Generally, the task of framing the constitution of a sovereign democratic nation is performed by a representative body of its people. Such a body elected by the people for the purpose of considering and adopting a constitution may be known as the constituent assembly.
The concept of a constituent assembly had always been linked with the growth of the national movement in India. The idea of a constituent assembly, whereby Indians themselves might frame a constitution for their country, was implicit in the opposition to the 1919 Act. But, the first definite reference to a constituent assembly for India, though not in those words or under that particular name-was made by Mahatma Gandhi in 1922, soon after the inauguration of the Government of India Act, 1919.
In 1922 itself, a joint meeting of numbers of the two Houses of the Central Legislature was held at Simla at the initiative of Mrs. Annie Besant, which decided to call a convention for the framing of a constitution. Yet another conference attended by members of the Central and Provincial Legislatures was held in Delhi in February 1923. This conference outlined essential elements of a constitution placing India on equal footing with the self governing Dominions of the British Empire. A "National Convention" was called which met on 24 April, under the presidentship of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru. This convention drafted the "Commonwealth of India Bill". The draft will was submitted in slightly amended form to a committee of the All parties Conference held at Delhi in January 1925, which was presided over by Mahatma Gandhi. Finally, the draft was submitted to a Drafting Committee which published the Bill. The Bill was sent to an influential member of the Labour Party in Britain accompanied by a memorandum signed by 43 leaders of various political parties. It found wide support in the Labour Party and accepted with slight modifications. The Bill had the first reading after it was introduced in the House of Commons. Though with the defeat of Labour Government, the fate of the Bill was sealed, it was a major effort by the Indians to outline a constitutional system for India with the help of peaceful and constitutional means.
The adoption of the famous Motilal Nehru resolution in 1924 and 1925 on the National Demand was a historic event inasmuch as the Central Legislature had, for the first time, lent its support to the growing demand that the future constitution of India should be framed by Indians themselves.
In November 1927, when the Simon Commission was appointed without any Indians represented on it, an all-party meeting held at Allahabad said that apart from being virtual negation of the "National Demand", it amounted to a "deliberate insult to the people of India" for, not only did it "definitely assign to them a position of inferiority" but also denied to them "the right to participate in the determination of the constitution of their own country".
Earlier on 17 May 1927, at the Bombay Session of the Congress, Motilal Nehru had moved a resolution calling upon the Congress Working Committee to frame a constitution for India in consultation with the elected members of the Central and Provincial Legislatures and leaders of political parties. Adopted by an overwhelming majority with the amendments, it was this resolution on the Swaraj constitution which was later amplified and reiterated by Jawahar Lal Nehru in a resolution passed by the Madras Session of the Congress on 28 December 1927. An All Parties Conference organised at Bombay on 19 May 1928 appointed a committee, under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru "to determine the principles of the constitution of India". The report of the committee (submitted on 10 August 1928) was later to become famous as the Nehru Report. It was the first attempt by Indians to frame a full-fledged constitution for their country and has been described by Coupland as "not only an answer to the challenge that Indian Nationalism was unconstructive" but "frankest attempt yet made by Indians to face squarely the difficulties of communalism". The Report embodied not only the perspective of the contemporary nationalist opinion but also an outline of a draft constitution for India. The latter was based on the principle of Dominion Status with full responsible government on the parliamentary pattern. It asserted the principle that sovereignty belongs to Indian people, laid down a set of fundamental rights and provided for a federal system with maximum autonomy granted to the units but residuary powers vested in the Central Government and joint electorates for elections to the Federal Lower House and the Provincial Legislature with reservation of seats for minorities in certain cases for a limited period.
It would be seen that the broad parliamentary system with a government responsible to Parliament, a chapter of Justiceable fundamental rights and rights of minorities envisaged in the Nehru Report in 1928 were very largely embodied in the constitution of independent India that was adopted 21 years later, on 26 November 1949.
The White Paper issued after the third Round Table Conference outlined the British government's proposal for constitutional reforms in India. The Joint Parliamentary Committee which examined these proposals observed that "a specific grant of constituent power to authorities in India is not at the moment a practicable proposition".
In June 1934, the Congress Working Committee declared that the only satisfactory alternative to the White Paper was a constitution drawn up by a constituent assembly elected on the basis of adult suffrage. This was the first time that a definite demand for a constituent assembly was formally put forward. The Working Committee of the All India Congress Committee at its meeting held at Patna on 5-7 December 1934 adopted a resolution rejecting the scheme of Indian Constitutional Reforms as recommended in the Report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (1933-34) and reiterated the view that the only satisfactory alternative to the scheme was a constitution drawn up by the constituent assembly.
The failure of the Simon Commission and the Round Table Conference which led to the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935 to satisfy the Indian aspirations accentuated the demand for a constituent assembly of the people of India. The Congress adopted a resolution at its Lucknow Session in April 1936 in which it declared that no constitution imposed by an outside authority shall be acceptable to India; it has to be one framed by an Indian Constituent Assembly elected by the people of India on adult franchise.
Since the Congress had contested elections to the Provincial Legislatures on the issues of total rejection of the Act of 1935 and the demand for a constituent assembly, following a decisive victory it adopted at Delhi on 18 March 1937 a resolution asserting the electorate's approval of the demand for a constituent assembly. It desired to frame "a constitution based on national independence through the medium of a constituent assembly elected by adult franchise". This demand was firmly reiterated by the All India National Convention of Congress Legislators held in Delhi in March, 1937. During August-October 1937, the Central Legislative assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of each of the Provinces where the Congress held office, adopted resolutions reiterating the Congress demand to convene a constituent assembly to frame a new constitution for a free India.
After the outbreak of the War in 1939, the demand for a constituent assembly was reiterated in a long statement issued by the Congress Working Committee on 14 September, 1939.
Gandhiji wrote an article entitled "The Only Way" in the Harijan of 19 November 1939 in which he expressed the view that "constituent assembly alone can produce a constitution indigenous to the country and truly and fully representing the will of the people". He declared that the only way out to arrive at a just solution of communal and other problems was a constituent assembly.
The demand for a constituent assembly was for the first time authoritatively conceded by the British Government, though in an indirect way and with important reservations, in what is known as the "August Offer" of 1940.
The Cripps proposals marked an advance over the "August Offer" in that the making of the new constitution was now to rest solely and not merely "primarily" in Indian hands and a clear undertaking to accept the constitution framed by the proposed constitution –making body was given by the British Parliament. After the failure of the Cripps Mission, no steps were taken for the solution of the Indian constitutional problem until the War in Europe came to an end in May, 1945.
In July, with the new Labour Government coming into power in England, its Indian policy was announced on 19 September 1945 by Lord Wavell who had succeeded Lord Linlithgow as Viceroy in 1943. The Viceroy affirmed His Majesty's Government's intention to convene a constitution-making body "as soon as possible".
The Cabinet Mission realised that the most satisfactory method to constitute a constitution-making body would have been be election based on adult franchise, but that would have caused "a wholly unacceptable delay" in the formulation of the new constitution. "The only practicable course" according to them was, therefore, "to utilise the recently elected Provincial Legislative Assemblies as electing bodies". As what they called the "fairest and as most practicable plan" in the circumstances, the Mission recommended that the representation of the Provinces in the constitution- making body be on the basis of population, roughly in the ratio of one member to a million and the seats allocated to the Provinces be divided among the principal communities, classified for this purpose as Sikhs, Muslims and General (all except Sikhs and Muslims), on the basis of their numerical strength. The representatives of each community in the Provincial assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation with single transferable vote. The number of Members allotted to the Indian States was also to be fixed on the same basis of population as adopted for British India, but the method of their selection was to be settled later by constitution. The strength of the constitution-making body was to be 389. Of these 296 representatives were to be from British India, (292 representatives drawn from eleven Governors' Provinces of British India and a representative each from the four Chief Commissioners' Provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg and British Baluchistan) and 93 representatives from the Indian States.
The Cabinet Mission recommended a basic framework for the constitution and laid down in some detail the procedure to be followed by the constitution-making body.
Elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British-Indian Provinces were completed by July-August 1946. The Congress won 208 seats including all the General seats except nine and the Muslim League 73 seats, that is, all but five of the seats allotted to Muslims.
The party wise break-up of the assembly's British Indian membership was as follows:
Congress-------------------------------208
Muslim League------------------------73
Unionist----------------------------------1
Unionist Muslim-----------------------1
Unionist Schedule Castes---------1
Krishak Praja---------------------------1
Schedule Castes Federation------1
Sikh (Non-Congress) ----------------1
Communist------------------------------1
Independents---------------------------8
Total--296 The concept of a constituent assembly had always been linked with the growth of the national movement in India. The idea of a constituent assembly, whereby Indians themselves might frame a constitution for their country, was implicit in the opposition to the 1919 Act. But, the first definite reference to a constituent assembly for India, though not in those words or under that particular name-was made by Mahatma Gandhi in 1922, soon after the inauguration of the Government of India Act, 1919.
In 1922 itself, a joint meeting of numbers of the two Houses of the Central Legislature was held at Simla at the initiative of Mrs. Annie Besant, which decided to call a convention for the framing of a constitution. Yet another conference attended by members of the Central and Provincial Legislatures was held in Delhi in February 1923. This conference outlined essential elements of a constitution placing India on equal footing with the self governing Dominions of the British Empire. A "National Convention" was called which met on 24 April, under the presidentship of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru. This convention drafted the "Commonwealth of India Bill". The draft will was submitted in slightly amended form to a committee of the All parties Conference held at Delhi in January 1925, which was presided over by Mahatma Gandhi. Finally, the draft was submitted to a Drafting Committee which published the Bill. The Bill was sent to an influential member of the Labour Party in Britain accompanied by a memorandum signed by 43 leaders of various political parties. It found wide support in the Labour Party and accepted with slight modifications. The Bill had the first reading after it was introduced in the House of Commons. Though with the defeat of Labour Government, the fate of the Bill was sealed, it was a major effort by the Indians to outline a constitutional system for India with the help of peaceful and constitutional means.
The adoption of the famous Motilal Nehru resolution in 1924 and 1925 on the National Demand was a historic event inasmuch as the Central Legislature had, for the first time, lent its support to the growing demand that the future constitution of India should be framed by Indians themselves.
In November 1927, when the Simon Commission was appointed without any Indians represented on it, an all-party meeting held at Allahabad said that apart from being virtual negation of the "National Demand", it amounted to a "deliberate insult to the people of India" for, not only did it "definitely assign to them a position of inferiority" but also denied to them "the right to participate in the determination of the constitution of their own country".
Earlier on 17 May 1927, at the Bombay Session of the Congress, Motilal Nehru had moved a resolution calling upon the Congress Working Committee to frame a constitution for India in consultation with the elected members of the Central and Provincial Legislatures and leaders of political parties. Adopted by an overwhelming majority with the amendments, it was this resolution on the Swaraj constitution which was later amplified and reiterated by Jawahar Lal Nehru in a resolution passed by the Madras Session of the Congress on 28 December 1927. An All Parties Conference organised at Bombay on 19 May 1928 appointed a committee, under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru "to determine the principles of the constitution of India". The report of the committee (submitted on 10 August 1928) was later to become famous as the Nehru Report. It was the first attempt by Indians to frame a full-fledged constitution for their country and has been described by Coupland as "not only an answer to the challenge that Indian Nationalism was unconstructive" but "frankest attempt yet made by Indians to face squarely the difficulties of communalism". The Report embodied not only the perspective of the contemporary nationalist opinion but also an outline of a draft constitution for India. The latter was based on the principle of Dominion Status with full responsible government on the parliamentary pattern. It asserted the principle that sovereignty belongs to Indian people, laid down a set of fundamental rights and provided for a federal system with maximum autonomy granted to the units but residuary powers vested in the Central Government and joint electorates for elections to the Federal Lower House and the Provincial Legislature with reservation of seats for minorities in certain cases for a limited period.
It would be seen that the broad parliamentary system with a government responsible to Parliament, a chapter of Justiceable fundamental rights and rights of minorities envisaged in the Nehru Report in 1928 were very largely embodied in the constitution of independent India that was adopted 21 years later, on 26 November 1949.
The White Paper issued after the third Round Table Conference outlined the British government's proposal for constitutional reforms in India. The Joint Parliamentary Committee which examined these proposals observed that "a specific grant of constituent power to authorities in India is not at the moment a practicable proposition".
In June 1934, the Congress Working Committee declared that the only satisfactory alternative to the White Paper was a constitution drawn up by a constituent assembly elected on the basis of adult suffrage. This was the first time that a definite demand for a constituent assembly was formally put forward. The Working Committee of the All India Congress Committee at its meeting held at Patna on 5-7 December 1934 adopted a resolution rejecting the scheme of Indian Constitutional Reforms as recommended in the Report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (1933-34) and reiterated the view that the only satisfactory alternative to the scheme was a constitution drawn up by the constituent assembly.
The failure of the Simon Commission and the Round Table Conference which led to the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935 to satisfy the Indian aspirations accentuated the demand for a constituent assembly of the people of India. The Congress adopted a resolution at its Lucknow Session in April 1936 in which it declared that no constitution imposed by an outside authority shall be acceptable to India; it has to be one framed by an Indian Constituent Assembly elected by the people of India on adult franchise.
Since the Congress had contested elections to the Provincial Legislatures on the issues of total rejection of the Act of 1935 and the demand for a constituent assembly, following a decisive victory it adopted at Delhi on 18 March 1937 a resolution asserting the electorate's approval of the demand for a constituent assembly. It desired to frame "a constitution based on national independence through the medium of a constituent assembly elected by adult franchise". This demand was firmly reiterated by the All India National Convention of Congress Legislators held in Delhi in March, 1937. During August-October 1937, the Central Legislative assembly and the Provincial Assemblies of each of the Provinces where the Congress held office, adopted resolutions reiterating the Congress demand to convene a constituent assembly to frame a new constitution for a free India.
After the outbreak of the War in 1939, the demand for a constituent assembly was reiterated in a long statement issued by the Congress Working Committee on 14 September, 1939.
Gandhiji wrote an article entitled "The Only Way" in the Harijan of 19 November 1939 in which he expressed the view that "constituent assembly alone can produce a constitution indigenous to the country and truly and fully representing the will of the people". He declared that the only way out to arrive at a just solution of communal and other problems was a constituent assembly.
The demand for a constituent assembly was for the first time authoritatively conceded by the British Government, though in an indirect way and with important reservations, in what is known as the "August Offer" of 1940.
The Cripps proposals marked an advance over the "August Offer" in that the making of the new constitution was now to rest solely and not merely "primarily" in Indian hands and a clear undertaking to accept the constitution framed by the proposed constitution –making body was given by the British Parliament. After the failure of the Cripps Mission, no steps were taken for the solution of the Indian constitutional problem until the War in Europe came to an end in May, 1945.
In July, with the new Labour Government coming into power in England, its Indian policy was announced on 19 September 1945 by Lord Wavell who had succeeded Lord Linlithgow as Viceroy in 1943. The Viceroy affirmed His Majesty's Government's intention to convene a constitution-making body "as soon as possible".
The Cabinet Mission realised that the most satisfactory method to constitute a constitution-making body would have been be election based on adult franchise, but that would have caused "a wholly unacceptable delay" in the formulation of the new constitution. "The only practicable course" according to them was, therefore, "to utilise the recently elected Provincial Legislative Assemblies as electing bodies". As what they called the "fairest and as most practicable plan" in the circumstances, the Mission recommended that the representation of the Provinces in the constitution- making body be on the basis of population, roughly in the ratio of one member to a million and the seats allocated to the Provinces be divided among the principal communities, classified for this purpose as Sikhs, Muslims and General (all except Sikhs and Muslims), on the basis of their numerical strength. The representatives of each community in the Provincial assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation with single transferable vote. The number of Members allotted to the Indian States was also to be fixed on the same basis of population as adopted for British India, but the method of their selection was to be settled later by constitution. The strength of the constitution-making body was to be 389. Of these 296 representatives were to be from British India, (292 representatives drawn from eleven Governors' Provinces of British India and a representative each from the four Chief Commissioners' Provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg and British Baluchistan) and 93 representatives from the Indian States.
The Cabinet Mission recommended a basic framework for the constitution and laid down in some detail the procedure to be followed by the constitution-making body.
Elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British-Indian Provinces were completed by July-August 1946. The Congress won 208 seats including all the General seats except nine and the Muslim League 73 seats, that is, all but five of the seats allotted to Muslims.
The party wise break-up of the assembly's British Indian membership was as follows:
Congress-------------------------------208
Muslim League------------------------73
Unionist----------------------------------1
Unionist Muslim-----------------------1
Unionist Schedule Castes---------1
Krishak Praja---------------------------1
Schedule Castes Federation------1
Sikh (Non-Congress) ----------------1
Communist------------------------------1
Independents---------------------------8
With the partition and independence of the country, on 14-15 August 1947, the constituent assembly of India could be said to have become free from the fetters of the Cabinet Mission Plan. It became a fully sovereign body and the successor to the British Parliament's plenary authority and power in the country. Moreover, following the acceptance of the Plan of 3 June, the members of the Muslim League Party from the Indian Dominion also took their seats in the assembly. The representatives of some of the Indian States had already entered the assembly on 28 April 1947. By 15 August 1947 most of the States were represented in the assembly and the remaining States also sent their representatives in due course.
The Constituent Assembly thus became a body, it was believed, fully representative of the states and provinces in India and fully sovereign of all external authority. It could abrogate or alter any law made by the British Parliament applying to India, including the Indian Independence Act itself.
The Constituent assembly duly opened on the appointed day Monday, the ninth day of December, 1946 at eleven in the morning.
The historic Objective Resolution was moved in the constituent assembly by Nehru, on 13 December 1946, after it had been in session for some days. The beautifully worded draft of the Objectives Resolution cast the horoscope, so to say, of the Sovereign Democratic Republic that India was to be. The resolution envisaged a federal polity with the residuary powers vested in the autonomous units and sovereignty belonging to the people. "Justice, social, economic and political; Equality of status, of opportunity and before the law; Freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action" were to be guaranteed to all the people along with "adequate safeguards" to "minorities, backward and tribal areas and depressed and other backward classes". Thus, the Resolution gave to the assembly its guiding principles and the philosophy that was to permeate its task of constitution-making. It was finally adopted by the assembly on 22 January 1947
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