Our Constitution exists to secure individual freedom, the essential condition
of human flourishing. Liberty is not provided by government; liberty pre-exists
government. It's our natural birthright, not a gift from the sovereign. Our
founders upended things and divided power to enshrine a promise, not a process.
- Don Willett
The draft of the constitution was prepared by Bengal Narasimha Rao. The
Constituent Assembly had two functions, one was to act as the Constituent
Assembly and one to function as the Parliament. Constituent Assembly - In 1922,
Mahatma Gandhi proposed for the Constituent Assembly.
In August 1940, a proposal was made by the British called August Proposal under
which the British also accepted that there should be a constitution for Indians
too but it was not accepted. Cripps Proposal- It was accepted by Stephen Cripps
that There should be a constitution but it was not accepted by the Indians.
Gandhiji called this proposal a bankrupt bank check.
After the Second World War, when Atlee's government was formed in England, three
ministers of the government were sent to India, which is called the Cabinet
Mission, and the Constituent Assembly of India was constituted under this
cabinet mission. President of the Cabinet Mission- Sir Pathik Lorence ,Member-
Stefford Cripps and A.V. Alexander.
The Constituent Assembly should have 389 members. Which were also elected and
nominated. From the places where the British had the direct rule in India,i.e
292 places and the four commissioned provinces of Delhi, Ajmer, Merwara, Kurg
(Karnataka), and Balochistan (Pakistan) combined with 296 members and 93 members
from where the princely states ruled was nominated When the Cabinet Mission came
to India, the population of India was 40 crores. (Meaning where the British had
a direct rule - 292+ Commissioned Provinces 4 = 296 and where there was rule
through native princely states -93 nominated. 296 + 93 = 389)
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly was held on 9th December 1946. The
meeting was chaired by Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha. He was the first Speaker of the
Constituent Assembly and the reason for presiding over it was that he was the
eldest member.
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly was boycotted by a Muslim League.
When the Muslim League boycotted the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly,
former Prime Minister of England Winston Churchill said that the meeting of the
Constituent Assembly is like a marriage whose bride is missing.
207 members attended this meeting.
There were 9 women at this meeting. According to the Cabinet Mission, there
should have been 389 members at the Constituent Assembly meeting but only 207
were present as boycotted by the Muslim League. 73 members of the Muslim League
were not present. Till December 1946, the native princely states could not clear
and decide their position, so they could not send their representatives to the
Constituent Assembly. On 11 December, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was made the permanent
Speaker of the Constituent Assembly.
On December 13, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru proposed. The basis of the Preamble of
the Indian Constitution is the Objective Proposal. In this Objective Proposal,
the objectives of the Constitution, nature, the objectives for which the
government will work, etc. were mentioned.
This objective resolution was not accepted as the Muslim League was not present.
The objective motion was not accepted in the first session of the Constituent
Assembly. The objective resolution was passed by the Constituent Assembly on 22
January 1947 which was accepted as the basis of the preamble of the present
Constitution made.
B. N. Rao was also a constitutional advisor, he was not a member of the
Constituent Assembly. B.N. Rao contributed significantly to the constitution of
Burma. Bn Rao was the first judge on behalf of India in the International Court
of Justice.
A draft committee was formed to consider the draft of the constitution, the
other name was the Pandu Writing Committee. It was headed by Dr. Bhimrao
Ambedkar and had 6 members and they are:
- Gopalaswami Iyengar
- Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyengar
- Mohammad Saadullah (Muslim League)
- Kanhaiyalal Maniklal Munshi (Sole Congress Member)
- T. Krishnamachari who became a member of B.P. Khaitan’s death
- Madhavrao.
The draft Indian Constitution was drafted by this drafting committee. There were
a total of 12 sessions of the Constituent Assembly. The first meeting of the
Constituent Assembly had 9 women but the entire Constituent Assembly had a total
of 15 women. Begum Ayyaz Rasool was the only Muslim female member. The
constitution came into force partially on 26 November 1949. On this day, 16
Articles of the Constitution came into force, 16 Articles including Articles
5,6,7,8,9,24,60, 366, 367, 380, 394 came into force.
According to the Lahore session of the Congress, the first Independence Day was
proposed to be celebrated on 26 January, so when Independence Day began to be
celebrated on 15 August, 26 January was fixed for Republic Day. Even after the
constitution was enacted and adopted, on 26 November, the constitution was
partially implemented and not implemented.
The last meeting of the Constituent Assembly was held on 24 January 1950. 284
members signed the constitution. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the first person to
sign the Indian Constitution and Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the last person to sign
the Constitution.
Nusrat Muhani was a member of the Muslim League who was also a member of the
Constituent Assembly but did not sign. The President of the Constituent Assembly
was Dr. Rajendra Prasad and when the Constituent Assembly functioned as the
Parliament, it was presided over by Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar was.
On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as
President, then it was acting as a Parliament, not as the Constituent Assembly.
The term elected was used because the Constituent Assembly had taken out an
order that the form of becoming president was filled, hence the term election
was used.
Winston Churchill called the Constituent Assembly a caste institution.
It is notable that Dr. Ambedkar contests from Mumbai to become a member of the
Constituent Assembly but loses. After this, with the help of Dr. Ambedkar Muslim
League, Jasur Kulla contests from Bengal and wins.
But in the partition process after independence, this place is lost due to the
move of East Pakistan to Bangladesh, as a result, Dr. Ambedkar is no longer a
member of the Constituent Assembly.
After this, BN Rao, the Constitutional Advisor of the Constituent Assembly,
tells Dr. Rajendra Prasad that Dr. Ambedkar is an important person for the
creation of the Constituent Assembly, so Dr. Rajendra Prasad, then Prime
Minister of Mumbai, B.G. Wrote a letter to Kher to vacate the place for Dr.
Ambedkar from Mumbai, consequently, MR Jayakar resigned and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar
became a member of the Constituent Assembly.
In the last meeting of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad said that
if I have done any good work as the President of the Constituent Assembly, then
on 29 August 1948, he constituted the Drafting Committee under the chairmanship
of Dr. Ambedkar.
KV Rao said that Dr. Ambedkar is not only the father of the Indian Constitution
but also the mother.
The Indian Constitution is the longest written constitution compared to any
sovereign country in the world. The original constitution had 8 schedules, 395
articles, and 22 parts.
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