Making of Indian Constitution

1. DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
(2015-2016)
TAE- 1
Subject:
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
TOPIC
“Making Of The Constitution Of India”
Year/Semester:
3rd Year | 6th Sem
Section: ‘C’
Guided By:
Prof. Dr. Rajshree Admane,
G.H.R.C.E, Nagpur
Submitted by:
Ashish M. Pandey (30)

2. Making of Indian Constitution
Introduction:
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It is a living document,
the permanent instrument which makes the government system work. It lays
down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the
structure, procedures, powers and duties of government institutions and sets out
fundamental rights, directive principles and the duties of citizens. The nation is
governed on the basis of this Constitution. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is
regarded as the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, but it was the
Constituent Assembly that worked under Dr Ambedkar and his team that drafted
the final copy of the Indian Constitution
The Constitution of India is the constitution of the Republic of India. It was
adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, and came into
effect on January 26, 1950. India celebrates January 26 each year as Republic
Day. It is the longest written constitution of any independent nation in the world,
containing 395 articles and 12 schedules for a total of 117,369 words in its
English language version.
Making:
From 1858 onwards, various Acts were passed by the British Government for the
governance of India. None of them satisfied Indian aspirations as they were
imposed by an alien rule. As early as 1922, Mahatma Gandhi had put forward the
demand that India’s political destiny needed for be determined by the Indians
themselves: “Swaraj will not be a free gift of the British Parliament; it will be a
declaration of India’s full self expression… (The) Act of Parliament will be
merely a courteous ratification of the declared wish of the people of India.”

3. The demand for a Constitution for the country being ‘framed by its own people
without outside interference’ was first raised by the Indian National Congress in
1934 and was repeated several times between 1935 and 1939.
The failure of the statutory commission and the Round Table Conference that led
to the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935, to satisfy Indian
aspirations accentuated the demand for a constitution for the Indians and by the
Indians.
In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru formulated the demand for a Constituent Assembly
stating that, “…the National Congress stands for independence and democratic
state. It has proposed that the Constitution of free India must be framed, without
any outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult
franchise.”
This was reiterated by the Working Committee of the Congress in 1939. This
demand was, however, resisted by the British Government until the outbreak of
World War II when external circumstances forced them to realise the urgency of
solving the problem related to the demand of an Indian Constitution.
In 1940, the Coalition Government in England recognised the principle that
Indians should themselves frame a new Constitution for autonomous India, and in
March 1942, when the Japanese were about to attack India, they sent Sir Stafford
Cripps, a member of the Cabinet, with a draft declaration of the proposals by the
British Government which were to be adopted at the end of the War, if the two
major Indian Political parties – the Congress and the Muslim League accepted
them, but the two parties failed to arrive at an agreement to accept the proposals.
The Constituent Assembly again met on 14th November, 1949, for the third
reading and finished it on 26th November, 1949, on which date, the Constitution
received the signature of the President of the Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and
was declared as passed.

4. The provisions relating to citizenship, elections, provisional Parliament and
temporary and transitional provisions, were brought into immediate effect, i.e.,
from November 26, 1949. The rest of the Constitution came into force on 26th
January, 1950 and this date is referred to, in the Constitution, as the Date of its
commencement.
The final session of the Constituent Assembly was held on January 24th, 1950. It
unanimously elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of the Republic of
India under the new Constitution which came into force on January 26, 1950.
This date was specifically chosen for the inauguration of the Indian Republic, as
it was on January 26th, 1930, that the Indian National Congress had passed the
historic resolution at its Lahore session to win independence.
Since then, this resolution was repeated every year at public meetings all over the
country till India became independent in 1947. It was, therefore, deemed apt and
reverential to synchronise the inauguration of the Republic of India with the
“Independence Day” celebrations of January 26th, 1950.