DSE - The Making Of Contemporary India (C.

1950-1990s)
(Home Assignment)

- Submitted by Aakrati yadav (823)

3rd year B. A ( hons.) History

Q. Briefly describe the salient features of the Indian constitution. Do you agree that the
constitution upholds the aspiration of nascent India?

Ans. The definition of constitution is quite knotty and has remarkably evolved during the last
two centuries. According to the Western notion , the constitution is the nation setting out the
organization of the government and the principles of the society.
The Constitution has also been understood as; basic norm of the state; the system of integration
and organization of norms and laws; also as organization of the government.
Here in this essay we will discuss the salient features of the Indian Constitution and look
whether the Constitution upholds the aspiration of nascent India or not.

The basic structure of the Constitution i.e. its most fundamental features can be described as:
lengthiest constitution, Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles, Secularism, Federalism,
Unique blend of Rigidity and Flexibility, Independence of Judiciary, Rule of Law, and Democracy.
Let's discuss these features of the constitution in little detail.

Lengthiest/ longest constitution in the world: Indian constitution adopted by the constituent
Assembly on November 2, 1949 is the lengthiest constitution originally containing 395 Articles,
divided into 22 parts and 9 schedules. It is also described as an ‘elephant size’ constitution. We
have incorporated 93 Amendments to the constitution in January 2003. It has been a model for
many developing countries. In 2008, it had 444 Articles and 12 schedules.
The length of the constitution is large because of several factors. First, because It incorporates
the experience of all leading constitutions. Second, It prescribes the constitution for the union as
well as for the states. Third, It incorporates detailed provisions regarding centre – state
relations. Fourth, It incorporates special provisions for Jammu Kashmir. Fifth, It includes
justifiable and non – justifiable rights. Sixth, It contains special provisions to meet regional
problems.

2. Drawn from different sources: As D.D.Basu says "The constitution of India is remarkable for
many outstanding features which will distinguish it from other constitutions even though it has
been prepared after 'Ransacking all the known constitution of the world' " and most of its
provisions are substantially borrowed from others.
Dr Ambedkar also observed that "All constitutions in their main provisions must look similar. The
only new things, if there are any in a constitution framed so late in the day are the variations
made to remove the faults and to accommodate it to the needs of the country".
The Constitution of India is prepared after going through all the known Constitutions of the world
e.g. parliamentary form of Government is a gift from British Westminster model, Federalism is
incorporated from American and Canadian Constitution, Directive principles of State policy has
its source to Irish Constitution. The Government of India Act, 1935 provides structural basis for
this document and famous fundamental rights are a gift from the American Bill of Rights.

3. Parliamentary form of Government:

The constitution of India install a parliamentary form of government both at the centre and the
states. In a Parliamentary form of government, the Prime Minister and council of Ministers are
responsible for all their actions to the government, particularly to the Lower house, Lok
Sabha.The Parliament keeps control on executives by various means i.e. by asking questions
by no confidence motion etc. Also in the Parliamentary system there are two types of head; one
is nominal and one is real. In India the President is nominal and Prime- Minister is the real head.

4.Unique blend of Rigidity and Flexibility:

Though India has a written constitution; the Indian constitution is not as rigid as the American
constitution. It has incorporated the flexible nature in the procedures for amendments. As D.D.
Basu explains there are three methods by which the constitution is amended. The procedure
for amendments are simple.
First, the amendment of a few of the provisions of the Constitution that requires ratification by
the state legislature and even then ratification by only half of them would be sufficient.
Second, the rest of the Constitution may be amended by a special majority of the union
Parliament that is a majority of not less than two third of the members of each house present
and voting, which again, must be the majority of the total membership of the house.
Third, Parliament has been given the power to alter or modify many of the provisions of the
Constitution by laying down in the Constitution that such changes "shall not be Deemed to be
'amendments' of the constitution".

5. Fundamental Rights:
The fundamental Rights are promised by the constitution to all its citizens through Part III of the
constitution. It guarantees Right to Equality, Right to freedom, Freedom of religion, Right against
Exploitation, Educational and Cultural right and Right to constitutional Remedies. One can
approach the Supreme Court directly in case of violation of Fundamental Rights. There are
certain restrictions on fundamental rights in the interests of public order, the sovereignty and
integrity of India, public decency, morality etc.

6. Directive Principles of the state Policy:

Part IV of the constitution deals with Economic and cultural Rights. However, they are not
acceptable in the court of law. The idea of a ‘welfare state’ envisaged in our constitution can
only be achieved if the states try to implement them with a high sense of moral duty.

7. Quasi – federal in nature:

Granville Austin calls it quasi federal , which would be meeting the needs of India's peculiar
needs.The nature of the Indian state is federal, in the sense that the powers are distributed
between the Union and the state. But in times of emergency the Government assumes a unitary
character. It is federal because: It has two sets of government, There is division of powers
between the centre and the states, There is an independent judiciary. It is unitary because: It is
described as “union of states”,There is single citizenship, There is a single integrated judicial
and administrative system, There is integrated machinery for elections, audits, State Governors
are appointed and removed by the President, States depend upon the union’s grant – in – aid,
During an emergency, it can be converted into a unitary system.

8. Adult Suffrage:
All adult citizens above 18 are given the right to vote, earlier the age was 21 but it was changed
by the 61st Constitution amendment Act, 1988. There are no separate electorates for people
belonging to different communities. Thus in India there is Universal Adult Franchise without
Communal Representation. Basu says the adoption of universal adult suffrage without any
qualification either of sex, property, taxation, is a 'Bold experiment' in India, having regard to the
vast extent of the country and it's population, with an over-whelming illiteracy.

9. Independence of Judiciary:
The constitution has made the Judiciary independent from legislature and executive. Judges are
free from the interference of other organs of the government, so that judges can give judgement
without fear and favour. The Indian Judiciary is independent as per the norms of separation of
powers.The feature that goes with the independence of judiciary is direct appointment by the
President, given decent salaries and perks, judges can not be removed simply by the executive.

10. Fundamental Duties:

The Fundamental Duties are incorporated in the constitution through the 42nd amendment. A
set of ten duties are incorporated as fundamental Duties under Article 51.

11. Sovereignty :
India is a free and independent country. India is no more under the domination of any foreign
country and any external force cannot influence its decisions. India is a member of the
commonwealth Nation. But its membership does not affect the sovereignty of India.

12. Republic:
It means that the head of the state, president, will be periodically elected by the people.
Citizens’ partnership in the affairs of the state is ensured.

13. Secular:
The constitution of India has created a secular state. It means The state gives equal protection
to all religions, The state does not uphold any particular religion as the state religion, Freedom
of Religion is guaranteed in the constitution, Equal respect for all religions.

14. Single Citizenship:

The constitution of India confers single Indian citizenship. This helps in creating a feeling of
oneness.
Now coming to the question of whether the constitution upholds the aspiration of nascent India
or not.
With the Independence and approval of the Constitution of India the political revolution was
complete but it was the beginning of a new socio-economic revolution for creating a new nation
based on new values of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice to all-social, economic and political
arenas.

Rohit de in his book The People's constitution clears that The Constitution was an elite project.
The body of the Constituent Assembly was the political elite and the narrative and working
around the constitution was a gift to the people of India. The people had little input in the
constitution making it largely an oligarchic process.

Constitution as an Illusion

The Constitution was not authentically Indian. It was regarded as an alien document. As Rohit
put it as a "slavish imitation" of Western constitutions. The critiques of Indian Constitution said
that “We wanted the music of the veena or the sitar, but we have the music of an English band.”

Sadaat Hasan Mano, a twentieth century Urdu poet described how the common man was happy
about the constitution. People were happy although they had little role to play in the making of
the constitution. He wrote about the excitement and despair produced by the Constitution in his
work “Naya Kanoon''( New Constitution) where he talks about Ustaad Mangu who was a horse
cart driver. He became popular for jumping and talking loudly that we have become independent
when the Government of India Act of 1935 was enacted. He kept screaming when an
Englishman took him to the police but nobody paid any attention to him and one of them said
'It’s the same old constitution' and locked him. Mangu's story was a metaphor for independence
and the Constitution as a spectacle of emancipation, i.e., the gap between the vision of
emancipation that the law promises and the reality of violence that the law performs.

Perceiving the Constitution

B. R. Ambedkar said that Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be

cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. It should be disseminated among
the masses, through school textbooks, pamphlets, public exhibitions, and documentaries.
Thus It eventually became a People’s Constitution. Various groups and individuals showed
awareness of the law and people started using the legal system; Judiciary. This came as a
surprise for the government as they were underprepared for this change.Thousands of citizens
began invoking the Constitution while challenging state action. Even though the Indian
Constitution was a product of elite consensus it became part of the experience of ordinary
Indians dominating everyday life of Indians. There was constitutional consciousness. The right
to constitutional remedies, which allowed any citizen of India to petition the Supreme Court for
the enforcement of fundamental rights was granted in the Constitution. There was an explosion
of litigation before the Indian courts; both the state and the judiciary were unprepared.

Mohammad Yasin was one of the first Indians to present himself before the new Indian Supreme
Court as a rights-bearing citizen. Rohit de terms this as a constitutional adventure. He was a
vegetable seller from Jalalabad who approached the court when he was denied to trade in a
Hindu majority area as he was a a Muslim. He emerged victorious in his bid to sell vegetables.
The Composition of litigants were the Muslim butchers, Hindu refugees, vegetable vendors,
prostitutes etc. This petition shows that the ordinary people thought about approaching the
supreme court and that the state is answerable to any violation of rights. This indicates that the
Indian constitution made litigation an option available to all citizens of India and access to it was
not determined solely by one’s socioeconomic class.

Sex workers/prostitutes

They began to file constitutional challenges to the anti trafficking laws emphasising on their
constitutional right to a trade or a profession. They seeked to be seen as an economic actor
rather than sex workers in a public space. There was opposition from the elite women who
believed that prostitution was an unproductive work. Nevertheless the Constitution did allow for
a voice that represented the prostitute to become visible in a public domain and transformed the
everyday regulation of prostitution in India.

Religion Vs Economic rights: Muslims butchers

India was a country with multi cultural, multi religion,and multilingualism. Various communities
before and during the making of constitution were voicing the concerns. India was full of fault
lines (difference of opinion) namely cultural, regional, ethnic and linguistic. This is also
understood as "constitutional agitation" and so active negotiation between community and caste
discourse to evolve the Indian Constitution.
Three thousand Muslim butchers talked about their economic right and contested between
religious freedom and minority rights.
Most Indian state government have passed laws against beef eating and religious conversion
and discriminate against religious minorities the constitution passed this law that state
government while framing any laws have to ensure that there is no discrimination. Overall it was
a shared constitution and it ultimately became an ideological contest.

The problem for the constitution makers was how to put all people in the same Regime and
ensure their safety. Single and shared constitutional regime. What happened was, Constitution
was negotiated by different people Muslim League, Ambedkar, sikhs and the Hindu Mahasabha
who are the major players of Indian Constitution.
President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, assured the nation that the Assembly and the government's
aim was to end poverty and squalor and its companions, hunger and disease; to abolish
distinction and exploitation and to ensure decent conditions of living.
 On 14th August, 1947 Pandit Nehru in one of his famous speeches declared that, “Long years
ago we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge,
not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.” Such strong views were held by many
members of the Constituent Assembly.
The constitution of India is one of the most remarkable constitutions in the world. It is a
confluence of East and the West. With all these features, the Indian Constitution is a constitution
best suited to the Indian environment. The Constitution has been helping India to organise and
run her government and administration in an effective way both in times of peace and war.

Despite all odds, this unique document has stood the test of time and immensely helped in the
progress of the Country. In the backdrop of neighbouring countries, their development, the
success of our Constitution, its philosophy, its working is worth noticing. The Indian Constitution
has successfully sowed the seeds of socio-economic revolution in this country.
The constitution can be described as a vibrant document with a social and economic ideology
geared to the goal of socio-economic justice. Finally, it is crystal clear that success of any
constitutional system depends on the functioning of the various authorities, implementation of
the constitutional philosophy, ethos and various policy decisions made under it. Ultimately, the
implementing authorities are expected to be upright persons having integrity, character coupled
with morality. The socio-economic commitment towards people at large is prerequisite for the
success of any system. Our Country has adopted a political executive system and all policy
decisions depend on the commitment of this political leadership. Political Leadership is
supposed to be the destiny maker of this Country. They should be and must be role models for
society. If such policy makers live to the occasion and throw themselves into the welfare of the
people, then this Constitutional System would prove ideal before the world community.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Basu, B.D. (2011). Introduction to the Constitution ofIndia. Delhi: LexisNexis. (20th
Edition)
2. Austin, Granville. (1999). Working a Democratic Constitution: the Indian
Experience. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
3. De, Rohit. (2018). A People’s Constitution, Delhi: Penguin.