CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

We all know about the Constitution and Constituent assembly. We all are aware that the makers of the constitution faced many difficulties. But do you know the Constituent assembly also faced many difficulties in its formation. So here I would be sharing some points about formation of the Constituent assembly and its challenges.

JOURNEY OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The first view of the Constituent Assembly is in ‘Swarajya Bill’ which was released by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1895.

 In 1922, Mr. Gandhi also said in his weekly magazine ‘Harijan’ that “The constitution of Indians will be according to their will”.  The credit of its popularity goes to J.L.Nehru.  Simon Commission came to India in 1927, in their report they disqualified Indians for making their own Constitution. In that response, Nehru prepared the Nehru report in 1928 called as the mini constitution made by any Indian for the first time.  In 1934, M.N.Roy also forwarded that idea.

In 1938, Nehru told in Lucknow conference that “India is an independent country and its constitution should be framed by the constituent assembly”.

 The demand of constituent assembly by Indians was accepted for the first time by the British Government in August proposal (1940) in this proposal government said that “Indians will make the constitution themselves”.

  Then Cripps mission came to India in 1942 under the chairmanship of Stafford Cripps. But his plan was refused by the Muslim league because their demand was that India should be divided into two parts and separated Constituent Assembly should be formed for both of them.

 At last Cabinet mission arrived in India (Delhi) on 24 march 1946 and its report released on 16 may 1946. Finally constituent assembly was formed according to their report.

CABINET MISSION

REPORT OF CABINET MISSION

·        Total Number of members in Assembly  -       389

                                            

                                               British India  -        296

                                                                                  +  

                                         Princely States -            93

                                                                                   +                            

                     Chief Commissioner Areas   -           4

 

·         One Representative on 10 Lakh population.

·        Three communities voting in assembly –

1.      General

2.      Muslim

3.      Sikh

 

IMPORTANT NOTE

·        Election was held on July 1946.

·        Result –

       Congress won total seat              208

                                                                  +       

 Muslim League won total seat          73

                                                                   + 

                                  Non party               8

                                                                   +

                                       Others -              7

 

Election held for total members         296  

 

·        The Muslim league had lost this election so they didn’t participate in it.

·        First meeting was held on 9 December 1946.

·        President of first meeting was Dr. Rajendra Prasad and temporary president was Sachidanand Sinha.

·        B.N.Rao was appointed as legal advisor.

·        Drafting committee was formed on 29 august 1947 with their seven members and president was Dr. B.R.Ambedkar.

·        Total sessions and meetings of the Constituent Assembly were eleven and one forty one.

·        Last session was held on 26 January 1950.

·        17 Committees were formed to make the Constitution. Some important Committees of the Constituent Assembly and their Chairman=

 

1.     Union power Committee –                 j.L.Nehru

2.     Union Constitution Committee-        j.L.Nehru

3.     Advisory Committee-                           V.B. Patel

4.     Fundamental right sub Committee - J.B. Kriplani

5.     Provincial Constitution Committee – V.B.Patel

6.     Drafting Committee-                             B.R.Ambedkar

·        To frame Constitution, Assembly took two years eleven month and eighteen days.

·        Constitution came into force after three reading.

·        284 members signed the Constitution.

·        The estimated cost of the Constitution was 6.3 Crore.

·        Some important part was applied on 26 November 1949 which is celebrated as a Constitution day of India.

·        Final Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.

·        Father of the Constitution is Dr. B.R.Ambedkar.

·        Our constitution was not effected in J&K, this only State had its own constitution but on 5 August 2019, the home minister Amit Shah introduced  the “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill, 2019” in Rajya Sabha to cover J&K into two separate Union Territories namely –

1.     J&K

2.     Ladakh

  And this bill was passed by majority in both houses. The two union territories came into existence on 31 October 2019, which is the birthday of Sardar Patel who united all the Princely States in independent India. Article 370 & 35A also removed by the Government. J&k is not a separate State now. 

INCREDIBLE INDIA

We all are Indians, but do we know everything about our country. I am talking about minor but interesting things about our country that everyone doesn’t know. These are small things but really very important to know being an Indian. So in this article we will discuss about those things.

Origin of the Name “India”

You must have heard about different names of India but do you know how India got those names?

• Hindustan – This name became very popular at the time of independence. This name has come from the name of Sindhu River. The Persians used to pronounce ‘Sindhu’ as ‘Hindu’ and this became as ‘The land of Hindus’ means ‘Hindustan’ and how this name arrived.

• Bharat – In our Constitution ‘Bharat and India’ are official names. Bharat name derived from the name of the Bharat who was a great king and his land known as “Bharatversha”.

• India – This name came from a great book ’Indica’ which was written by Megasthenes. He visited India at the period of Chandragupta Maurya, he described about India in his book.

The National Flag

Every country is identified by its flag. Before the revolution of 1857, there were plans to make a flag for India too. But this plan got stuck in the middle because of the revolution was failing.

After that, first flag made by Swami Vivekananda’s student Bhagini nivedita in 1906. This flag had three colors which were red, yellow and green and wrote vande mataram in center.

The Tricolor flag was accepted by the congress in 1931, having charkha in the center.

And present national flag adopted on  22 July 1947,with Ashoka Chakra in center. And it is called “Tiranga”. Ashoka Chakra has twenty four sticks that means – ‘ Life is moving twenty four hours day and night and stopping means death’.

The National Song

• The National song ‘Vande Mataram’ was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee originally in Sanskrit.

• This song has taken from his novel ‘Ananda math’ Published in 1882. Its english translation was done by Aurobindo Ghosh 

• It was sung for the first time at the session of congress in 1896 at Calcutta by Rabindranath Tagore.

• Adopted as The National Song on 22 July 1950.

The National Anthem

• ‘Jana gana mana’ was composed by Rabindranath Tagore in 1911, originally in Bengali.

• Firstly published in January 1912 under the title ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ in Tatva Bodhini Patrika.

• Its english translation was done in February 1919 by Tagore with title ‘The Morning song of India’.

• Adopted as The National Anthem on 24 January 1950.

The National Emblem

• Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka adopted as The National Emblem on 26 January 1950.

• It has four lions which faces are in all four directions (E, W, N, and S). Three lions are visible but fourth lion is being hidden.

• Motto written on this Emblem is ‘Satyameva Jayate’ which means Truth alone triumphs adopted from ‘Mundaka Upanishad’.

Was the constitution written?

• The Constitution of India was not typed or printed but it was hand written in Hindi and English both languages.

• Prem Bihari Narayan Raizada wrote the entire constitution in Italic style. This work was completed in six month.

• He refused to take any cost for this work but he wanted to write his name on every page of the Constitution and on the last page wanted to write his grand father’s name along with his name and Constituent Assembly was agreed for the same.

Hand crafting on the Constitution

• Each page of the Constitution was decorated by the artists of Shantiniketan mostly Ram Manohar Sinha and Nandlal Bose.

• They used different styles for this work like- Vedic Gurukul, Harappa, Himalayas, ocean, Desert etc.

Where the original Constitution kept?

The original Indian Constitution is kept in special helium filled cases in the library of the Parliament of India.

You must be wondering why only helium gas? 

Because helium gas is inert and non reactive and keeps document safe and unharmed.