Making of the Constitution

• The idea of “Constituent Assembly” for India was proposed for the first time by MN Roy in 1934.
• The idea was first accepted by the British in August Offer (1940). Later the Cripps Mission proposed for the Constitution Assembly consisting entirely of Indians.
• The Constituent Assembly was set-up in November, 1946 as per the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.
• The indirect election was conducted to the Constituent Assembly .
• Total members of the Constituent Assembly were 389 out of which 296 were elected by the members of the provincial assemblies and the rest were nominated by the Princely States.
• After the partition, the strength of Constituent Assembly was reduced to 299
• First meeting was held on 9th December, 1946. Sachidanand Sinha was the interim President.
• On 11th December, 1946, Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of the Constituent Assembly.
• Objective Resolution was moved by Jawaharlal Nehru.
• The Drafting Committee was appointed, with Dr.B.R. Ambedkar as the Chairman.
• It took almost 2 Years, 11 Months and 18 days to complete Constitution for Independent India.
• On 26th November, 1949, the people of India through the Constituent Assembly adopted, enacted and gave themselves the Constitution of India.
• Totally 11 sessions were held over 2 years, 11 months and 18 days.
• The Constitution-makers had gone through the constitutions of about 60 countries.
• The total expenditure was ` 64 lakh.
• The final session of the Constituent Assembly held On January 24, 1950.
• The Constitution came into effect from 26th January, 1950.
• The first general elections in 1951–52.

Major Committees

1. Union Powers Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru

2. Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru

3. Provincial Constitution Committee – Sardar Patel

4. Drafting Committee – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar,/p>

5. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas – Sardar Patel.

Sub-committees:

• Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee – J.B. Kripalani
• Minorities Sub-Committee – H.C. Mukherjee
• North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee – Gopinath Bardoloi
• Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee – A.V. Thakkar
• North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Sub-Committee8a

6. Rules of Procedure Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

7. States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) – Jawaharlal Nehru

8. Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Minor Committees

1. Finance and Staff Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

2. Credentials Committee – Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar

3. House Committee – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya

4. Order of Business Committee – Dr. K.M. Munshi

5. Ad-hoc Committee on the National Flag – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

6. Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly – G.V. Mavalankar

7. Ad-hoc Committee on the Supreme Court – S. Varadachari (Not an Assembly Member)

8. Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya

9. Expert Committee on the Financial Provisions of the Union Constitution – Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (Not an Assembly Member)

10. Linguistic Provinces Commission – S.K. Dar (Not an Assembly Member)

11. Special Committee to Examine the Draft Constitution – Jawaharlal Nehru

12. Press Gallery Committee – Usha Nath Sen

13. Ad-hoc Committee on Citizenship – S. Varadachari

Drafting Committee

• The Drafting Committee set up on August 29, 1947. It prepared a draft of the new Constitution.
• It consisted of seven members.

They were:

1. Dr B R Ambedkar (Chairman)

2. N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar

3. Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar

4. Dr K M Munshi

5. Syed Mohammad Saadullah

6. N Madhava Rau (He replaced B L Mitter who resigned due to ill-health)

7. T T Krishnamachari (He replaced D P Khaitan who died in 1948)

• The first draft of the Constitution of India was published in February 1948.
• The second draft was published in October 1948.
• The committee took 141 days to draft the constitution.
• Dr B R Ambedkar introduced the final draft of the Constitution in the Assembly on November 4, 1948 (first reading).
• The second reading started on November 15, 1948.
• The third reading of the draft started on November 14, 1949.

Criticism:

1. The Constituent Assembly was Not a Representative Body and its members were not directly elected by the people of India.

2. The Constituent Assembly was Not a Sovereign Body. Because, it was created by the proposals of the British Government.

3. Time Consuming, because the Constituent Assembly took long time to make the Constitution.

4. Naziruddin Ahmed, a member of the Constituent Assembly, called the Drafting Committee as “Drifting Committee”.

5. The Constituent Assembly was Dominated by Congress.

6. Granville Austin, a British Constitutional expert, criticised the Constituent Assembly as a one-party body and the Assembly was the Congress and the Congress was India.

7. Lawyer–Politician Domination: The Constituent Assembly was dominated by lawyers and politicians.

8. The Constituent Assembly was Dominated by Hindus:

• Lord Viscount Simon called it a body of Hindus.
• Winston Churchill commented that the Constituent Assembly represented only one major community in India’

Important Facts

1. Elephant was adopted as the symbol (seal) of the Constituent Assembly.

2. Sir B.N. Rau was appointed as the Legal advisor to the Constituent Assembly.

3. H.V.R. Iyengar was the Secretary to the Constituent Assembly.

4. S.N. Mukerjee was the chief draftsman of the constitution in the Constituent Assembly.

5. Prem Behari Narain Raizada was the calligrapher of the Indian Constitution. The original constitution was handwritten by him in a flowing italic style.

6. The original version was beautified and decorated by artists from Shantiniketan including Nand Lal Bose and Beohar Rammanohar Sinha.

7. Beohar Rammanohar Sinha illuminated, beautified and ornamented the original Preamble calligraphed by Prem Behari Narain Raizada.

8. The calligraphy of the Hindi version of the original constitution was done by Vasant Krishan Vaidya and elegantly decorated and illuminated by Nand Lal Bose.