The Making of Independent India’s Constitution

 

The Making of Independent India’s Constitution

Revisiting Indian Constitution To begin with, read the chapter 13 of class VIII Social Studies textbook and complete the following tasks regarding the Indian Constitution:

There was a turn of events and new political aspirations during the last few years of the British rule. That shaped the constitution. After 1936 Gandhi did not take much interest in politics, mostly confined to ashram. However he was guiding the events.

Electoral politics began in 1936-37, and lasted with 1946 elections in which members of Constituent Assembly were elected. The same members have written the Constitution. The Congress remained a predominant political stream standing for the unified Indian Nationalism encompassing all social segments and it made huge strides in electoral politics also winning majority of seats in two elections. This period is also significant because during the elections religious nationalism – Hindu and Muslim was born little earlier but strengthened as political force. Both Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League contested the election propagated religious ideas as politics and ideology.

The third stream peasant nationalism has grown as main opposition to the British and the princess under the Communist party. The fourth one was emanated from the self-respect movement of Ramaswamy Naikar in Tamil region and Non-Brahmin party of Bhaskar Rao Jadav in Maharastra. In this backdrop Then All India Depressed Class movement developed and strengthened under Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

 In this backdrop The Hindu leader B.S. Munje made friendly association with outcast leaders. In February 1932 what is known as [M.C.] Rajah-[B.S.] Munje Pact was signed in support of the joint electorate with Hindus. And finally on the pressures of British functionaries including the then Viceroy, Ambedkar signed the Poona Pact with Gandhi in 1932. The Depressed Class (DC) issue thus became part of the national agenda and nation’s concern.

 The DCs became part of nationalist politics. The DC leaders’ agenda came to prominence on the national political agenda. Many more such organizations came into being in different parts of the country in Punjab and Bengal. The temple entry movements were undertaken and further visiting the untouchable’s residential quarters as part of the national movement adopted. In this scenario, national movement was not meant just the independence from the British but integration of the lower orders of the society into nationalist politics. Ambedkar, in this new spirit started a new party All India Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942. M.C. Rajah who was very close to Gandhi disappointed with the Congress Governments joined the Federation.

Sarat Chandra Bose brother of Subhas Chandra Bose supported this movement. It indicates that the caste question assumed importance thus Ambedkar has become national leader with issue of the Depressed Class/Scheduled Caste. Ambedkar was considered to be a leader of national stature. Ambedkar became the sole representative of Scheduled Castes, and that has become an issue on par with Muslim question. The British Government and its officials had recognized Ambedkar as legitimate representative of the SCs and caste question in India. In Special Scheduled Caste Political Conference held in Allahabad in December 1942 Ambedkar declared that India was not a nation but constellation of nations warning the British and Congress that the Scheduled Caste would have their specific identity. Ambedkar thus learnt to communicate with the top dominant nationalist leadership of the country without sacrificing his intended politics.

In this debate in 1943 the Secretary of State for India opined that Ambedkar emerged a national leader and said Ambedkar was “the right and only proper representative of the Depressed Classes”. In November 1944 a Non-Party Conference was held under Tej Bahdur Sapru to discuss the basis of future constitution of India. It had invited Ambedkar to send a representative to be on the sub-committee on par with other parties.

Further in May 1945 Ambedkar came to the dominant nationalist stance saying that Constitution should be “framed by Indians for Indians with voluntary consent of Indians”. At the same time he declared that “The Scheduled Castes stand for the freedom of India and not for the Congress-High class Hindu rule”. At the same time he categorized the people into “servile classes” and “governing classes”. That means he divided people into social justice forces and the other Indians. He stepped up his battle opening channels with mainstream nationalist politics and emerging only sole leader with powerful backing of various social identities groups.

 Independence has become an immediate issue and nation was in mood to attain independence. Dr. Ambedkar too was interacting with the British and national leaders. Even in this scenario political parties like Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha had opened dialogue with him. This political turn had impacted the Constitution making. The British rulers under these circumstances agreed to constitute a Constituent Assembly. Elections have come to elect members to CA through indirect elections with limited franchise. The CA was constituted in July 1946 with 296 members from all provinces.

The Congress won 208 of 296 allotted to the provinces. Earlier in Provincial elections in December 1945 Congress became victorious. The Congress in this background clearly expressed its intention to behave like “mirror of the nation” in Nehru’s words. Within the Congress the luminaries Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, and Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad emerged prominent leaders of Constitution making. C. A. was constituted with Alladi Kuppu Swamy Iyyar, N. Gopalaswamy Iyyengar and B. R. Ambedkar as experts on legal issues.

 Ambedkar had many advantages he was historian, economist and expert of law and constitutions of prominent countries, apart from this he emerged a social justice ideologue and politician with stature on par with top Congress luminaries. And above all he brought in the social justice turn in to the nationalism. Thus he becomes a most suitable person to head the drafting committee. Therefore the constitution has to focus on social reform and renascence.

Dr. Ambedkar was needed despite lost the election, but entered the CA from Bengal and later from Bombay. The Constituent Assembly, thus was constituted, agreed that it had two objectives first was to attain independence and freedom. The second was social revolution i.e. freedom from all sorts of oppressions. S. Radhakrishnan proposed 3 rd objective socio-economic revolution a transition from primitive rural economy to scientific and planned agriculture and industry. Rural handicrafts and peasant economy based economic planning village based election to State legislature and Parliament were discussed but the C.A members agreed upon only modern industry based economy and British type of party based elections parliamentary system.

 All members had agreed that India would become one political nation with one constitution and flag. On the whole social justice agenda was accepted by the members. After constituting CA Jawaharlal Nehru moved Objectives Resolution setting nation’s agenda for social justice.

He stated that primarily objective was - social justice to emancipate the Depressed Classes socially, economically and politically. Root cause of this was in Objectives Resolution it was product of 1940s turn in people’s movement it was a new dimension of nationalism. Religious tolerance and equality of all religions was the basic crux of the constitution.

The events, movements and ideologies became part of the nationalism, the same entered into the constitution. Objectives Resolution: Objectives resolution was the basis to specify the basic character of the constitution. On the basis of last few years of nationalist stances Nehru came to the decision about the needs of various existential groups to make India a nation.

The Making of Indian Constitution The Constitution of India was prepared and adopted by the Constituent Assembly. This was the culmination of the long struggle of the Indian people for freedom from British colonial rule. As the British government decided to give freedom to the people of India, a new Constitution was needed through which the people of India could rule themselves and set long term objectives for themselves. For this purpose, Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946, following the election to the provincial assemblies. The Constituent Assembly members were elected indirectly by the members of the provincial assemblies.

The Cabinet Mission appointed in 1946 allotted seats to each Province and each Princely State or group of States. Accordingly, Provinces or areas under direct British rule elected 292 members and all Princely States together elected 93 members. The plan also guaranteed that the seats in each Province had members from the major communities in India : Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others, in proportion to their respective populations. The Council also ensured that 26 members from Scheduled Castes are represented in the Assembly.

While elections were held in Provincial legislative houses, representatives of Princely States were identified through consultation. In all it had only nine women members. The Indian National Congress was the single largest party with 69% of all seats followed by the Muslim League which had most of the seats reserved for Muslims. In the beginning, it had members from all parts of British India and after 14 August 1947, as the country was partitioned between India and Pakistan, the members from Pakistan formed a separate Constituent Assembly for Pakistan.

 As you can see, the Constituent Assembly (CA) was not elected through universal adult franchise, but indirectly and as such did not represent all sections of Indian society. Only about 10% of the population could vote in the provincial elections then. In fact, the members from the princely states were not elected at all and were decided through consultation with the concerned princely states. Such a decision was taken keeping in view the special situation that had arisen due to intense political activity on the eve of freedom and mounting tensions among the people. The princely states had not yet agreed to become part of the Indian Union and many of them hoped to remain independent kingdoms. That is why their representatives were asked to join the Assembly. In the beginning, the Muslim League members did not attend the meetings, though they joined it later.

 Even though the C A was not strictly representative, it took great care to consider all shades of opinions and give wide publicity to its own work so that all kinds of people could provide their inputs through letters, writings in the newspapers and other mediums. Jawaharlal Nehru made this significant statement in the Assembly on 13th December, 1946: “ … the future of India that we have envisaged is not confined to any group or section or province or other, but it comprises all the four hundred million people of India… there is a duty cast upon us and that is to bear the absentees in mind, to remember always that we are here not to function for one party or one group, but always to think of India as a whole and always to think of the welfare of the four hundred millions that comprise India. ...it seems to me, the time has come when we should, so far as we are capable of it, rise above our ordinary selves and party disputes and think of the great problem before us in the widest and most tolerant and most effective manner so that, whatever we may produce, should be worthy of India as a whole and should be such that the world should recognise that we have functioned, as we should have functioned, in this high adventure.” A ‘Drafting Committee’ was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and its task was to prepare the final draft taking in account all view points. Various important aspects of the Constitution were discussed in great depth and the Assembly gave broad directions on them. The final draft was presented before the CA for discussion and approval. The Constitution was finally adopted by the CA on 26th November 1949 and it came into force on 26th January 1950. In the following section, we will read about some of the important debates in the CA in order to understand how some of these important provisions of Indian Constitution were arrived at.