Enactment of the Constitution

The Indian Constitution, which came into effect on January 26, 1950, is the world’s longest. However, considering the breadth and diversity of the country, its length and intricacy are absolutely reasonable. At the time of Independence, India was not only vast and diverse but also deeply divided.

A Constitution that was designed to hold the country together and move it forward needed to be a sophisticated, well-thought-out, and meticulously constructed document. For one thing, it intended to heal past and present wounds by bringing together Indians of all classes, castes, and communities in a cooperative political experiment. Another goal was to establish democratic institutions in a society dominated by authority and obedience.

Between December 1946 and November 1949, the Indian Constitution was drafted. During this time, its recommendations were debated in India’s Constituent Assembly, clause by clause. Overall, the Assembly was a success, with eleven sessions held over a period of 165 days. In between sessions, several committees and subcommittees worked on reviewing and improving the papers.

You’ve studied the Indian Constitution in political science textbooks and seen how it has functioned over the decades since Independence.

In this article, we will discuss the enactment of the Indian Constitution, as well as the Constitution’s history and the heated disputes that happened throughout its formation. If we try to hear the voices within the Constituent Assembly, we can obtain a sense of the process by which the Constitution was created and how the vision of a new nation developed.

Why and how was the Indian Constitution drafted?

The Constituent Assembly split India on the 14th of August 1947, and its members were chosen by an indirect election that took place with the help of the elected members of the provincial legislative assembly. The Government of India Act of 1935 managed to find it. The participant assembly happened to generally form with the lines recommended by the strategy offered to the British cabinet committee, which was also known as the “Mission of the Cabinet”.

According to this strategy:

• Each Province, Princely State, or collection of States was granted seats proportionally to their respective populations, generally in the ratio of 1:1,000,000. 
• This made the provinces elect 292 members, and the princely states were given 93 seats. Due to their respective proportions, the seats were distributed with the proportion of their populations due to three prominent communities such as Sikhs, Muslims and generals. 
• Each community in the provincial legislative assembly was decided to choose and elect their own representative with the help of proportional representation along with a single vote. 
• The consultation was to be used to decide the procedure of selection for representatives of Princely States.

The procedure of making the Constitution

In the Assembly’s normal operations, the role of public reason was also emphasised. The Constituent Assembly included eight important committees covering a wide range of themes. Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R. Ambedkar and Sardar Patel were frequently in charge of these Committees.

These were not people who agreed on a lot of things. Ambedkar had been a harsh critic of the Congress and Gandhi, accusing them of not doing enough to help the Scheduled Castes. Patel and Nehru clashed on a number of matters. Nonetheless, they all collaborated. Each Committee normally wrote specific parts of the Constitution, which were subsequently debated by the whole Assembly.

Typically, an attempt was made to create a consensus in the hope that provisions agreed upon by everyone would not damage any specific interests. Some clauses were up for a vote.

However, in each case, every single argument, question, or worry was addressed with great attention and in writing. The Assembly met for a total of 166 days over the course of two years and eleven months. Its meetings were open to both the press and the general public.

The main aspects of the Resolution of Objectives

• Our country is a sovereign republic and an independent country that shall always be a former union of British Indian Territories. 
• Our country and its states are willing to be a part of this union.
• The territories that will be formed are going to be autonomous units and will use all the powers of administration and government, except for the ones that are vested and assigned to the union. 
• Political justice, social, equality of status, economic opportunities, fundamental rights, freedom of speech, belief, faith, expressions, vocation, worship, association, and action subject to public morality, law, tribal and backward areas, minorities, backward and tribal areas, depressed, and other backward classes shall be provided with adequate safeguards; the integrity of the territory of Indian republic and its sea, land and air will be kept intact. 

Fundamental Duties of an Indian

Every Indian citizen shall have the following obligations:

 (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, as well as the National Flag and the National Anthem; 

(b) to walk upon the noble steps and embrace the ideas of freedom;

(c) to uphold and protect India’s sovereignty, unity, and integrity; and 

(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon;

(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood among all Indians, transcending religious, linguistic, regional, or sectional differences; to renounce practises derogatory to the dignity of women; 

(f) to value and preserve our composite culture’s rich heritage; 

(g) to guard and help nourish the environment and protect its gifts such as lakes, rivers, wildlife, forests and also have the compassion to take care of living creatures;  

(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism;

(i) to protect public property and abstain from violence; 

(j) to strive for excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation continually rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement;

(k) whoever is a parent or guardian should provide educational opportunities to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the ages of six and fourteen years.

Conclusion

The Indian Constitution is a one-of-a-kind text that has served as a model for multiple Constitutions, for instance, that of South Africa. The fundamental goal of the almost three-year-long search was to strike the appropriate balance so that the institutions established by the Constitution would not be unplanned or provisional arrangements, and many are able to satisfy the aspirations of the people of India for a long time to come.