The Indian Constitution

"Every nation needs a set of principles and rules, which all the citizens may abide by and helps in proper functioning of the government. In this regard, the constitution plays a vital part in a democratic setup."

1.0Introduction

In 1934, the Indian National Congress made the demand for a Constituent Assembly. During the Second World War, this assertion for an independent Constituent Assembly formed only of Indians gained momentum and this was convened in December 1946. Between December 1946 and November 1949, the Constituent Assembly drafted a constitution for independent India. Free to shape their destiny at last, after 150 years of British rule, the members of the Constituent Assembly approached this task with the great idealism that the freedom struggle had helped produce.

While all democratic countries are likely to have a constitution, it is not necessary that all Countries that have a constitution are democratic.

2.0Why Does a Country Need a constitution?

The constitution serves several purposes -

• It lays out certain ideals that from the basis of the kind of country that we as citizens aspire to live in. Thus, a constitution tells us what the fundamental nature of our society is. A country is usually made up of different communities of people who share certain beliefs but may not necessarily agree on all issues.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar

A Constitution helps serve as a set of rules and principles that all persons in a country can agree upon as the basis of the way in which they want the country to be governed. This includes not only the type of government but also an agreement on certain ideals that they all believe the country should uphold.

Case Study: Nepal

• Nepal is a country that borders India in the north, until recently, Nepal was monarchy.

In 1934, the Indian National Congress made the demand for a Constituent Assembly formed only of Indians. During the Second World War, it was convened in December 1946.

• The previous Constitution of Nepal, which had been adopted in 1990, reflected the fact that the final authority rested with the King.
• A people's movement in Nepal fought for several decades to establish democracy and in 2006 they final succeeded in putting an end to the powers of the King.
• The people had to write a new Constitution to establish Nepal as democracy. The reason that they did not want to continue with the previous Constitution is because it did not reflect the ideal of the country that they want Nepal to be, and that they have fought for.
• Nepal, by moving from monarchy to a democratic government, needs to change all it constitutive rules in order to usher in a new society.
• This is why the people of Nepal adopted a new Constitution for the country in 2015. The caption alongside elaborates Nepal's struggle for democracy.

The country of Nepal has witnessed several people's struggles for democracy. There was a people's struggle in 1990 that established democracy that lasted for 12 years until 2002. In October 2002, King Gyanendra, citing the Maoist uprising in the countryside as his reason, began taking over different aspects of the government with the army's assistance. The King then finally took over as the head of government in February 2005. In November 2005, the Maoists joined other political parties to sign a 12-point agreement. This agreement signalled to the larger public an imminent return to democracy and peace. In 2006, this people's movement for democracy began gaining immense force. It repeatedly refused the small concessions that the King made and finally in April 2006 the King restored the Third Parliament and asked the political parties to form a government. In 2008, Nepal became a democracy after abolishing the monarchy. The above photos show scenes from the people's movement for democracy in 2006.

• The second important purpose of a constitution is to define the nature of a country's political system. For example, Nepal's earlier Constitution stated that the country was to be ruled by the King and his council of ministers. In countries that have adopted a democratic form of government or polity, the Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out certain important guidelines that govern decision making within these societies.
• In democratic societies, the Constitution often lays down rules that guard against this misuse of authority by our political leaders. In that case the Indian Constitution, guarantees the right to equality to all persons and says that no citizen can be discriminated against on grounds of religion, race, caste, gender, and place of birth. The Right to Equality is one of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
• Another important function that a constitution plays in democracy is to ensure that a dominant group does not us its power against other, less powerful people or groups.
• The Constitution usually contains rule that ensure that minorities are not excluded from anything that is routinely available to the majority Another reason why we have a Constitution is precisely to prevent this tyranny or domination by the majority of a minority. This can refer to on community dominating another, i.e., inter-community domination, or members of one community dominating others within the same community, i.e. intra-community domination.
• Another important reason why we need a constitution is to save us from ourselves. we might at times feel strongly about an issue that might go against our larger interests and the Constitution helps us guard against this.

Similarly, the Constitution helps to protect us against certain decisions that we might take that could have an adverse effect on the larger principles that the country believes in.

• For example, it is possible that many people who live in a democracy might come to strongly feel that party politics has become so acrimonious that we need a strong dictator to set this right. Thus, they may not realise that in the long run, dictatorial rule goes against all their interests. A good Constitution does not allow these whims to change its basic structure. It does not allow for the easy overthrow of provisions that guarantee rights of citizens and protect their freedom.

3.0Framing of Indian Constitution

• The constitution of India was framed after India had lived through about 200 years of colonial rule. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Indian national movement had been active in the struggle for independence from British rule for several decades. During the freedom struggle the nationalists had devoted a great deal of time to imagining and planning what a free India would be like. The freedom struggle, the national movement, partition of the country and spread of communal violence were foremost in the minds of the leaders. Their main aim was to give India a 'Constitution' which would fulfil the cherished ideals of the people of this country and the establishment of a democratic society.

Dr Rajendra Prasad

• The long experience of authoritarian rule under the colonial state convinced Indians that free India should be a democracy in which everyone should be treated equally and be allowed to participate in government. What remained to be done then was to work out the ways in which a democratic government would be set up in India and the rules that would determine its functioning.
• This was done not by one person but by a group of around 300 people who became members of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and who met periodically for the next three years to write India's Constitution. These members of the Constituent Assembly had a huge task before them.

Jawahar Lal Nehru signing Indian Constitution

• The country was made up of several different communities who spoke different languages, belonged to different religions, and had distinct cultures. Also, when the Constitution was being written, India was going through considerable turmoil. The partition of the country into India and Pakistan was imminent, some of the Princely States remained undecided about their future, and the socio-economic condition of the vast mass of people appeared dismal.
• All of these issues played on the minds of the members of the Constituent Assembly as they drafted the Constitution. They rose to the occasion and gave this country a visionary document that reflects a respect for maintaining diversity while preserving national unity. The final document also reflects their concern for eradicating poverty through socioeconomic reforms as well as emphasising the crucial role the people can play in choosing their representatives.

4.0The Indian Constitution: Key Features

Listed below are the key features of the Indian Constitution. While reading these, keep in mind the diversity, unity, socio-economic reform, and representation that the authors of this document were grappling with. Try and understand the ways in which they tried to balance these concerns with their commitment to transforming independent India into a strong, democratic society.

Constituent Assembly of India

Federalism

• This refers to the existence of more than one level of government in the country.
• In India, we have governments at the state level and at the centre.
• Panchayati Raj is the third tier of government
• The vast number of communities in India meant that a system of government needed to be devised that did not involve only persons sitting in the capital city of New Delhi and making decisions for everyone.
• Instead, it was important to have another level of government in the states so that decisions could be made for that particular area.
• While each state in India enjoys autonomy in exercising powers on certain issues, subjects of national concern require that all of these states follow the laws of the central government.
• The Constitution contains lists that detail the issues that each tier of government can make laws on.
• The Constitution also specifies where each tier of government can get the money from for the work that it does.
• Under federalism, the states are not merely agents of the federal government but draw their authority from the Constitution as well. All persons in India are governed by laws and policies made by each of these levels of government.

Parliamentary Form of Government

• The different tiers of government that you just read about consist of representatives who are elected by the people.
• The Constitution of India guarantees universal adult suffrage for all citizens.
• When they were making the Constitution, the members of the Constituent Assembly felt that the freedom struggle had prepared the masses for universal adult suffrage and that this would help encourage a democratic mindset and break the clutches of traditional caste, class, and gender hierarchies.
• This means that the people of India have a direct role in electing their representatives. Also, every citizen of the country, irrespective of his/her social background, can also contest in elections. These representatives are accountable to the people.

Separation of Powers

• According to the Constitution, there are three organs of the government. These are the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.
• The legislature refers to our elected representatives.
• The executive is a smaller group of people who are responsible for implementing laws and running the government.
• The judiciary refers to the system of courts in this country. In order to prevent the misuse of power by any one branch of the government, the Constitution says that each of these organs should exercise different powers.
• Through this, each organ acts as a check on the other organs of the government, and this ensures the balance of power between all three.

5.0Insights of sessions of constituent assembly

When members of the Constituent Assembly feared that the executive might become too strong and ignore its responsibility to the legislature. The Assembly, therefore, included a number of provisions in the Constitution to limit and control the action taken by the executive branch of government as a whole. Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar is known as the Father of the Indian Constitution. Dr Ambedkar believed that his participation in the Constituent Assembly helped the Scheduled Castes get some safeguards in the draft constitution. But he also stated that although the laws might exist, Scheduled Castes still had reason to fear because the administration of these laws were in the hands of 'caste Hindu officers'. He, therefore, urged Scheduled Castes to join the government as well as the civil services.

When the Constituent Assembly adopted the principle of universal adult franchise, Shri A.K. Ayyar, a member, remarked that this was done, "with an abundant faith in the common man and the ultimate success of democratic rule, and in the full belief that the introduction of democratic government on the basis of adult suffrage will bring enlightenment and promote the well-being, the standard of life, the comfort, and the decent living of the common man".

Fundamental Rights

• The section on Fundamental Rights has often been referred to as the 'conscience' of the Indian Constitution.
• Colonial rule had created a certain suspicion of the State in the minds of the nationalists, and they wanted to ensure that a set of written rights would guard against the misuse of State power in independent India.
• Fundamental Rights, therefore, protect citizens against the arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the State.
• The Constitution, thus, guarantees the rights of individuals against the State as well as against other individuals.
• Moreover, the various minority communities also expressed the need for the Constitution to include rights that would protect their group. The Constitution, therefore, also guarantees the rights of minorities against the majority.
• As Dr. Ambedkar has said about these Fundamental Rights, their object is two-fold.
• The first objective is that every citizen must be in a position to claim those rights.
• Secondly, these rights must be binding upon every authority that has got the power to make laws.
• The constitution also mentions certain duties that every citizen is expected to do for the nation. These duties are called Fundamental Duties.
• Originally, the Constitution of India did not contain Fundamental Duties. It was added through Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976.
• In addition to Fundamental Rights, the Constitution also has a section called Directive Principles of State Policy. This section was designed by the members of the Constituent Assembly to ensure greater social and economic reform, and to serve as a guide to the independent Indian State to institute laws and policies that help to reduce the poverty of the masses.

The Word State

The word 'State' is often used in this chapter. This does NOT refer to state governments. Rather when we use State, we are trying to distinguish it from 'government'. 'Government' is responsible for administering and enforcing laws. The government can change with elections. The State on the other hand refers to a political institution that represents a sovereign people who occupy a definite territory. We can, thus, speak of the Indian State, the Nepali State etc. The Indian State has a democratic form of government. The government (or the executive) is one part of the State. The State refers to more than just the government and cannot be used interchangeably with it.

The Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution include:

• Right to Equality: All persons are equal before the law. This means that all persons shall be equally protected by the laws of the country. It also states that no citizen can be discriminated against on the basis of their religion, caste, or sex. Every person has access to all public places including playgrounds, hotels, shops etc. The State cannot discriminate against anyone in matters of employment. But there are some exception to it. The practice of untouchability has also been abolished.
• Right to Freedom: This includes the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to form associations, the right to move freely and reside in any part of the country, and the right to practise any profession, occupation, or business.
• Right against Exploitation: The Constitution prohibits human trafficking, forced labour, and employment of children under 14 years of age.
• Right to Freedom of Religion: Religious freedom is provided to all citizens. Every person has the right to practise, profess and propagate the religion of their choice.
• Cultural and Educational Rights: The Constitution states that all minorities, religious or linguistic, can set up their own educational institutions in order to

The Constitution prohibits Child Labour preserve and develop their own culture.

• Right to Constitutional Remedies: This allows citizens to move the court if they believe that any of their Fundamental Rights have been violated by the State.

Secularism

• A secular state is one in which the state does not officially promote any one religion as the state religion.
• The Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out the ideals that we would like all citizens of the country to adhere to, including the representatives that we elect to rule us. Just like in the game of football, a change of constitutive rules will affect the game.
• Indian Constitution has been amended over the years to reflect new concerns of the polity. Often a major change in the Constitution means a change in the fundamental nature of the country.

6.0Glossary

1. Arbitrary - When nothing is fixed and is instead left to one's judgment or choice. This can be used to refer to rules that are not fixed, or decisions that have no basis etc.
2. Ideal - A goal or a principle in its most excellent or perfect form.
3. Polity - A society that has an organised political structure. India is a democratic polity.
4. Sovereign - It refers to an independent people.
5. Trafficking - The practice of the illegal buying and selling of different commodities across national borders.
6. Human Trafficking - It refers to illegal trade in human beings, particularly women and children.
7. Tyranny - The cruel and unjust use of power or authority.

7.0Mind Map

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