filled as they decided to stay away from the Constituent Assembly).
Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha was elected as the temporary President of the Assembly, following the French practice.
Later, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of the Assembly. Similarly, both H.C. Mukherjee and V.T. Krishnamachari were elected as the Vice-Presidents of the assembly.
Sir B.N. Rau was appointed as the constitutional advisor to the assembly.

OBJECTIVE RESOLUTION

On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved ‘Objectives Resolution’ in the Assembly. It laid down fundamentals and philosophy of the constitutional structure. It later went on to become the Preamble of the Constitution in a slightly modified form. The resolution was unanimously adopted on 22nd January 1947.

CHANGES BY THE INDEPENDENCE ACT

The Indian Independence Act of 1947 made the following three changes in the position of the Assembly:

• The Assembly was made a fully sovereign body, which could frame any Constitution it pleased.
• The act empowered the Assembly to abrogate or alter any law made by the British Parliament in relation to India.
• The Assembly also became a legislative body. In other words, two separate functions were assigned to the Assembly: making of the Constitution for free India and enacting of ordinary laws for the country.
  The Muslim League members withdrew from the Constituent Assembly for India.

COMMITTEES OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Major Committees:

• Union Powers Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
• Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
• Provincial Constitution Committee – Sardar Patel
• Drafting Committee – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
• Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities, and Tribal and Excluded Areas – Sardar Patel. This committee had the following five 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
  • North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Sub-Committee.
• Rules of Procedure Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
• States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) – Jawaharlal Nehru
• Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Minor Committees:

• Finance and Staff Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
• Credentials Committee – Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
• House Committee – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
• Order of Business Committee – Dr. K.M. Munshi
• Ad-hoc Committee on the National Flag – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
• Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly – G.V. Mavalankar
• Ad-hoc Committee on the Supreme Court – S. Varadachari (Not an Assembly Member)
• Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
• Expert Committee on the Financial Provisions of the Union Constitution – Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (Not an Assembly Member)
• Linguistic Provinces Commission – S.K. Dar (Not an Assembly Member)
• Special Committee to Examine the Draft Constitution – Jawaharlal Nehru
• Press Gallery Committee – Usha Nath Sen
• Ad-hoc Committee on Citizenship – S. Varadachari (Not an Assembly Member)

DRAFTING COMMITTEE

It was set up on August 29, 1947. This consisted of seven members. They were:

• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Chairman)
• N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar
• Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar
• Dr. K.M. Munshi
• Syed Mohammad Saadullah
• N. Madhava Rau (He replaced B.L. Mitter who resigned due to ill-health)
• T.T. Krishnamachari (He replaced D.P. Khaitan who died in 1948)

ENACTMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION

The assembly met for 11 sessions, took 2 years, 11 months, and 18 days to frame the final draft, sat for 141 days in total, and the draft constitution was considered for 114 days. The total amount incurred was around rupees 64 lakhs.
The assembly had 15 women members, which were reduced to 9 after the partition.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar introduced the final draft of the Constitution in the Assembly on November 4, 1948 (first reading).
The Assembly had a general discussion on it for five days (till November 9, 1948). The second reading (clause-by-clause consideration) started on November 15, 1948, and ended on October 17, 1949.
The third reading of the draft started on November 14, 1949. The final draft of the Constitution was adopted on 26th November 1949, and it contained 8 schedules, 22 parts, and 395 articles.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION

Some provisions of the Constitution pertaining to citizenship, elections, provisional parliament, temporary and transitional provisions, and short title contained in Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60, 324, 366, 367, 379, 380, 388, 391, 392, and 393 came into force on November 26, 1949, itself.
The remaining provisions of the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.

EXPERTS COMMITTEE OF THE CONGRESS

While elections to the Constituent Assembly were still in progress, on July 8, 1946, the Congress Party (Indian National Congress) appointed an Experts Committee for the purpose of preparing material for the Constituent Assembly.
This committee consisted of the following 8 members:

• Jawaharlal Nehru (Chairman)
• M. Asaf Ali
• K.M. Munshi
• N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar
• K.T. Shah
• D.R. Gadgil
• Humayun Kabir
• K. Santhanam
  Later, on the Chairman’s proposal, it was resolved that Krishna Kripalani be co-opted as a member and convener of the committee. The committee had two sittings, the first at New Delhi from July 20 to 22, 1946, and the second at Bombay from August 15 to 17, 1946.

CRITICISM OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

• Not a Representative Body as its members were not directly elected by the people of India on the basis of universal adult franchise.
• Not a Sovereign Body as it was created by the proposals of the British Government. Further, the Assembly held its sessions with the permission of the British Government.
• Time-Consuming
• Dominated by Congress
• Lawyer-Politician Domination and is mostly dominated by Hindus

HINDI TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION

Originally, the Constitution of India did not make any provision with respect to an authoritative text of the Constitution in the Hindi language. Later, a provision in this regard was made by the 58th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1987 by inserting a new Article 394-A in the last part of the Constitution i.e., Part XXII.

EXTRA FACTS:

• The Constituent Assembly ratified India’s membership of the Commonwealth in May 1949.
• It adopted the National Song and National Anthem on 24th January 1950.
• Adopted the National Flag on 22nd July 1947.
• January 26 was specifically chosen as the ‘date of commencement’ of the Constitution because of its historical importance. It was on this day in 1930 that Purna Swaraj day was celebrated, following the resolution of the Lahore Session (December 1929) of the INC.

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Subject: Polity

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