The Indian Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950. Its length and complexity are understandable when we consider the country’s size and diversity. At Independence, India was not merely large and diverse, but also deeply divided. A Constitution had to be designed to keep the country together, and to take it forward. The Constitution of India was framed between December 1946 and November 1949, held eleven sessions, with sittings spread over 165 days. 

A Tumultuous Time

Freedom and Disappointment: 15 August 1947 was a time of great hope, but also of abject disappointment. India had been made free, but it had also been divided. 

• Popular Movements Against British Rule: Fresh in popular memory were the Quit India struggle of 1942, the most widespread popular movement against the British Raj as well as the bid by Subhas Chandra Bose to win freedom through armed struggle with foreign aid. 
• Unity in Popular Uprisings: Through the late 1940s there were scattered yet periodic mass protests of workers and peasants in different parts of the country. 
  • One striking feature of these popular upsurges was the degree of Hindu-Muslim unity. 
• Political Discord: In contrast, the two leading Indian political parties, the Congress and the Muslim League, had repeatedly failed to arrive at a settlement. 
• Great Calcutta Killings of 1946: In 1946 there was almost a year of continuous rioting across northern and eastern India known as the Great Calcutta Killings of August. 
  • The violence culminated in the massacres.
• Independence Day Joy and Challenges: On Independence Day, 15 August 1947, there was an outburst of joy and hope but innumerable Muslims in India, and Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan, were now faced with a cruel choice.
  •  The threat of sudden death or the squeezing of opportunities on the one side, and a forcible tearing away from their age-old roots on the other. 
• Princely States Ambiguity: Another problem faced by the new nation was that of the princely states. 
  • Challenges of Partition: During the period of the Raj, approximately one-third of the area of the subcontinent was under the control of nawabs and maharajas who owed allegiance to the British Crown. 
  • Ambiguity: When the British left India, the constitutional status of these princes remained ambiguous. 

Making of Constituent Assembly

Establishment of the Constituent Assembly: The Constituent Assembly was set up in 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission.

• Composition and Representation: Out of these, 292 were elected by the members of the provincial legislatures, while 93 were nominated by the princely states. 
• They were not elected by universal adult franchise. 

• Bycott: The Muslim League chose to boycott the Constituent Assembly. 
  • Socialists believed the Constituent Assembly was a creation of the British. 
• Dominance of the Congress: Therefore the constituent assembly was dominated by one party-the Congress. 
  • 82 percent members of the constituent assembly were from Congress. 
• Diverse Views within the Congress: But the Congress was not a party with one voice. Its members differed in their opinion on critical issues. 
  • Influence of Public Opinion: Some members were inspired by socialism while others were defenders of landlordism. Some were close to communal parties while others were assertively secular. 
  • In the words of an Anglo-Indian member, Frank Anthony, some were “technically members of the Congress but spiritually members of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha”.
• Public Participation in Debates: Discussions within the Constituent Assembly were influenced by the opinions expressed by the public. 
  • Collective Decision-Making: The arguments were reported in newspapers, and the proposals were publicly debated.
    • Thus there was collective participation from the public too. 

The Dominant Voices 

Members: Six members of the constituent assembly played important roles. 

• They were Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Dr. BR Ambedkar, KM Munshi and  Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar. 
• Leading Initiatives and Symbolism: Nehru moved the crucial “Objectives Resolution”, as well as the resolution proposing that the National Flag of India be a “horizontal tricolour of saffron, white and dark green in equal proportion”, with a wheel in navy blue at the centre. 
• Mediator and Coordinator: Patel played a key role in the drafting of several reports and worked to reconcile opposing points of view. 
• Presiding Over Discussions: Rajendra Prasad’s role was as President of the Assembly, where he had to steer the discussion along constructive lines.
• Chairman of the Drafting Committee: B.R. Ambedkar, a prominent leader and legal expert, was appointed as the chairman of the drafting committee, which was tasked with preparing the first draft of the Constitution. 
  • Legal Expertise: He had joined the Union Cabinet as law minister on the advice of Gandhiji. Serving with him were two other lawyers, K.M. Munshi from Gujarat and Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar from Madras. 
• Assistance from Civil Servants:: These six members were given vital assistance by two civil servants. One was B. N. Rau, Constitutional Advisor to the Government of India, who prepared a series of background papers based on a close study of the political systems obtained in other countries.
  • The other was the Chief Draughtsman, S. N. Mukherjee, who had the ability to put complex proposals in clear legal language.

Vision of the Constitution

• Introduction of the “Objectives Resolution”: Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the “Objectives Resolution” in the Constituent Assembly on 13 December 1946. 
• Key Ideals: It outlined the defining ideals of the Constitution of Independent India, and provided the framework for constitution making.
• Guarantees for Citizens: He proclaimed India to be an “Independent Sovereign Republic”, guaranteed its citizens justice, equality and freedom, and assured that adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and Depressed and Other Backward Classes. 
• Historical Context: Nehru invoked the American and French Revolutions also. By linking the Indian struggle to these revolutionary moments in the past, Nehru tried to place the Indian struggle for Independence within a longer history of struggle for liberty and freedom. 
• Deliberative Approach to Democracy: He did not define the specific form of democracy, and suggested that this had to be decided through deliberation.
• Adaptation to the Indian Context: He stated that the objective of the Indian Constitution would be to fuse the liberal ideas of democracy with the socialist idea of economic justice, and re-adapt and re-work all these ideas within the Indian context.

Will of the People

• Imperial Influence: British Imperial InfluenceIn the winter of 1946-47, as the Assembly deliberated, the British were still in India. 
• Nehru’s Response to Imperial Influence: An interim administration headed by Jawaharlal Nehru was in place, but it could only operate under the directions of the Viceroy and the British Government in London.
• Communist Concerns: A Communist member, Somnath Lahiri saw this dark hand of British imperialism hanging over the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. 
  • He therefore urged the members and Indians to fully free themselves from the influences of imperial rule.
• Rebuttal to Imperial Influence: But Nehru reiterated that though the British Government had a “hand in its birth”, and it had attached certain conditions within which the Assembly had to function. But the assembly derived its strength from the will of the people. 
• Ideals Rooted in Indian Struggles: Democracy, equality and justice were ideals that were associated with the social struggles in India. Thus they were not alien ideals for Indians. 
• Advocates for Social Justice: When the social reformers in the nineteenth century opposed child marriage and demanded that widows be allowed to remarry, they were pleading for social justice. 
  • Implement Rationality: When Swami Vivekananda campaigned for a reform of Hinduism, he wanted religions to become more just. 
  • Egalitarianism: When Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra pointed to the suffering of the depressed castes, or Communists and Socialists organised workers and peasants, they were demanding economic and social justice. 
• Democracy and Justice: The Indian national movement was inevitably a struggle for democracy and justice, for citizens’ rights and equality.
• Impact of Colonial Legislative: The constitutional  Acts of 1909, 1919 and 1935 were not directly debated and formulated by Indians. They were enacted by the colonial government. 
  • Limited Electoral Participation: The electorate that elected the provincial bodies had expanded over the years, but even in 1935 it remained limited to no more than 10 to 15 percent of the adult population as there was no universal adult franchise.
• Nehru’s Vision for an Independent Constitution: The vision that Nehru was trying to outline on 13 December 1946 was that the Constitution was of an independent, sovereign Republic of India. 

Conclusion

The framing of the Indian Constitution between 1946 and 1949 was a monumental task aimed at uniting a diverse and divided nation. Spearheaded by key figures like Nehru, Patel, and Ambedkar, it embodied the ideals of democracy, justice, and equality, reflecting India’s unique socio-political context and aspirations.

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