Enactment of The Indian Constitution

Civics

Enactment of The Indian Constitution

Reviewed by:

Nafeez Khan

Introduction to Enactment of The Indian Constitution

In this article, we will learn about the enactment of the Indian constitution. The making of the Indian constitution will also be discussed step-by-step. This article will help the students of Civics and Political Science in understanding the various important thing of the country according to which the whole nation is working.

Making of The Indian Constitution

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The constitution of a country is composed and written by a body as per the requirements of the nation which is called as Constituent Assembly. To draft the constitution is the sole purpose of the constituent assembly. Indian Constitution is also drafted by the constituent assembly. The timeline of how the Indian constitution was enacted is written below:

Time Period	Framing of the Constitution
1922	A joint meeting by Annie Besant decided to call for a convention for the framing of the constitution.
1925	Commonwealth of India Bill was introduced in British Parliament. It is considered as one of the major efforts taken by Indians for the constitution.
1928	Motilal Nehru Report came which is considered as a first major effort for the full-fledged constitution.
1930-32	Three round table conferences were held in this period regarding constitutional reforms.
1934	Proposal for establishment of Constituent Assembly given by M.N. Roy for the first time.
1937-39	The working committee of Congress demanded the Constituent Assemble several times in this period.
1940	August offer - British Government accepted the demand.
1942	Cripps Mission was failed as it didn’t satisfy the demands regarding the constituent assembly of the Congress and the Muslim League.
1945	Simla Conference.
1946 Jan-May	Finally, the Constituent Assembly was formed on Cabinet mission’s recommendations.
1946 July-Aug	Elections for Constituent Assembly.
1946 Nov-Dec	Assembly was formed in Nov 1946 and met on 9 Dec 1946 for the first time and objective resolution was moved by Jawahar Lal Nehru on Dec 13.
1947 Jan	Objective Resolution was passed.
1947 Aug	Indian Independence Act, 1947
1947 Nov	They met for the first time as legislatures.
1948	Discussions on the draft constitution started.
Till 1949	Third and final reading of the draft.
26 Nov 1949	The draft Constitution was passed and signed by the members.
1950 Jan	Constitution came into force on 26 Jan1950 and India became a republic.

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Constituent Assembly

Constituent Assembly is a body that drafts the constitution. The constituent assembly of India was partly nominated and partly elected body. Total members of this body before independence were 389. The members who were from British India were indirectly elected and representatives from Princely states were nominated. They were divided as follows:

296 Members	British India
93 Members	Princely States

After adopting the Mountbatten plan of Independence and Partition, the strength of this body was reduced as follows:

299	Total Members
229	British India
70	Princely States

Important Committees

Writing the constitution of a country like India was not an easy task. Therefore, a number of the committee were made to divide the work so that everything would be done effectively and efficiently. Some of the Important committees were as follows:

Name of the Committee	Chairman
Committee on the Rules of Procedure	Rajendra Prasad
Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly	G.V. Mavalankar
Union Powers Committee or Union Constitution Committee	Jawaharlal Nehru
Drafting Committee	B.R. Ambedkar
Finance and Staff Committee	Rajendra Prasad
Order of Business Committee	K.M. Munshi
Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee	J.B. Kripalani

Drafting Committee

This committee was incorporated on 29 Aug, 1947 and the chairman of this committee was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. He is also regarded as the father of our Indian Constitution. In the making of the Indian Constitution, this committee plays an important role by drafting the whole constitution. There were 7 members in this committee which are written below:

Dr. Ambedkar (Chairman)
B.L.Mitter
N.Gopalswami Ayyanagar
Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
K.M. Munshi Saiyid Mohd Saadullah
D.P. Khaitan

T.T. Krishnamachari joined this committee after the death of D.P. Khaitan and N.Madhab Rao joined the committee by replacing B.L.Mitter because of Mitter’s bad health. The drafting committee submitted their report on Feb 21, 1948, and then the assembly held discussions on it. Later new draft was presented by the committee on Nov 4, 1948. The committee met for 114 days to draft the constitution overall.

Summary of The Constitutional Design

The members of the Constituent Assembly created the Constitution after a great hard work of many days. It took 2 years, 11 months and 17 days to complete it. That’s why our constitution is the lengthiest in the whole world. Each article or provision is included in it after a lot of debates and discussions. The crux of the Indian Constitution can be seen in the Preamble of India. If powers are given to someone then restrictions are also there.

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Did You Know?

The original Indian constitution had 1 Preamble, 8 schedules, 22 Parts and 395 Articles and it is the lengthiest constitution in the world. India has taken different provisions from different countries.

We have read the making of the Indian Constitution. Let’s practice some FAQs:

FAQs on Enactment of The Indian Constitution

Question 1. Write a Short Note on the Enactment of the Indian Constitution.

Answer. The journey of the creation of the Indian constitution was started with the first major effort of Indians through the Motilal Nehru Report in 1928. Indians demanded a lot of time for the constituent assembly after 1928. It was accepted by the British with the August offer in 1940. After that, a number of missions were sent and finally constituent assemble was framed on the requirements of the Cabinet Mission. Then, Constituent Assembly worked hard for every single provision and finally draft constitution was signed by all the members on Nov 26, 1949, and then on Jan 26, 1950, our constitution was adopted and implemented in the whole country and India became a republic.

Question 2. Write a Short Note on Constituent Assembly.

Answer. Constituent Assembly is a body that drafts the constitution. It was formed in Nov 1946 and they met for the first time on 9 Nov 1946. The constituent assembly of India was partly nominated and partly elected body. Total members of this body before independence were 389. The members who were from British India were indirectly elected and representatives from Princely states were nominated. Before Independence, out of 389, 296 members were from British India and 93 were from Princely states. After Independence, it got reduced and only 299 members were left, out of which 229 were from British India and 70 were from the Princely States.

Here, in this article, we have learned about the constitution of India, How it was formed, how it was enacted and implemented, who designed the constitution of India, a summary of constitutional design, etc. These notes will help the students to understand the various important part of the constitution which will help in their studies and also will increase their general knowledge.