By KSS Seshan As the 72nd anniversary of our Republic Day is fast approaching, let us recount how our Constitution came to be written before it was adopted in 1950. The evolution and framing of our Constitution is irrevocably linked to our freedom struggle and it makes interesting reading. The present generation needs to be […]
By KSS Seshan
As the 72nd anniversary of our Republic Day is fast approaching, let us recount how our Constitution came to be written before it was adopted in 1950. The evolution and framing of our Constitution is irrevocably linked to our freedom struggle and it makes interesting reading. The present generation needs to be told of the historical background of the Indian Constitution as pretty little is debated about the constitutional growth during the freedom struggle led by Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. There is, therefore, every need to recount the historical facts regarding the framing of our Constitution.
The Constitution of India is the supreme Law of our nation and every citizen of the country is obliged to be bound by it. Ours is one of the lengthiest and detailed constitutions in the world. It has 12 Schedules and 448 Articles. It has taken inspiration from various constitutions from across the world. It is not as though that on one fine morning a few law enthusiasts and Jurists got together, sat down and decided that India needed a Constitution and began writing it.
Years of Struggle
The framing of a Constitution for India, in fact, is a culmination of long years of struggle along with the growth and development of the freedom movement that also took away a number of precious lives of ordinary Indians. It is not a coincidence that many national leaders of the time were themselves lawyers and constitutional experts who had a very clear vision of what type of Constitution the country needed once it became independent. Mahatma Gandhi himself was a Barrister, so was Nehru, Patel, Rajaji, and a host of others.
The course of India’s freedom movement was not a blind struggle against the alien rule surcharged with emotions and mere patriotism. At every stage of the national movement, the constitutional demands by the leaders were very clear and loud. It was only the British colonial masters who underestimated the constitutional calibre of the leadership of our freedom struggle. Winston Churchill, arch-rival for Indian independence, was proved wrong when he was reported to have expressed his apprehensions on the constitutional acumen of the Indian leaders, when he said in a derogative tone that “India will go to dogs if independence was granted as the Indians never knew how to govern themselves”.
Master Leaders
The way the Swaraj Party, an offshoot of the Indian National Congress formed on 1 January 1923, functioned during its short span of existence speaks eloquently of the inherent constitutional abilities of the political leaders of the time. In the 1923 elections, Swarajists won 45 seats out of 145 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly. Besides Chittaranjan Das, the president of the party, and Motilal Nehru, its Secretary, there were other Swarajists like Huseyn Suhrawardy, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vithalbhai Patel (the elder brother of Vallabhai) who as members in the Legislature, with their heated Parliamentary debates, peaceful standoff with British colonial masters and with their frequent “Walkouts”, stunned the British authorities with their mastery over constitutional procedures and democratic legislative practices.
The idea of Constituent Assembly, in fact, was proposed as early as 1934 by MN Roy, a pioneer of the Communist movement in India at a time when freedom for the country was not even in sight. Soon it became an official demand of the Indian National Congress in 1935 which wanted a Constituent Assembly specifically to frame a Constitution for India.
On 15 November 1939, C Rajagopalachari, voiced the demand for a Constituent Assembly based on adult franchise. However, the Constituent Assembly did come into being under the Cabinet Mission Plan in 1946 after the elections were duly held.
Dr Ambedkar’s Contributions
Though there were occasions when the national leaders during the struggle for independence exhibited a mature constitutional mindset, it was the erudite legal expert Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who was instrumental in shaping our Constitution. Dr Ambedkar is rightly remembered as the architect of the Constitution. He was responsible for concretising the concept of social equality in the Constitution. He became the Chairman of the drafting committee that included legal luminaries like KM Munshi, Muhammad Sadullah, Alladi Kuppuswamy Iyer, Gopalaswami Ayyangar, N Madhava Rao and TT Krishnamachari.
Dr Ambedkar in one of his famous speeches in the Constituent Assembly admitted that he had come there to plead for the depressed classes, but the Assembly made him the Chairman. Dr Ambedkar was an original thinker and a very perceptive social scientist who had a keen understanding of the terrible inequalities of Hindu society.
On the political front, Dr Ambedkar strongly differed from Gandhi on many crucial issues and had serious differences with even the Congress. He did not like the movements like the Non-cooperation, Civil Disobedience and Satyagraha that Gandhi launched and even said, “these methods are nothing but grammar of anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us”. Yet, the Constituent Assembly with the majority of members belonging to the Congress selected him as the Chairman of the drafting committee. They all had such great faith and foresight in the erudition of Dr Ambedkar.
It took three long years of hard work to frame the Constitution that was adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly when Dr Rajendra Prasad, the president of the Constituent Assembly, signed it. Therefore, Constitution Day is celebrated on 26 November every year. Two months later, on 26 January 1950, the Constitution came into effect. 26 January was chosen for historical reasons. It was on 26 January 1930 that the Indian National Congress under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru at its Lahore Session declared “Poorna Swaraj” (complete independence) as the goal of the national movement and thus gave a great fillip to the struggle for freedom.
A World Within
Any celebration of our Constitution will never be complete without recalling how the preamble, that declares India a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic which is the philosophy, the vision and its goal, itself was influenced by the principles and ideas thrown up by the varied movements and revolutions from every part of the world like the European Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the Dutch Declaration of the ‘Rights of Man’ (1581), the American war of Independence, with ‘Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness’ (1776) and the French Revolution of ‘Rights of Man and Citizen’ (1789).
The ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity, and freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, justice — social, economic, and political, permeated the Indian Constitution and made what it is today.
(The author is retired Professor of History, University of Hyderabad)
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