THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Who, then, were the makers of the Indian Constitution? You will find here very brief sketch of some of the leaders who played an important role in making the Constitution.

The drafting of the document called the constitution was done by an assembly of elected representatives called the Constituuent Assembly. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in July 1946. Its first meeting was held in December 1946. Soon after, the country was divided into India and Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly was also divided into the Constituent Assembly of India and that of Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly that wrote the Indian constitution had 299 members. The Assembly adopted the Constituion on 26 November 1949 but it came into effect on 26 january 1950. To mark this day we celebrate January 26 as Republic Day every year.

Why should we accept the Constitution made by this Assembly more than fifty years ago? We have already noted one reason above. The Constitution does not reflect the views of its members alone. It expresses a broad consensus of its time. Many countries of the world have had to rewrite their Constitution afresh because  the basic rules were not accepted to all major social groups or political parties. In some other countries, the Constitution exists as a mere piece of paper. No oone actually follows it. The experience of our Constituion is different. Over the last half a century, Several groups have questitution. But no large social group or political party has ever questioned the legitimacy of the Constitution itself. This is an unusual achievement for any constitution.

The second reason for accepting the Constitution is the the Constituent Assembly represented the people of india. There was no universal adult franchise at that time. so the Constituent Assembly could not have been chosen directly by all the people of India. It was elected mainly by the members of the existing Provincial Legislatures that we mentioned above. This ensured a fair geographical share of members from all the regions of the country. The Assembly was dominated by the Indian National Congress, the party that led India’s freedom struggle. But the Congress Itself include a variety of political groups and opinions. The Assembly had many members who did not agree with the Congress. In social terms too, the Assembly represented members from different language groups, castes, classes, religions and occupations. Even if the Constituent Assembly was elected by universal adult franchise, its composition would not have been very different.

Finally, the manner in which the Constituent Assembly worked gives snacity too the Costitution. The Constituent Assembly worked in a  systematic, open and consensual manner. First some basic principles were decided and agreed upon. Then a drafting Committee chaired by DR. B.R. Ambedkar prepared a Draft constitution for discussion. Several rounds of the Draft Constitution, clause by clause. More than two thousand amendments were considered. The members deliberated for 114 days spread over three years. Every document presented and every document presented and every word spoken in the Constituent Assembly has been recorded and preserve. These are called ‘Constituent Assembly Debates’. When printed, these debates provide the rationale behind every provision of the Constitution. These are used to Interpret the meaning of the Constitution.

3.4 GUIDING VALUES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

In this book we shall study the exact provisions of the Constitution on different subjects. At this stage let us begin by understanding the overall philosophy of what our Constitution is all about. we can do this in two ways. We can understand  it by reading the views of some of our major leaders on our Constitution. But it is equally important to read what the Constitution says about its own philosophy. This is what the preamble to the Constitution does. Let us turn to these, on by one.

THE DREAM AND THE PROMISE

Some of you may have noticed a name missing from the sketches of the makers fo the constitution: Mahatma Gandhi. He was not a member of the Constituent Assembly. Yet there were many members who followed his vision. Years ago, writing in his magazine Young India in 1931, he had spelt out what he wanted the Constitution to do:

I shall strive for a constitution which will release India from all thralldom and patronage .. I shall work for an india in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose making they have an effective voice; an India in which there shall be no high class nad low class of people; an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. Therre can be no room in such an india for the curse of untouchability or the curse of the intoxicating drinks and drugs. Women will engoy the same rights as men .. I shall be satisfied with nothing else.

This dream of an Inda that has eliminated inequality was shared by Dr. Ambedkar, who played a key role in the making of the Constitution but he had a different understanding of finally let us turn to Jawaharlal Nehru giving his gamous speech to how inequalities could be removed. He often bitterly criticized  Mahatma Gandhi and his vision. In his concludeing speech to the Constituent Assembly he stated his anxiety very clearly:

On the 26^th of January 1950 we are going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not whooly or in fuyll measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake ot life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppresse,m finds utterance. it is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedictio to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity ..

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freeodom we have endured all the pains of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the puture that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of india means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

PHILODOPHY OF THE CONSTITUTION

Values that inspired and guided the freedom struggle and were in turn nurtured by it, formed the foundation for India’s democracy. These values are embedded in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. They guide all the articles  of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution begins with a short statement of its basic values. This is called the Preamble to the constitution. Taking inspiration from American model, most countries in the contemporacry world have chosen to begin their constitutions with a  preamble.

Let us read the Preamble of our Constitution very carefully and understand the meaning of each of its key words.

The Preamble of the Constitution reads like a poem on democracy. It contains the Philosophy on which the entire Constitution has been built. It provides a standard to examine and evaluate any law and  action of government, to find out whether it is good or bad. It is the soul of the Indian Constitution.