The Constituent Assembly and the Making of the Constitution

The idea of a Constituent Assembly

The demand that Indians should frame their own constitution was first put forward by M.N. Roy in 1934. The Indian National Congress officially demanded a Constituent Assembly in 1935, and Jawaharlal Nehru declared in 1938 that it must be elected on the basis of adult franchise. The British accepted the demand in principle in the August Offer of 1940. The Cripps proposals (1942) offered a constitution-making body after the war, but they were rejected. Finally the Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) laid down how the Assembly would be formed.

Composition under the Cabinet Mission Plan

• Total strength: 389 seats – 296 for British India (292 from the eleven Governors' provinces and 4 from the Chief Commissioners' provinces) and 93 for princely states.
• Seats were allotted to each province and princely state roughly in proportion to population – about one seat per million people.
• Seats in each province were divided among three communities – Muslims, Sikhs and General – in proportion to population.
• Representatives of British India were elected indirectly by members of the provincial legislative assemblies through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Representatives of princely states were to be nominated by their rulers.
• The Assembly was therefore partly elected and partly nominated, and was not elected on adult franchise. Even so, it included members of every community – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Anglo-Indians, Indian Christians, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women (15 women members signed the Constitution).

Elections were held in July–August 1946: the Congress won 208 seats and the Muslim League 73. The princely states initially stayed away.

Working of the Assembly

• First meeting: 9 December 1946. The Muslim League boycotted it and insisted on a separate Pakistan. Dr Sachchidananda Sinha, the oldest member, was the temporary President.
• 11 December 1946: Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected President, with H.C. Mukherjee and V.T. Krishnamachari as Vice-Presidents. B.N. Rau was the Constitutional Adviser.
• 13 December 1946: Nehru moved the historic Objectives Resolution. It was adopted on 22 January 1947 and its modified version became the Preamble.
• Effect of the Independence Act, 1947: the Assembly became a fully sovereign body and also the first Parliament of free India (the Dominion Legislature). When it met as a legislature it was chaired by G.V. Mavalankar. After partition, members from areas going to Pakistan left, and strength fell to 299.

Other functions performed

Besides drafting the Constitution, the Assembly ratified India's membership of the Commonwealth (May 1949), adopted the National Flag (22 July 1947), adopted the National Anthem and National Song (24 January 1950), and elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as the first President (24 January 1950).

Committees

The Assembly worked through committees. The major ones and their chairmen:

The Advisory Committee had sub-committees, including the Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee (J.B. Kripalani) and the Minorities Sub-Committee (H.C. Mukherjee).

The Drafting Committee

Set up on 29 August 1947 with seven members: Dr B.R. Ambedkar (Chairman), N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, Dr K.M. Munshi, Syed Mohammad Saadullah, N. Madhava Rau (who replaced B.L. Mitter) and T.T. Krishnamachari (who replaced D.P. Khaitan after his death in 1948).

The Committee published the first draft in February 1948. The people were given eight months to discuss it, and the draft was then considered clause by clause. Overall, the Assembly met in 11 sessions over 2 years, 11 months and 18 days, considered about 7,600 amendments to the draft and disposed of about 2,400 of them.

Adoption and commencement

• 26 November 1949: the Constitution was adopted. This day is now observed as Constitution Day (Samvidhan Divas). Provisions on citizenship, elections, provisional Parliament, temporary and transitional provisions and the short title came into force immediately (Article 394).
• At adoption, the Constitution had a Preamble, 395 Articles in 22 Parts and 8 Schedules.
• 24 January 1950: final session; 284 members signed the Constitution.
• 26 January 1950: the rest of the Constitution came into force. The date was chosen because on 26 January 1930 the Congress had celebrated Purna Swaraj Day following the Lahore Session resolution of December 1929.

Criticism of the Assembly – and replies

Critics argued that it was not a representative body because members were not directly elected on adult franchise; that it was not sovereign because it was created by a British plan; that it took too long; that it was dominated by the Congress and by lawyers; and that it was dominated by Hindus. Granville Austin called the Assembly a "one-party body in an essentially one-party country". The common replies are that the Congress itself was a broad coalition of views; that eminent non-Congress members such as Ambedkar played central roles; that members represented every major community; and that the long debate allowed a careful and consensual text. Decisions were mostly taken by consensus and accommodation rather than by majority vote.

Common traps

• The Assembly first met on 9 December 1946 – Sachchidananda Sinha presided as temporary chairman, not Rajendra Prasad.
• The Objectives Resolution was moved on 13 December 1946 and adopted on 22 January 1947.
• The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and commenced on 26 January 1950.
• The elephant was adopted as the symbol (seal) of the Constituent Assembly.
• The calligraphy of the original Constitution was done by Prem Behari Narain Raizada, and the illustrations by artists of Santiniketan led by Nandalal Bose.

Key debates that shaped the text

• Federal versus unitary. Partition and the integration of princely states pushed the Assembly towards a strong Centre. The Union Powers Committee, which had first proposed a weak Centre under the Cabinet Mission Plan, revised its report after the Plan was abandoned.
• Fundamental Rights and their limits. Members debated whether rights should be absolute. The final text placed "reasonable restrictions" on freedoms and allowed preventive detention (Article 22), which members such as Somnath Lahiri and H.V. Kamath criticised.
• Language. The Munshi–Ayyangar formula produced Part XVII: Hindi in Devanagari as the official language of the Union, with English continuing for 15 years.
• Minorities. Separate electorates were rejected; reservation of seats for SCs and STs in legislatures was retained, and reservation for religious minorities was dropped in 1949.
• Village versus individual. Ambedkar criticised the village as "a sink of localism"; Gandhian members wanted panchayats. The compromise was Article 40 among the Directive Principles.

Ambedkar's closing warnings (25 November 1949)

In his final speech Ambedkar warned against three dangers: abandoning constitutional methods once the Constitution is in force (the "grammar of anarchy"), hero-worship in politics ("bhakti in politics is a sure road to degradation"), and resting content with political democracy without social democracy – "on the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions". These remarks are often quoted in Mains answers on constitutional morality.