Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is a written document declaring the Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Duties of its citizens. It sets out the functioning, power, formation and constitution of Government Institutions. It is the Supreme Law according to which the state of India is to be governed.

The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26^th Nov 1949, but it came in effect from 26^thJanuary 1950. The Constitution declares India as a Sovereign (self governed), Socialist (following uniform rules), Secular (rejecting religious considerations) and Republic (People have the Supreme power) ensuring all its citizens equality of opportunity, justice and endeavor to promote fraternity among them.

Drafting of Constitution

The Constitution of India was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, the members of which first met on December 9, 1946 after India got Independence from British Empire. The Constituent assembly had 299 members elected by the members of the Provincial Assemblies.

B.R. Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad, C.Rajgopalachari, Vallabhbhai Patel and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee were the few renowned names who were in the drafting committee. Care was taken to include members from the Scheduled Classes also, to ensure the drafting of a fair and unbiased Constitution.

H.P. Modi represented the Parsis; Ari Bhadur Gurung represented the Gorkha Community. The committee also had some prominent women members like Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta and Durgabai Deshmukh.

The work of Constituent Assembly was overseen by five committees- the drafting committee, the committee of union powers, the fundamental rights committee, the minorities committee and the constitution committee. An eight members drafting committee with B.R. Ambedkar as its chairman was formed on 29^th August 1947.

Other members of the drafting committees included then Chief Minister of United Province Gobind Ballabh Pant, former Advocate General of Madras, Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, former J&K Prime Minister N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, former Bombay Presidency Home Minister Kalyanilal Maneklal Munshi, and former Indian advocate general B.L.Mitter, former Muslim League politician Muhammed Sadullah and D.P. Khaitan.

It took the Constituent Assembly nearly three years for drafting Constitution of Independent India, during which it held 11 sessions over 165 days. Chairman of the drafting committee Babasaheb Ambedkar finally presented the draft of Indian Constitution to the President of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad on 26^th November 1949 which came into effect from 26^th January 1950.

The original 1950 constitution of India is preserved in Helium filed cases in the Parliament House, New Delhi.

Influence of other Constitutions

The Indian constitution is unique in its content and spirit, although it had borrowed many features from the constitutions around the world. The Countries and the features borrowed from their Constitution are given below-

Constitution of UK- Parliamentary form of Government.

Constitution of United States-Federal structure of Government, electoral college.

Irish constitution- Directive Principles of state policy.

Australian Constitution- Freedom of trade and commerce, concurrent list.

French Constitution- Ideals of Liberty, Equality and fraternity.

Canadian Constitution- distribution of powers between Central and State governments.

Russian constitution- Fundamental duties.

Weimar Constitution (Germany) - The provisions of emergency.

South Africa- Amendments of the Constitution.

Japan- The due procedure of law.

Salient features of the Indian Constitution

The Constitution of India originally had 395 articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules, which are amended form time to time (total of 101 amendments till date) presently having 448 articles with 12 schedules. Salient features of the constitution of India are given below-

Longest written constitution

The Constitution of India holds the exclusivity of being the longest and hand written Constitution of the World. It contains the systematic elaboration of every topic. The constitution of India is the lengthiest because it contains separate provisions for centre and state and their relations, separate provisions for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women and children. Contains detailed list of Directive principles, state policy, fundamental rights and duties of the citizens.

Living Document

The Constitution of India is known as a living document owing to its flexibility. The constitution is fluid as it can be amended according to the need and sentiment of people for serving general good.Rigid and flexible

The Constitution of India is rigid because it is the supreme law of the country. No law is superior to the Constitution, and all must abide by the provisions provided in the Constitution. The Constitution of India also flexible as its content and principles may be amended by the Legislature by simple legislative procedures.

Preamble of the constitution

Preamble of the constitution is the introductory part of the Constitution of India. Like the introductory part of a book, it is not related to the contents but explains the objective and principle of the constitution. The preamble describes the objective of the constitution in two ways- one is the system of governance and other as the ideals to be achieved in Independent India.

5) Fundamental Rights and Duties

The Constitution of India guarantees certain fundamental rights to is citizens. Initially there were seven fundamental rights, but with scrapping of the right to property, there are only six fundamental rights as below-

Right to equality.

Right to freedom.

Right against exploitation.

Right to the freedom of religion.

Cultural and educational rights.

Rights to Constitutional remedies.

Directive Principles

Directive Principles of state policy provided in the constitution declares the policy by which the government of the state is to be governed. It also represents philosophies like- likely means of livelihood for the citizens, equal opportunities for men and women and equal wages for them, compulsory primary education, distribution of wealth in order to reduce financial disparity and serve common good, old age care and unemployment etc.