Spectrum Test: Making Of The Constitution For India - UPSC MCQ

• In the modern sense, there appeared the Constitution of India Bill, also known as the Home Rule Bill in 1895, which envisaged basic human rights such as freedom of expression, equality before the law, right to the inviolability of one's home, right to property, etc., for all citizens of India. 

• Although there is no conclusive evidence to prove the Home Rule Bill's authorship, Annie Besant believed that Tilak inspired the Bill.

• The Commonwealth of India Bill, which was drafted in India and to which Annie Besant, Tej Bahadur Sapru, V.S. Srinivasa Shastri made important contributions, was accepted unanimously by the executive committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party. 

• The Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons in December 1925; it was defeated, but it proved crucial as it had the support of extensive sections of Indian opinion, and specified in clear words that "India shall be placed on an equal footing with the self-governing dominions".

• After the Non-Cooperation Movement, Motilal Nehru in February 1924 introduced a resolution that gave due regard to minority rights and interests and came to be known as the National Demand. 
• A large majority in the Assembly passed it. For the first time, a demand for a constitution and its adoption procedure was expounded clearly. 
• ​​​​​​​In response to the National Demand, Britain appointed the all-white Simon Commission in November 1927 to recommend further constitutional changes.

• The Congress took up the demand for a constituent assembly as a part of its official policy in 1934 after refusing the Simon Commission's recommendations of 1933 as not expressive of the people's will. 

• Jawaharlal Nehru declared that the Congress had proposed "the Constitution of India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected based on adult franchise", and, the Working Committee of the Congress reiterated the stand. 

• At the Congress's Lucknow session in 1936, it was declared that "no constitution imposed by an outside authority and no constitution which curtails the sovereignty of the people" would be acceptable to the Congress.

• In July 1937, after the Congress accepted office in a majority of provinces, Nehru pressed the legislators to introduce resolutions in the assemblies rejecting the present constitution and demanding a Constituent Assembly. 

• In August, the CWC accepted a draft resolution prepared under Acharya Kripalani. Between August and October 1937, all the Congress-ruled provinces and Sind passed this resolution and demanded repealing of the Government of India Act, 1935.

In September 1937 itself, a resolution recommending the replacement of the 1935 Act by a constitution framed by a constituent assembly was introduced in the Central Legislative Assembly by S. Satyamurti.

• The Cripps Proposals of 1942, though rejected by the Congress as unacceptable, had one redeeming feature in that it conceded the request of Indians to frame their own constitution through a constituent assembly. 

• In September 1945, the newly elected Labour government in England announced that it planned to create a constituent assembly in India. 

• On March 15, 1946, the Cabinet Mission came to India and, in the course of its stay, Recommended the forming of (a) the Constituent Assembly, and (b) an interim government.

• On March 15, 1946, the Cabinet Mission came to India and recommended the forming of the Constituent Assembly in the course of its stay. 

• It was decided that the Constituent Assembly was to be elected indirectly by the Provincial Assemblies for its formation. 

• According to the plan, British India provinces were grouped into three categories, A, B and C. Each province was allotted seats based on the population, in one member's ratio for a million. 

• The seats given to a province were decided among three communities based on their number, the three communities being the Muslims, Sikhs and General including Hindus and all others who were not Muslims and Sikhs.

• The provincial assemblies indirectly elected the Constituent Assembly that themselves were elected based on a limited franchise established by the Government of India Act of 1935. 

• The 1935 Act imposed qualifications based on tax, property and education. This kept out more than 70 per cent of the adult population from the voting. 

• Thus, the Constituent Assembly reflected the composition of the provincial assemblies in which Congress had a comfortable majority (which rose to more than 80 per cent after partition). 

• The composition of the Assembly reflected the different ideological views present in the country at the time. There were Socialists, the Marxian as well as the democratic variety.

It was M. N. Roy, a pioneer of communist movement in India and an advocate of radical democratism, who put forward the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India in 1934 for the first time.  In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India.

In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf the INC declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise’. The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.

Among all the committees of the Constituent Assembly, the most important committee was the Drafting Committee set up on August 29, 1947. It was this committee that was entrusted with the task of preparing a draft of the new Constitution. It consisted of seven members. They were: 

(i)   Dr B R Ambedkar (Chairman)

(ii)    N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar

(iii)     Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar

(iv)     Dr K M Munshi

(v)    Syed Mohammad Saadullah

(vi)     N Madhava Rau (He replaced B L Mitter who resigned due to ill-health)

(vii)    T T Krishnamachari (He replaced D P Khaitan who died in 1948)

The Drafting Committee, after taking into consideration the proposals of the various committees, prepared the first draft of the Constitution of India, which was published in February 1948. The people of India were given eight months to discuss the draft and propose amendments. In the light of the public comments, criticisms and suggestions, the Drafting Committee prepared a second draft, which was published in October 1948.