Constitution: Why and How

Constitution:
The Constitution is the collection of rules and laws related to the
country. Through this, the government of that country has sovereignty (depending on
itself or constitution) and whatever rules and laws are made, the people
automatically follow them.
Types of Constitution:
There are two types of constitution
● Written Constitution
● Non Written Constitution / Unwritten constitution

Written Constitution Unwritten Constitution

A written constitution is that constitution, An unwritten constitution is that
which is definitely made by the constitution which is not made by any
constituent assembly. constituent assembly but there is
Example : India, USA, Japan evidence of traditions and laws passed
from time to time, judges etc.
Example: Britain, Newzeland, Israel

Functions of Constitution:
● The Constitution establishes the three major organs of government
(Legislature, Executives and Judiciary) of the states.
● The Constitution explains the powers of the three organs of the government
and also sets the limits of their duties.
● The Constitution regulates the mutual relations between the three organs of
government and their relations with people.
● The Constitution works to fulfill specific social, political and economic nature,
beliefs and aspirations of the people and prevents anarchy.
Requirements of Constitution:
● Man is a social animal. Society is made up of different types of communities.
The Constitution is necessary to bring harmony among these communities.
● Constitutions provide a set of basic rules for creating mutual trust among
people.
● Who will have the power to take final decisions? The Constitution decides
this.
 ● The Constitution sets the rules and bye-laws of government formation and its
powers and limits.
● The Constitution is also necessary for the establishment of a just society.
Constituent assembly in the world:
● The person who gave the idea of Constituent assembly in the world was
British citizen Sir Henry Maine.
● The first Constituent assembly in the world was formed in the US state of
Philadelphia in 1786. At that time there used to be 13 states in America which
together made up the constitution of America.
● After this, the constituent assembly was formed in France in 1789.
● First constitution of France was formed in 1793
Constituent assembly in the India:
Efforts for Constituent assembly by Indian:
● 1895: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, speaking on the Swaraj Bill in Bombay, made an
informal demand for a constituent assembly.
● 1918: Madan Mohan Malviya supported self decisions for the Indians.
● 1922 : Mahatma Gandhi said, “The political future of Indians should be
decided by the Indians”
● 1928: General Secretary Birkenhead challenged Indians to make a
Constituent Assembly. Under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru, the Nehru
Committee was formed and the Nehru Report Prepared.
Note: The Nehru report was rejected and Muhammad Ali Jinnah presented 14
demands against it.
● 1934: M N rai demanded constituent assembly officially.
● 1935: Congress demanded the Constituent Assembly.
● 1938: Pt. Nehru said, “The constituent assembly should be formed on the
basis of Universal Adult franchise.”
Efforts for Constituent assembly by Britishers:
August Proposal (08 August 1940):
After the end of World War II there will be a constituent assembly formed in India but
Indians have to help the British in World War II.
Note: Congress and Muslim league both rejected August Proposal.
Cripps Mission (1942):
It was sent to India in March 1942 by British Prime Minister Churchill under
the leadership of British Parliament member and Labour leader Sir Stafford Cripps,
whose purpose was to remove India’s deadlock.
● According to this there will be a constituent assembly in India after
World War II.
● The interests of the minority class will be taken care of.
● There will be a separate constituent assembly for the princely states.
Note: Muslim League and Congress rejected the Cripps Proposal.
Mahatma Gandhi declared Cripps Proposal as a Post dated Cheque.
After World War II elections were held in Britain and Clement Attlee was elected as
The Prime Minister of Britain.
Cabinet Mission (1946):
There were 3 members of Cabinet Mission Sir Pethick-Lawrence, Stafford Cripps,
A.V. Alexander.
Cabinet Mission Proposal:
● There will be a Constituent Assembly for India it means the demand of
Pakistan was rejected.
● There will be 389 members in the Constituent Assembly. [1 candidate on the
10 lac population]
389

292 4 93
British India Chief Commissionary Princely States
(Ajmer-Merwara,Delhi, (Nominated)
Coorg, Balochistan)

● There will be an Interim Government for governance until the formation of

constituent assembly.
Note: Congress won the assembly election with 208 seats.
On 16 August 1946 Muslim League announced a Direct Action Day due to loss in
assembly elections. Because of Direct Action Day communal violence started
between Hindu and Muslim.
Mountbatten Plan( June 1947) :
● Partition of India will occur.
● India and Pakistan will be two new states.
● Princely states can merge with India or can merge with Pakistan or they can
be free.
Constitution formation process :
● 9 December 1946 :
First session of constituent assembly was held in the Library of Central Hall at
Delhi.
Members of Muslim league and Princely states were not present in the first
meeting.
Temp. President: Dr Sachhidanand Sinha
Temp. Vice President: Frank Anthony

● 10 December 1946 :
Proposals of members were taken for the post of president of the Constituent
Assembly.
● 11 December 1946 :
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the permanent president of the
Constituent Assembly and H C Mukharjee was elected as the permanent vice
president of constituent assembly and B N Rao elected as an advisor.
● 13 December 1946 :
Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru presented the objective of the constitution. In this the
outline of the future sovereign democratic republic of India was presented but
not passed on that day due to the boycott of muslim league.
 ● 22 January 1947 :
Objective proposal was passed by the constituent assembly. That passed
objective proposal is the base for the preamble of the Indian Constitution.
● 29 August 1947 :
Drafting committee was formed under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.

● 26 November 1949 :
Indian Constitution partially implemented.
On that day the Constitution was Adopted, Enacted and Given to Ourself
that’s why we celebrate Constitution day each and every year.
Note: Constitution making process completed on 26 November 1949. It took 2 years
11 Month and 18 Days.
● 24 January 1950 :
India’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected by Article 380.
National Anthem Jan Gan Man and National Song Vande Mataram were
accepted. This was the last meeting of the Constituent assembly. 284
members were present in that meeting.
● 26 January 1950 :
The constitution of India duly implemented with 22 Part 395 Article and 8
Schedules.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad took oath of the Constitution.
Facts about the Constituent Assembly:
● It took 2 years 11 months and 18 days to make the constitution.
● Total 166 meetings and 12 sessions were held to make the constitution
● About 64 Lac rupees were spent in the making of the constitution.
● There were 9 women members in the constituent assembly Sarojini Naidu,
Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukha, Amrita Kaur, Begum Ejaj Rasool,
Vijayalaxmi.
● Constitution of India was read on 3 times- 4 November 1948- 9 November
1948, 15 November 1948- 17 October 1949, 4 November 1949- 26 November
1949
● Symbol of the Constitution is the Elephant.

Shortcomings in the formation of Constituent Assembly

● Lack of Sovereignty.
● Improper classification of provinces.
● The princely states were not compelled to follow the constitution.
● The members of the constituent assembly were elected in an undemocratic
manner.
Preamble of Indian Constitution
The Preamble of India has following ingredients:
1. We the People of India:
It means that the constitution of India is drafted and enacted by the
people of India.
2. Sovereign: It means India has supreme power regarding its
external as well as internal affairs.
 3. Socialist: The Indian state works for the welfare of people and try
to establish social justice in the state
4. Secular: India does not declare any religion as state religion and
also provides freedom of religion to people. There is no discrimination
on the basis of religion.
5. Democratic: India adopts democratic form of government in which
representatives are elected by the people and are responsible to the
people.
6. Republic: The head of the state president of India is elected by the
people and is not hereditary.
7. Justice: Discrimination between citizens on the basis of caste,
colour, creed, religion is banned and social inequalities are to be
removed.
8. Liberty: People enjoy freedom without any unreasonable restrictions
9. Equality: All people enjoy equalities like equality before law, social
equality and equality of opportunity.
10. Fraternity: The constitution promotes Indians as members
of the same family. It also promotes the spirit of brotherhood.
Political philosophy of Indian Constitution: Core Provision
1. Individual Freedom: The Indian Constitution is committed to individual
freedom. As India has a long history of freedom struggle our constitution
makers gave special emphasis on freedom and provided various freedoms to
the citizens.
2. Social Justice: Indian constitution provides social justice to citizens. It
means there is no discrimination among people on the basis of caste, colours,
gender, creed and birthplace etc. Social evils are removed.Special facilities
are provided to weaker sections of the society.
3. Recognition of diversity and safeguards for minority rights: India
has huge diversity. The Indian constitution made specific arrangements to
accommodate diversity. The constitution also provided enough rights to
minorities as a right to freedom of religion. Three language formulas have
been adopted to accommodate linguistic diversity.
4. Secularism: India adopted the principle of secularism, it means there is no
state religion of India, all citizens are treated equally irrespective of these
religions and the state treats religion as a private matter.The word secular
was not mentioned in original constitution but it was added to preamble in
1976 by 42nd constitutional amendment.
5. Universal Adult franchise: Universal adult franchise means right to vote to
all citizens above the age of 18 years, irrespective of their caste, colour,
gender, birthplace etc. As India adopted democratic form of government
 various political rights have been given to citizens without any kind of
discrimination.
6. Federalism: Federalism is a principle of state in which powers are divided
into various levels of government. As India is a large country having huge
diversity. It adopted Federalism. The Constitution divides power between the
centre and state government and gives more powers to the central
government.
7. National Identity: The Indian Constitution tries to create a common national
identity. India is a nation with multi ethnic, multi religions and multi linguistic
identity. The Constitution tries to balance these various identities.
Sources of Indian Constitution:
● 75% of the Indian Constitution was taken from the Government of India Act
1935
● 10 Fundamental Rights were included from the Motilal Nehru Committee
report appointed in 1928
● Some things from the constitutional system of other countries were also
included in Indian Constitution:
1. Britain:
● The decision to win the election on the basis of the highest
number of votes.
● Parliamentary form of government
● The idea of rule of law
● The Office of speaker in legislature and his method of law
making
2. USA:
● List of fundamental Rights
● Power of judicial review and Independence of Judiciary
3. Ireland:
● Directive principles of state policy
4. France:
● The principle of liberty, equality and fraternity
5. Canada:
● Form of Quasi federal government (Federal system with strong
central government)
● Residuary powers
Features of Indian Constitution:
● A Complete constitution written by the representative of the people
● It constitutes a fully sovereign, democratic, socialist,secular republic.
● Reminds citizens of Fundamental Rights along with Fundamental Duties
● There is an independent judiciary
● Parliamentary government system
● Directive principles of state policy
 ● Indian Constitution is rigid: According to Art 368, Amendment in some
subjects requires the support of at least half of the state legislatures in
addition to a two-thirds majority of members of parliament
● Indian Constitution is Flexible: Indian constitution is flexible because many
amendment provisions in it are amended by passing the simple majority of
parliament
Criticism of Indian Constitution:
The Indian constitution is not a perfect document it has certain weakness and has
been criticised on the following grounds:
1. Unrepresentative character of the constituent assembly:
Some critics say that the constituent assembly that framed this was not a
representative body. It was not elected by the people.
2. Lengthiest constitution of the world:
The Indian constitution is criticised for being the lengthiest constitution in the
world; it has 395 Articles and 12 Schedules.
3. A Bag of borrowings:
The framers of the Indian constitution borrowed most of the provisions from
other constitutions; England, USA,USSR and Australia etc. many provisions
of the constitution have been taken from the government of India Act 1935. So
it is called Bag of borrowings.
4. Limits on Fundamental Rights:
The Constitution of India also criticised that it puts too many restrictions on
fundamental rights so that a citizen cannot enjoy his fundamental rights.
5. Strong Central Government:
Although India adopted a federal political system but constitution gives more
power to the central government.
6. Complicated Language:
Indian constitution has been framed in a complicated and difficult language so
it is very difficult for a common man to understand it.