Major Committees of CA

The Indian Constitution, which took effect on January 26, 1950, has the unenviable distinction of being the world’s longest. However, considering the expanse and variety of the nation, its length and intricacy are likely reasonable. At the time of independence, India was not only vast and diverse, but also deeply divided.

A Constitution that was intended to hold the country together and drive it forward had to be a sophisticated, well-thought-out, and precisely written instrument. For one thing, it attempted to heal past and present wounds by bringing together Indians of all classes, castes, and communities in a joint political experiment. Another goal was to establish democratic institutions in a culture that had historically been defined by hierarchy and obedience.

Between December 1946 and November 1949, the Indian Constitution was drafted. During this period, its proposals were debated clause by clause in India’s Constituent Assembly. Overall, the Assembly was successful and hosted eleven sessions over a period of 165 days. Various committees and subcommittees worked between sessions to revise and refine the documents.

You know what the Indian Constitution is from your political science textbooks, and you’ve seen how it’s operated throughout the decades since Independence. In this essay, we will discuss the major committees of the Indian constitution, as well as the history that lies behind the Constitution and the heated discussions that took place during its creation. We can gain a sense of the process by which the Constitution was created and the vision of the new nation formulated if we try to hear the voices within the Constituent Assembly.

The making of the Constituent Assembly

The members of the Constituent Assembly were not chosen using the universal franchise. In India, provincial elections were held in the winter of 1945-46. The deputies to the Constituent Assembly were then chosen by the provincial legislatures.

The newly formed Constituent Assembly was dominated by one party: the Congress. At midnight on August 14, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru delivered a speech in the Constituent Assembly.

On this day, Nehru delivered his famous speech, which started with the following lines:

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

The Constituent Assembly is in session, and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel is seated second from the right.

In the provincial elections, Congress won all of the general seats, but the Muslim League won the majority of the reserved Muslim seats. However, the League opted to boycott the Constituent Assembly in order to advance its demand for a separate constitution for Pakistan.

The Socialists were also first hesitant to join because they considered the Constituent Assembly was a British invention and so incapable of being really autonomous. As a result, 82% of the members of the Constituent Assembly were also members of the Congress.

The Congress, on the other hand, was not a party with a unified voice. Its members held opposing views on crucial matters. Some members were influenced by socialism, while others were staunch supporters of landlordism. Some were affiliated with community groups, while others were staunchly secular. 

Members of Congress had learned to discuss their ideas in public and to mediate their disagreements as a result of the national movement. Congress members did not sit quietly in the Constituent Assembly, either.

The viewpoints given by the people also affected the deliberations within the Constituent Assembly. As the discussions progressed, the arguments were published in publications, and the suggestions were contested publicly. Complaints and counter-criticisms in the press, in turn, impacted the character of the eventual agreement on certain problems. To foster a sense of community engagement, the public was also urged to put in their suggestions for what needed to be done.

Several language minorities sought protection for their mother tongues, religious minorities sought specific safeguards, and dalits demanded an end to all caste persecution and reservation of seats in government entities. Important problems of cultural rights and social justice addressed in these public debates were debated on the Assembly floor.

Major Committees of CA

•  Union Power Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru 

 Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru 

• Provincial Constitution Committee – Sardar Patel
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar chairs the Drafting Committee, while Sardar Patel chairs the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities, Tribal and Excluded Areas.

This committee was divided into the following subcommittees:

• J.B. Kripalani Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights
•  H.C. Mukherjee, Sub-Committee on Minorities
• Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas in the North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam – Gopinath Bardoloi, Sub-Committee
• Areas Excluded and Partially Excluded (Other than those in Assam) A.V. Thakkar, Sub-Committee
• Dr. Rajendra Prasad is a member of the Rules of Procedure Committee.
• States Committee (Negotiation Committee) – Jawaharlal Nehru 
• Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Conclusion

Thus, the Indian Constitution arose via a period of vigorous debate and discussion. Many of its provisions were reached by a process of give and take, by establishing a middle ground between two opposing viewpoints.

However, there was broad agreement on one key provision of the Constitution. This was on the issue of extending the right to vote to all adult Indians.

This was an unusual gesture of trust, because in previous democracies, the vote had been bestowed gradually and in stages. In nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom, only men with property were permitted the vote at first, and subsequently those with education were allowed to join the enchanted circle. Men of working-class or peasant backgrounds were granted the right to vote after a long and painful fight. It took an even longer effort to allow women this privilege.