MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION

Timeline
India was getting close to the independence and with this
arise the need of the constitution.
The idea to have the constitution in India was given in the
year 1934 by Mr. M.N. Roy the pioneer of the communist
movement in India.
In the year 1935 the Indian National Congress for the first
demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the
constitution of India.
In the year 1938 Jawharlal Nehru on the behalf of
congress said that the Constitution of India will be made
by the independent constituent assembly without any
external interference.
The demand was accepted by the British parliament
which came to be known as the August Offer in the year
1940
In the year 1942 Cripps India Mission came to India
under Sir Strafford Cripps and said that the Constituent
Assembly will be setup but after the Second World War
Finally in May 1946 Cabinet Mission Plan came to India
under Cripps, Lawrence and Alexander and they setup the
Constituent Assembly of India
Constituent Assembly
The Constituent Assembly of India consists of 389
members out of whom 292 members were elected from
the various provinces, 93 members were nominated from
the princely states and 4 members were from the Chief
Commissioner areas of Delhi, Ajmer- Marwar, Coorg and
British Baluchistan.
The members of the Constituent Assembly were on the
basis of the population and were in the ratio of roughly 1:
10,00,000(1 million).

The seats of the provinces were divided into three major

communities i.e. Muslims Sikhs and general (all except
Muslims and Sikhs). The members of each community
selected there members by the method of proportional
representation with single transferable voting system.
The Constituent Assembly included all the important
personalities of India except Mahatma Gandhi and M.A.
Jinnah.
After the creation of the new constituent assembly for
Pakistan 90 members resigned from the constituent
assembly of India which reduced the size of the assembly
from 389 to 299 members.

Objectives Resolution
On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the
historic ‘Objectives Resolution’ in the
Assembly. It laid down the fundamentals and philosophy
of the constitutional structure. It read:
1. “This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and
solemn resolve to proclaim India as an Independent
Sovereign Republic and to draw up for her future
governance a Constitution:
2. Wherein the territories that now comprise British India,
the territories that now form the Indian States, and such
other parts of India as are outside India and the States as
well as other territories as are willing to be constituted
into the independent sovereign India, shall be a Union of
them all; and
3. wherein the said territories, whether with their present
boundaries or with such others as may be determined by
the Constituent Assembly and thereafter according to the
law of the Constitution, shall possess and retain the status
of autonomous units together with residuary powers and
exercise all powers and functions of Government and
administration save and except such powers and functions
as are vested in or assigned to the Union or as are inherent
or implied in the Union or resulting therefrom; and
4. wherein all power and authority of the Sovereign
Independent India, its constituent parts and organs of
Government are derived from the people; and
5. wherein shall be guaranteed and secured to all the
people of India justice, social, economic and political;
equality of status of opportunity, and before the law;
freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship,
vocation, association and action, subject to law and public
morality; and
6. wherein adequate safeguards shall be provided for
minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and
other backward classes; and
7. whereby shall be maintained the integrity of the
territory of the Republic and its sovereign rights on land,
sea and air according to justice and the law of civilized
nations; and
8. This ancient land attains its rightful and honoured place
in the world and makes its full and willing contribution to
the promotion of world peace and the welfare of
mankind.”
This Resolution was unanimously adopted by the
Assembly on January 22, 1947. It influenced the eventual
shaping of the constitution through all its subsequent
stages. Its modified version forms the Preamble of the
present Constitution.
Working of the Constituent Assembly
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place
on 9th December 1946 under the leadership of Dr.
Sachidanand Sinha however he was only temporary
president and was replaced by Dr, Rajendra Prasad and
H.C. Mukherjee as the permanent President and Vice
President of the Constituent Assembly on 11th December
1946. Mr. B.N. Rau was appointed as the advisor of the
Constituent Assembly.
The Constituent Assembly presented three drafts of the
Constitution on
4th November1948
15th November 1948 and
14th November 1949.
After enormous number of changes the Constituent
Assembly of India finally accepted the Constitution on
26th November 1949.
The last session of the Constituent Assembly took place
on 24th January 1950 where Dr. Rajendra Prasad was
elected as the President of India; out of the total members
of the assembly 284 members signed the official copies 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 (the major part) of the
Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.
This day is referred to in the Constitution as the ‘date of
its commencement’, and celebrated as the Republic Day.

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.
With the commencement of the Constitution, the Indian
Independence Act of 1947 and the Government of India
Act of 1935, with all enactments amending or
supplementing the latter Act, were repealed.
The Constituent Assembly took 2years, 11months and
18days in making the Constitution and the cost of making
the Constitution was approximately 64 lac
The Constitution of India is the longest written
Constitution in the history of the world having a
Preamble, 395 Articles, 22 Parts and 8Schedules although
presently it has around 465 Articles, 25 parts, 12
Schedules and more than 100 Amendment
The nature of the Indian Constitution is Quasifederal i.e.
more federal and less unitary during the normal
circumstances it is federal but during the proclamation of
National Emergency under article 352 the nature of the
constitution becomes unitary in nature
Dr. B R Ambedkar played a major role and was the
chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution
that is why he is also known as the father of Indian
Constitution or “Modern Manu”
Chairman’s of the Important Committees

Name of the Committee Chairman

Rules of Procedure Committee Rajendra

Prasad
Fundamental Rights, Minorities
Vallabhbhai Patel
Union Powers Committee
Jawaharlal Nehru
Union Constitution Committee
Jawaharlal Nehru
Drafting Committee B.R.
Ambedkar
Flag Committee Rajendra
Prasad

Drafting Committee
Amongst the most important committees of the
Constituent Assembly the most important was the drafting
committee which was set up on 29th August 1947. The
main aim of this committee was the preparation of the
draft of the new Constitution. The drafting committee
consists of seven members.
1. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (Father of the Constitution)
2. N. Gopalaswamy Ayyar
3. Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar
4. Syed Mohammad Saadullah
5. Dr. K.M Munshi
6. N. Madhava Rau (replaced B.L Mitra)
7. T.T Krishnamachari (replaced D.P. Khaitan)
The Drafting Committee took less than six months to
prepare the draft, in all it sat for the total of 141 days.
Some Important Points
1. The Constitution was accepted on 26th November
1949
2. The National Song was accepted on 24th January
1950
3. The National Anthem was accepted on 24th January
1950
4. The National Flag was accepted on 22nd July 1947
5. Pingali Venkaiha from Andhra Pradesh was the
designer of the National Flag of India
6. Elephant was the symbol of the Constituent
Assembly of India
7. Prem Bihari Raizada was the English Calligrapher of
the Constitution
8. Gopal Krishna Vaidya was the Hindi Calligrapher of
the Constitution
Interim Govt of 1946
Viceroy and Governor-General of India: The Viscount
Wavell (Britain)

Commander-in-Chief: Sir Claude Auchinleck (Britain)

Vice President of the Executive Council: Jawaharlal

Nehru (INC)

Home Affairs, Information and

Broadcasting: Vallabhbhai Patel (INC)

Agriculture and Food: Rajendra Prasad (INC)

Commerce: Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar (All-India

Muslim League)

Education and Arts: C. Rajagopalachari (INC)

Defence: Baldev Singh (INC)

Finance: Liquat Ali Khan (All-India Muslim league)

Health: Ghazanfar Ali Khan (All-India Muslim League)

Industries and Supplies: C. Rajagopalachari (INC)

Labour: Jagjivan Ram (INC)

Law: Jogendra Nath Mandal (All-India Muslim League)

Posts and Air: Abdur Rab Nishtar (All-India Muslim

League)

Railways and Communications: Asaf Ali (INC)

Work, Mines and Power: C.H. Bhabhax (INC)

First Cabinet After
Independence

Portfolio Minister Took office Left office Party

Prime Minister
Minister of External Affairs and 15 August Second Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru INC
Commonwealth Relations 1947 ministry
Minister of Scientific Research

Sardar Vallabhbhai 15 August 15 December

Deputy Prime Minister INC
Patel 1947 1950[†]

Sardar Vallabhbhai 15 August 15 December

INC
Patel 1947 1950[†]

26 December 25 October
Minister of Home Affairs and States C. Rajagopalachari[5] INC
1950 1951[RES]

Second Nehru
Kailash Nath Katju 1951 INC
ministry

Sardar Vallabhbhai 15 August

1949 INC
Patel 1947
Minister of Information and
Broadcasting

R. R. Diwakar[6] 1949 15 April 1952 INC

R. K. Shanmukham 15 August
Minister of Finance 1949 INC
Chetty 1947
 John Mathai 1949 1950[RES] INC

Second Nehru
C. D. Deshmukh 1950 INC
ministry

15 August
Minister of Law B. R. Ambedkar[5] 1951[RES] SCF
1947

15 August Second Nehru Panthic

Minister of Defence Baldev Singh
1947 ministry Party

15 August 22 September
John Mathai INC
1947 1948

Minister of Railways and Transport

22
N. Gopalaswami Second Nehru
September INC
Ayyangar ministry
1948

Maulana Abul Kalam 15 August Second Nehru

Minister of Education INC
Azad 1947 ministry

15 August
Minister of Food and Agriculture Rajendra Prasad 15 April 1952 INC
1947

Syama Prasad 15 August 6 April

Minister of Industries and Supplies HM
Mukherjee 1947 1950[RES]

15 August
Minister of Labour Jagjivan Ram 15 April 1952 INC
1947

Cooverji Hormusji 15 August

Minister of Commerce 15 April 1952 INC
Bhabha 1947

15 August
Minister of Communications Rafi Ahmed Kidwai 15 April 1952 INC
1947
 15 August
Minister of Health Amrit Kaur 15 April 1952 INC
1947

Narhar Vishnu 15 August

Minister of Works, Mines and Power 15 April 1952 INC
Gadgil 1947

15 August
Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation K. C. Neogy April 1950[RES] INC
1947

N. Gopalaswami 15 August 22 September

INC
Ayyangar[7] 1947 1948

Minister without portfolio

15 August
Mohanlal Saxena 15 April 1952 INC
1947