CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
1.Context
The government on Friday announced that from next year June 25, the day Emergency was declared in 1975, would be observed as “Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas
2. Background
The Constitution of India was drafted by the Constituent Assembly. The idea was initially proposed in December 1934 by M.N. Roy, a pioneer of the Communist movement in India and an advocate of radical democracy.
It became an official demand of the Indian National Congress in 1935 and was officially adopted in the Lucknow session in April 1936 presided by Jawaharlal Nehru, who also drafted the Objectives Resolution.
The proceedings of the Constituent Assembly show the richness of ideas that characterised it. The Drafting Committee was presided over by B.R. Ambedkar
3. Composition of the Council
It was constituted in 1946 ,Some of the important aspects related to this are:
- Total strength of the assembly: 389
- 296 seats for British India and 93 seats to princely states
- 292 seats allocated for British India were to be from eleven governor’s provinces and four from Chief commissioner’s provinces
- Seats were allocated based in proportion to their respective population.
- Seats allocated to each British province were to be decided among the three principal communities- Muslims, Sikhs and general
- Representatives of each communities were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferrable vote
- Representatives of princely states were to be nominated by head of these princely states
- Partly elected and partly nominated
- Indirect election by provincial assemblies who themselves were elected on a limited franchise
- Though indirect mode of election, it included representatives from all sections of the society
4. Committees of the Constituent Assembly
Several committees were constituted to perform the various tasks associated with framing of the Constitution. Some of the major and minor constituent assembly committees are given below:
4.1.Major committees
- Union Powers committee: presided by J Nehru
- Union Constitution Committee: president by j Nehru
- Provincial constitution committee: Presided by S Patel
- Drafting committee: president by Dr BR Ambedkar
- Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, minorities and Tribal and excluded areas- Presided by S Patel. It had the following sub-committees:
-
- FR sub-committee: JB Kripalani
- Minorities sub-committee: HC Mukherjee
- North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam excluded and partially excluded areas sub-committee- Gopinath Bardoloi
- Excluded and partially excluded areas sub-committee: AV Thakkar
- Rule procedure committee: Dr Rajendra Prasad
- States committee for negotiating with states: J Nehru
- Steering committee: Dr Rajendra Prasad
4.2.Minor Committes
- Committee on the functions of the constituent Assembly: GV Mavalankar
- Order of Business committee: Dr KM Munshi
- House committee: B Pattabhi Sitaramayya
- Ad-hoc committee on the National flag: Dr Rajendra Prasad
- Special committee to examine the draft constitution: Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
4.3. Drafting Committee
- It was considered to be the most important committee of the constituent assembly
- It was chaired by Dr BR Ambedkar
- He played a pivotal role in drafting the constitution and also in passage of the constitution in the assembly
- The committee published the first draft of the constitution in February 1948. The second draft was published after incorporating changes suggested by the public in October 1948
5. Drafting Committee Conclusions
- In the concluding session of the Committee, on November 25, 1949, B.R. Ambedkar drew attention to a lacuna in the draft
- “The second thing we are wanting in is recognition of the principle of fraternity. What does fraternity mean? Fraternity means a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians — if Indians being one people. It is the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life. It is a difficult thing to achieve....”
- He added elsewhere that ‘without fraternity[,] equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint’; that fraternity has been most forgotten in our Constitution and in our electoral process, that in turn are reproduced in our hearts and homes
- The idea of fraternity is closely linked to that of social solidarity, which is impossible to accomplish without public empathy
- So along with liberty, equality and justice, fraternity was added to the principles in the Preamble
- There was little discussion nor was it sufficiently clarified that a sense of fraternity enriches and strengthens the gains emanating from the other three
- Those in the audience(Representatives) familiar with the history of the French Revolution might have recalled with some disquiet the message of the 1792 Edict of Fraternity (‘All governments are our enemies, all people our friends’)
- Kripalani, on October 17, 1949, drew attention to some implications. He pointed out that the contents of the Preamble were not only legal and political principles but also had a moral, spiritual and mystical content
- If we want to use democracy as only a legal, constitutional and formal device, I submit, we shall fail.... the whole country should understand the moral, the spiritual and the mystic implication of the word democracy... If we have not done that, we shall fail as they have failed in other countries
- Democracy will be made into autocracy and it will be made into imperialism, and it will be made into fascism. But as a moral principle, it must be lived in life
- It is not lived in life, and the whole of it in all its departments, it becomes only a formal and a legal principle.
6. Enforcement of the Constitution
- Final draft of the constitution was introduced in the assembly in 1948
- After subsequent readings, the constituent assembly adopted, enacted and gave to themselves the constitution on November 26, 1949
- Some provisions of the constitution came into force on the above-mentioned date. However, most provisions came into force on January 26th, 1950. This date is referred to in the constitution as the ‘date of its commencement’. This day is celebrated as ‘Republic day’ every year
- This day was chosen by the constitution-makers to pay homage to the ‘Purna Swaraj’ which started on January 26th, 1930.
7. Criticism on Constituent Assembly
- Not a representative body since members were not directly elected
- It was not a sovereign body since it was established based on British order
- It consumed unduly long time to make the constitution
- It was dominated predominantly by congress party.
- It was dominated by lawyer-politician to a greater degree
- It was dominated by Hindus predominantly
