2.0 The Question Before Us

In Part 1 we asked: what does a constitution do? Now we ask: how was the Indian Constitution actually made? A constitution is only as effective as the process that creates it. The most successful constitutions in history — in India, South Africa and the United States — were drafted in the wake of mass national movements that drew leaders of immense public standing. The Indian Constitution drew its legitimacy from the same source: the long, plural, democratic nationalist movement^? that gave it both vision and authority.

2.1 The Constituent Assembly — Origin and Composition

Formally, the Constituent Assembly^? was the body that drafted the Indian Constitution. It was first elected for an undivided India. Its first sitting was held on 9 December 1946. After Partition, it reassembled as the Constituent Assembly for divided India on 14 August 1947.

2.1.1 The Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946

The Constituent Assembly was created on the lines suggested by the Cabinet Mission Plan^? — a plan put forward by a committee of the British cabinet that came to India in 1946. According to this plan:

• Each Province and each Princely State (or group of States) was allotted seats roughly in the ratio of 1 seat per 10 lakh (one million) people.
• Provinces (under direct British rule) were to elect 292 members; Princely States were allotted a minimum of 93 seats.
• Within each Province, seats were divided among the three main communities — Muslims, Sikhs and the General category — in proportion to their populations.
• Members of each community in the Provincial Legislative Assemblies elected their own representatives by proportional representation^? with single transferable vote.
• Representatives of the Princely States were chosen by consultation, not by direct election.

So while the Assembly was not elected by universal adult suffrage, real care was taken to make it representative of the various religions, regions and political streams of undivided India.

2.1.2 Composition of the Assembly — Before and After Partition

Under the plan of 3 June 1947 (the Partition plan), members elected from territories that fell under Pakistan ceased to be members of the Constituent Assembly. The number of members was reduced from 389 to 299. The Constitution was eventually adopted on 26 November 1949; 284 members were physically present on 24 January 1950 to sign the Constitution as finally passed. The Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.

Within this 299-member Assembly, every major religion of India had representation. In addition, there were twenty-eight members from the Scheduled Castes. In terms of political parties, the Indian National Congress dominated — occupying about 82 per cent of seats after Partition. But the Congress itself was such a diverse umbrella party that it could accommodate almost every shade of political opinion of the time.

2.2 The Drafting Committee and Its Members

The Assembly worked through a network of eight major committees on different subjects. The most famous of these was the Drafting Committee, which actually wrote the text of the Constitution. It was chaired by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. The Drafting Committee had seven members in all.

2.2.1 Other Key Figures

The President of the Constituent Assembly was Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who guided the Assembly through its long deliberations. The eight major committees of the Assembly were typically chaired by Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or B. R. Ambedkar. These were not men who agreed on many things — Ambedkar had been a sharp critic of the Congress and Gandhi for not doing enough for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes; Patel and Nehru disagreed on many issues. And yet they all worked together.

2.3 The Procedure of the Constituent Assembly

Each Committee usually drafted particular provisions of the Constitution, which were then debated by the entire Assembly. The standard practice was to seek consensus — on the belief that provisions agreed to by everyone would not damage any group’s interests. Some provisions were eventually put to a vote. But every argument, query and concern was responded to with great care and in writing.

The Assembly met for 166 days, spread over two years and eleven months (specifically, 2 years, 11 months and 18 days). Its sessions were open to the press and the public alike. The voluminous debates that resulted — the Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD) — remain one of the great records of public reasoning in modern political history.

2.3.1 What Was Debated — and What Was Not

Almost every issue at the foundation of a modern state was discussed with great sophistication: should India be centralised or decentralised? What should be the relationship between the States and the Centre? What should be the powers of the judiciary? Should the Constitution protect property rights?

Only one provision of the Constitution was passed without virtually any debate: the introduction of universal adult suffrage^? — the rule that every citizen above a certain age would have the right to vote, regardless of religion, caste, education, gender or income. The members felt no need to discuss this question at all. As NCERT remarks: nothing can be a better testament to the democratic commitment of the Assembly.

2.4 Inheritance of the Nationalist Movement

No constitution is simply the product of the Assembly that produces it. An Assembly as diverse as India’s could not have functioned without a background consensus on the main principles. That consensus was forged not in 1946 but in the long decades of struggle that preceded it. For decades before 1946, the nationalist movement had debated:

• The shape and form of government India should have.
• The values it should uphold — equality, liberty, secularism, justice.
• The inequalities it should overcome — caste, gender, region, religion.

The answers forged in those long debates were given their final form in the Constitution. The Constituent Assembly was, in a sense, giving institutional shape to principles it had inherited from the freedom struggle.

2.4.1 Key Milestones in the Nationalist Movement

2.5 The Objectives Resolution — The Soul of the Constitution

Perhaps the best summary of the principles the nationalist movement brought to the Constituent Assembly is the Objectives Resolution^?, moved by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 December 1946. This resolution defined the aims of the Assembly. Its key principles — equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan, civic identity — ran like a thread through the entire Constitution. Most of these ideas were later embedded almost word-for-word in the Preamble.

Through the Objectives Resolution, the Constitution gave institutional form to five fundamental commitments inherited from the freedom struggle: equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan identity. The Constitution was therefore not merely a maze of rules and procedures, but a moral commitment to fulfil the promises the nationalist movement had held before the people.

2.6 Borrowings from Other Constitutions

The framers were not insular. They learnt from experiments and experiences of other countries. Each provision was, however, defended on grounds of suitability to Indian problems and aspirations — not merely because some other country had it. As Dr. Ambedkar himself remarked in the Assembly on 4 November 1948, the only new things in a Constitution framed so late in the day are the variations made to remove faults and to suit it to the needs of the country.

2.7 Putting It Together — What Made the Indian Constitution Effective

Recall the three tests of an effective constitution from Part 1: a credible mode of promulgation, sound substantive provisions, and balanced institutional design. The Indian Constitution passes all three.