Making of the Indian Constitution
The idea of a Constituent Assembly was propounded by M.N.Roy. M.N. Roy put forward the idea of a constitution for India through the newspaper 'The Indian Patriot'. M.N. Roy had raised the need for a constituent assembly to frame the Indian constitution in 1934. Later in 1946, Constituent Assembly was formed according to the proposals of the Cabinet Mission Plan. Election was held in November 1946 to form a Constituent Assembly when there were 389 members. In 6 December 1946, the Constituent Assembly was formed. The first sitting of the Constituent Assembly was held on 9 December 1946 with its President, Dr.Sachchidananda Sinha. The session was held in the Constitution hall of New Delhi (Now it is renamed as Central Hall of Parliament). 207 people participated in the first session of Constituent Assembly, of which 9 were women. JB.Kripalani was the first to address the Constituent Assembly. Muslim League boycotted this session. Dr.Rajendra Prasad is the permanent president of the Constituent Assembly. Dr.Rajendra Prasad was elected as the permanent president of Constituent Assembly after two days in 1946 December 11. HC.Mookerjee and VT.Krishnamachari were the vice presidents of Constituent Assembly. The process of making the constitution began on 13 December 1946 with the introduction of an "objective proposal" by Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1947 January 22, objective proposal was approved by the Constituent Assembly. BN.Rau was appointed the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly in formulating the Indian Constitution. The Constituent Assembly appointed 22 committees (Drafting Committee) to deal with different tasks of Constitution Making. The seven member Drafting Committee was appointed on 29 August 1947, with Dr.BR Ambedkar as the Chairman. The other members of the Committee were N.Gopalswami Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, KM.Munshi, Mohammad Sadullah, BL.Mittar (replaced by N.Madhav Rao), DP.Khaitan (died in 1948 and was replaced by TT.Krishnamachari).
Father of the Indian Constitution is Dr.Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar. The draft of the Constitution was conferred to the Assembly on 8th February, 1948. The Constitution of India was adopted on November 26, 1949 and it came into force on 26th January 1950. It took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to finish whole work. The Indian Artist who decorated the handwritten copy of the constitution is Nandalal Bose. The constitution as adopted on November 26, 1949, contained a Preamble, 22 Parts, 395 Articles and 8 Schedules. At present the constitution contains Preamble, 448 Articles, 12 Schedules, 25 Parts and 106 Amendments as of September 2023.
Elections to the Constituent Assembly
The seats were allotted to each province, princely state or group of states in proportion to their population. The approximate ratio was 1 : 10,00,000. The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was 389. Of these, 296 members were from the British Indian provinces and 93 from the Princely States. Out of the 296 members, 292 members were from the 11 Governors' provinces and 4 members from the Chief Commissioners' provinces. The Chief Commissioners' provinces were Delhi, Ajmer, Coorg and British Balochistan. The seats in each province were distributed among the three main sections, Muslims, Sikhs and the general section, according to their respective population proportions. According to the Single Transferable Vote System of the proportional representation system, the members belonging to each community in the provincial legislature elected their representatives. It was decided to determine the representatives from the princely states through consultation. Elections for 296 seats to the Constituent Assembly were held in July–August 1946. The Congress was the political party that held 82% of the seats in the Constituent Assembly. Out of the 296 members, 4 were Sikhs, 3 were Anglo-Indians and 3 were Parsis. In the elections to the Constituent Assembly held from the British Indian provinces, the Congress won 208 seats, the Muslim League 73 seats and the remaining 15 seats were won by independents.
Constituent Assembly after Independence
After the partition of India, the number of members in the Constituent Assembly was 299 (229 + 70). The number of members from the British Indian provinces was reduced from 296 to 229 and from the Princely States from 93 to 70. The number of women members in the Constituent Assembly was 17, but after partition, the number of women was reduced to 15. Ammu Swaminathan (Madras), Annie Mascarene (Travancore), Dakshayani Velayudhan (Madras), Begum Aizaz Rasul, Durgabai Deshmukh, Hansa Jivraj Mehta, Kamla Chaudhary, Leela Roy, Malati Choudhury, Purnima Banerjee, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Renuka Ray, Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kriplani, and Vijalakshami Pandit were the 15 women members of the Constituent Assembly. The members of the Constituent Assembly met for the last time on 24 January 1950.
Sessions of the Constituent Assembly
First Session - 9 December to 23 December, 1946
Second Session - 20 January to 25 January, 1947
Third Session - 28 April to 2 May 1947
Fourth Session - 14 July to 31 July 1947
Fifth Session - 14 August to 30 August 1947
Sixth Session - 27 January 1948
Seventh Session - 4 November 1948 to 8 January 1949
Eighth Session - 16 May to 16 June 1949
Ninth Session - 30 July to 18 September 1949
Tenth Session - 6 October to 17 October 1949
Eleventh Session - 14 November to 26 November 1949
The making of the constitution
It took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to finish the making of the constitution. The cost of the making of the constitution was 64 lakh rupees. The draft of the constitution was published in the leading newspapers of India on 28 February 1948 to know the public opinion. The final draft of the constitution was first presented by Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948. The Constituent Assembly discussed it until 9 November 1948. The Constitution was read a second time in the committee (from 15 November 1948 to 17 October 1949) and about 7653 amendments were proposed in relation to it and 2473 of them were discussed. The constitution was read a third time on 14 November 1949 and after that B.R. Ambedkar moved a resolution to accept the constitution. The Constitution was accepted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949. Therefore, November 26 is celebrated as National Law Day in India. On January 24, 1950, 284 members of the Constituent Assembly signed the Constitution. Then, on January 26, 1950, the Constitution of India came into force. There is a historical fact to choose January 26 as Republic Day. According to the Lahore Session of 1929, the same day was celebrated as 'Purna Swaraj' Day in 1930. India was declared a Republic on January 26, 1950. Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India. When the Constitution of India came into force, there were 395 articles, 8 schedules and 22 parts. At present the constitution contains Preamble, 448 Articles, 12 Schedules, 25 Parts and 106 Amendments.
The layout of the manuscript of the Constitution prepared by Prem Bihari Narain Raizada was prepared by Nandalal Bose and Ram Manohar Sinha, artists of Santiniketan. The Hindi manuscript version of the Constitution was prepared by Vasant Krishan Vaidya and the layout of the Hindi manuscript version of the Constitution was prepared by Nandalal Bose.
Committees of the Constituent Assembly
Eight major committees and numerous minor committees were formed to carry out various responsibilities related to the constitution-making process.
Major Committees and Chairman
1. Union Power Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
2. Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Provincial Constitution Committee – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
4. Drafting Committee – BR.Ambedkar
5. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
This committee had the following subcommittees:
- Fundamental Rights Sub Committee – JB.Kripalani
- Minorities Sub Committee – HC.Mookerjee
- North East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee – Gopinath Bordoloi
- Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Other than those in Assam) Sub Committee – AV.Thakkar
6. Rules of Procedure Committee – Dr.Rajendra Prasad
7. States Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
8. Steering Committee – Dr.Rajendra Prasad
Minor Committees and Chairman
1. Committee for the function of the Constitution Assembly – GV.Mavlankar
2. Order of Business Committee – KM.Munshi
3. House Committee – Pattabhi Sitaramayya
4. Ad hoc Committee on the National Flag – Dr.Rajendra Prasad
5. Credentials Committee - Alladi krishnaswami Ayyar
6. Finance and staff committee - Dr.Rajendra Prasad
7. Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces - Pattabhi Sitaramayya
8. Ad Hoc committee on Supreme court - S.Varadachari
9. Linguistic Provinces Commission - SK.Dhar
10. Press Gallery Committee - Usha Nath Sen
11. Ad Hoc committee on citizenship - S.Varadachari
12. Language Committee – Moturi Satyanarayana
13. Special Committee to examine the draft constitution - Jawaharlal Nehru
14. Expert Committee on Financial Provisions of the Union Constitution - Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
Those who described the Indian Constitution
1. Quasi federal - K.C. Wheare
2. Cooperative Federalism (need for national integrity and unity) - Granville Austin
3. Federalism with Centralizing tendency - Ivor Jenning
4. Bargaining Federalism - Morris Jones
5. Extremely Federal - Paul Appleby
6. Lawyer's Paradise - Sir Ivor Jennings
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