MAKING OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

What is a Constitution?“A Constitution means a document, having a

special legal sanctity which sets out the frame work and the principle functions of the organs of the Government of a State and declares the principles governing the operations of those organs.”

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Framing of the Indian Constitution

The struggle for independence was thus over by 15th August 1947. But the attainment of independence was not an end itself.

The 1st tasks undertaken by independent India was framing of New Constitution.

The 1st meeting of the assembly was held on 9th Dec 1946 as the sovereign Constituent Assembly for India. On 11th Dec , Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as permant Chairman.

The Draft constitution was publish in Jan, 1948. The people of India were given 8 months to discuss the Draft & propose amendments.

The Draft constitution was considered for 114 days. The New Constitution of India was adopted by the constituent

assembly on 26th Nov 1949 & signed by the President Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

Some of new provisions of constitution, where came into force on 26th Jan 1950 & this was the date on which constitution was commenced.

Some of the prominent leaders were- Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Jhaverbhai Vallabhai Patel Abul kalam Azad T.T.Krishnamachari Jaipal Singh H.C.Mookherjee G.Durgabai Deshmukh Baldev Singh Kanhaiyalal Maniklal Munshi Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Jawaharlal Nehru Sarojini Naidu Somnath Lahiri

Dr. Rajendra PrasadRajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was the first President of the Republic of India. An Indian political leader, lawyer by training, Prasad joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar. A supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1931 and the Quit India movement of 1942. Prasad served one term as President of the Indian National Congress from 1934 to 1935. After the 1946 elections, Prasad served as minister of food and agriculture in the central government. Upon independence in 1947, Prasad was elected president of the Constituent Assembly of India, which prepared the Constitution of India and served as its provisional parliament.

When India became a Republic in 1950, Prasad was elected its first President by the Constituent Assembly. Following the general election of 1951, he was elected President by the electoral college of the first Parliament of India and its state legislatures. As President, Prasad established a tradition of non-partisanship and independence for the office-bearer, and retired from Congress party politics. Although a ceremonial head of state, Prasad encouraged the development of education in India and advised the Nehru government on several occasions. In 1957, Prasad was re-elected to the presidency, becoming the only president to have been twice the office.[2]

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai PatelVallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel  (31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950) was an Indian barrister and statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian National Congress and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of India. He was a social leader who played a leading role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation. In India and elsewhere, he was often addressed as Sardar, which means Chief in Hindi, Urdu and Persian.He was raised in the countryside of Gujarat.  Vallabhbhai Patel was employed in successful practice as a lawyer. Patel subsequently organised peasants from Kheda, Borsad, and Bardoli in Gujarat in non-violent civil disobedience against oppressive policies imposed by the British Raj; in this role, he became one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat.

He rose to the leadership of the Indian National Congress and was at the forefront of rebellions and political events, organising the party for elections in 1934 and 1937, and promoting the Quit India movement.As the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, Patel organised relief for refugees in Punjab and Delhi, and led efforts to restore peace across the nation. Patel took charge of the task to forge a united India from the British colonial provinces allocated to India and more than five hundred self-governing princely states, released from British suzerainty by the Indian Independence Act 1947. Using frank diplomacy, backed with the option and use of military force, Patel's leadership persuaded almost every princely state. Often known as the "Iron Man of India" or "Bismarck of India", he is also remembered as the "Patron Saint" of India's civil servants for establishing modern all-India services.

Abul kalam AzadAbul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed Azad   (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement. Following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. In 1992 he was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.  There is also a theory which suggests that earlier when he was offered Bharat Ratna he promptly declined it saying that it should not be given to those who have been on the selection committee. Later he was awarded posthumously in 1992. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'learned man', and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India.

As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu language, as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.

T.T.KrishnamachariTiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachari (1899–1974) was the Indian Finance Minister from 1956–1958 and from 1964-1966. He was also a founding member of the first Governing Body of NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi,India’s first independent economic policy institute established in 1956. Krishnamachari graduated from Madras Christian College(MCC) and was a visiting professor to the department of economics at MCC. He was popularly known as TTK. He has the ignominy of being the first minister in free India to have resigned due to his involvement in a scam.  He was also a member of drafting committee, an entrepreneur and congress leader.

Jaipal SinghJaipal Singh Munda (January 3, 1903 – March 20, 1970) was a Munda tribal man, who captained the Indian field hockey team to clinch gold in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. He is well known for his sportsmanship and political skills.Later he emerged as a sole leader of Adivasi cause and creation of a separate home land for adivasis of central India. As a member of the Constituent Assembly of India he actively campaigned for the rights of the scheduled tribes.His dream came true on November 15, 2000, when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar. He is popularly known as "Marang Gomke" which means the Great Leader. This name was given to him by the tribal people of Chota nagpur region.

H.C. MukherjeeHarendra Coomar Mookerjee (1887–1956), also spelt as H.C. Mookherjee or H.C. Mukherjee or H.C. Mukerji or H.C. Mukerjee, was the Vice-president of the Constituent Assembly of India for drafting the Constitution of India before Partition of India, and the first Governor of West Bengal after India became a republic with partition into India and Pakistan.

He was an educationalist, prominent Christian leader of Bengal, and was the chairman of the Minority rights committee and Provincial constitution committee of the Constituent Assembly—consisting of indirectly elected representatives to draft the Constitution of India, including for provinces of present Pakistan and Bangladesh(then-East Bengal) - the assembly considered only Muslims and Sikhs as religious minorities - after India became republic, the same Constituent Assembly became the first Parliament of India in 1947.

G.Durgabai DeshmukhDurgābāi, Lady Deshmukh 

(July 15, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker and politician. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and the Planning Commission of India.Born in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India. Durgabai was married at the age of 14 to a Telugu person, later left and married C.D. Deshmukh, the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Finance Minister in India's Central Cabinet during 1950 - 1956. She was a public activist for women's emanicipation and was also the founder of Andhra Mahila Sabha. She was also the founder chairperson of central social welfare board.

Baldev SinghBaldev Singh was an Indian Sikh political leader, he was an Indian independence movement leader and the first Defence Minister of India. Moreover, he represented the Punjabi Sikh community in the processes of negotiations that resulted in the independence of India, as well as the Partition of India in 1947.After independence, Baldev Singh was chosen to become as the first Minister of Defence, and served in this post during the first Kashmir war between India and Pakistan. He is addressed often with the title of Sardar, which in Punjabi and Hindi means Leader or Chief.

Kanaiyalal Maneklal MunshiKanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi,  (30 December 1887 – 8 February 1971) popularly known as Kulpati Dr. K. M. Munshi, was an Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educationist from Gujarat state. A lawyer by profession, he later turned to literature and politics. He was a well known name in Gujarati literature. He founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust, in 1938.

Bhimrao Ramji AmbedkarBhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956), popularly known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Modern Buddhist Movement and campaigned against social discrimination in India, striving for equal social rights for Dalits, women and labour. He was independent India's first law minister and the principal architect of the Constitution of India.Ambedkar was a prolific student, earning a law degree and various doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and gained a reputation as a scholar for his research in law, economics and political science.

In his early career he was an economist, professor, and lawyer. His later life was marked by his political activities, where he became involved in the negotiations for India's independence campaigning by publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for untouchables and contributing significantly to the establishment of the state of India. In 1956 he converted to Buddhism, initiating mass conversions of Dalits.In 1990, Ambedkar was posthumously conferred with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.  Present day India had various followers of Ambedkar and numerous memorials have been erected in his memory.

Syama Prasad MookerjeeSyama Prasad Mookerjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian politician, who served as Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After falling out with Nehru, Mookerjee quit the Indian National Congress party and founded the nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh party in 1951.

Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru ( 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics for much of the 20th century. He emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in office in 1964. Nehru is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic.

The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman, Nehru was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court, and took an interest in national politics, which eventually replaced his legal practice. A committed nationalist since his teenage years, Nehru became a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of the left-wing factions of the Indian National Congress during the 1920s, and eventually of the entire Congress, with the tacit approval of his mentor, Gandhi. As Congress President in 1929, Nehru called for complete independence from the British Raj and instigated the Congress's decisive shift towards the left.

Sarojini NaiduSarojini Naidu, born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay  also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India,

 was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet.Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949;  the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state.  She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so.

Somnath LahiriSomnath Lahiri (1901–1984)  was an Indian statesman and a leader of Communist Party of India. He was a member of  Constituent Assembly of India from Bengal and later served as a Member West Bengal legislative assembly.

ConclusionThe Indian Constitution is criticized to be borrowed

from the number of other constitutions.But it doesn’t mean that all the provisions are

borrowed and implemented…… It has gone through a great amount of research on and

above the borrowings from the other constitutions, to make the present Indian constitution.

These valuable inputs are largely influenced by factors like, Social, Economic & Geographical factors……

And hence, the Indian Constitution came into force after a huge period.

ThAnK

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