The Making of the Constitution

A Constitution is a set of rules, written or unwritten, acceptable to all the people living together in a country. It is the supreme legislation that governs how residents of a territory interact with one another and how they interact with the government.

With the build-up of national consciousness among Indians and the decline of moderate elements in the Indian freedom struggle, the demand for the formation of a constitution for Indians by themselves became even louder.

The demand that the Indians themselves should determine India’s Political destiny had been put forward by Mahatma Gandhi as early as 1922.

Historical Background

• In 1925, Lord Birkenhead, the secretary of state for India, challenged the Indians to draft a constitution that would have a general agreement among all Indians. In response to that as well as Simon Commission which did not have a single Indian member, the Indian National Congress under Motilal Nehru decided to constitute an All Parties Conference to draft the Constitution of India. It came out as a Nehru Report in 1928.
• In 1931, the Indian National Congress passed a resolution at the Karachi session, which dwelt on how the Constitution of independent India should look like.
• The white paper issued after the third Round Table Conference outlined the British Government’s proposal for constitutional reforms in India.
• In 1934, MN Roy, who pioneered the communist movement in India, proposed the idea of a constituent assembly for India.
• The failure of the Simon Commission and the Third Round Table Conference led to the enactment Of the Government of India Act ,1935 to satisfy Indian aspirations, accentuated the demand for a Constituent Assembly of the people of India.
• Gandhiji wrote an article, “The Only Way”, in the Harijan of 19 November 1939, in which he expressed the view that the “Constituent Assembly alone can produce a constitution indigenous to the country and truly and fully representing the will of the people.”
• In the “August offer “of 1940, the demand for a Constituent Assembly was for the first time fully conceded by the British Government, though in an indirect way and with important reservations.
• In 1942, Cripps’s mission under Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to India with a draft proposal of the British government to form an independent constitution for India to be adopted after the Second World War.
• Finally, in 1946, a cabinet mission arrived in India to discuss with all the parties the issues of interim government and principles and procedures of framing a new constitution for independent India.

Composition of the Constituent Assembly

• The assembly was constituted in November 1946 in accordance with the scheme formulated by the Cabinet mission.
• The cabinet mission provided for the indirect elections to the Constituent Assembly by the elected members of the provincial legislature.
• The total strength of the Constitution-making body was 389. Of these, 296 representatives were from British India (292 representatives from 11 Governor’s provinces, and four from Chief Commissioner’s Provinces of Delhi, Ajmer, Coorg, and British Baluchistan) and 93 representatives from the Indian States.
• The party-wise break up of the assembly’s British Indian Membership reveals (after the election) that:
  1. Congress won 208 out of 296 seats,
  2. followed by the Muslim League, which won 73 seats,
  3. 8 by Independents,
  4. 7 seats by others which included Unionists, Unionist Muslims, Unionist SC, Krishak Praja, Scheduled Caste Federation, Sikh (Non-Congress), and Communists.
• The first Session of the constituent Assembly was on 9 December, 1946.

Did the constituent assembly represent the masses of India?

It is often argued if the constituent assembly truly represented the Indian masses since the representatives were not elected through the Universal Adult Franchise. They were elected indirectly, that too through a restricted franchise that represented the elite section of society.

However, in defence, it can be said that:

1. The assembly represented different shades of opinions and consisted of representatives from diverse socio-religious backgrounds.
2. Though the Congress dominated the assembly, there was an unwritten consensus within the party that it should represent social and ideological diversity.
3. The Congress also brought experts like K. Ayyer and N.G. Ayyanger from outside the party.
4. Dr Ambedkar and John Matthai, who were not members of the Congress, were made Cabinet ministers. Similarly, SP Mukharjee represented the Hindu Mahasabha.

Thus, we can say that the constituent assembly tried to accommodate various viewpoints despite the limitations of having been elected by the restricted franchise.