Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee, presenting the final draft of the Indian Constitution to Rajendra Prasad on 25 November 1949
Independent India was declared as Sovereign Secular Democratic Republic by the people of the country on January 26, 1950. On that day New Constitution of India came into force as governing document of newly independent India.
The preamble of the new Indian constitution is The preamble of the Indian Constitution is being considered as the soul of Indian Constitution.
The ideological content of the India National Liberation movement against one hundred ninety years of British colonialism, hopes and aspiration of the people of India as well as the ideals before newly independent nation were described clearly in the preamble of the Indian Constitution.
The India Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly and came into effect from the first Republic Day of India, 26th January, 1950. There are interesting stories behind this historical event.
In 1934 Mr. Manabendra Nath Roy, great international communist leader and the founder of Communist Party of India, initiated the concept of formation of a elected constituent assembly for drafting constitution of independent India. Some days later Indian National Congress resolved it at Lahore session of Congress Working Committee meeting to raise the demand of formation of Constituent Assembly. In the year 1940 British Government had admitted that demand of formation of constituent assembly.
Just a few months before proclamation of Indian Independence election of constituent assembly was held in 1946. In that election of constituent assembly Indian National Congress had won in 204 seats and Muslim League in 73 seats out of 296 seats of constituent assembly. Rests of the seats of constituent assembly were nominated.
In 1947 a committee for drafting new constitution was formed on 19th. August, just four days later of first Independence Day of India under the leadership of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. After more than two years this committee had placed the draft constitution of India on 26th.
November 1949 in the meeting of constituent assembly. The draft Constitution was duly published and common people were given opportunity for posting their amendments and objections about the draft constitution. After the draft was discussed by the people, the press, the provincial assemblies and the Constituent Assembly finally adopted the constitution in the light of the suggestions received out of country wide discussion and finalized by the members of the constituent assembly on 24 January 1950.
All members on the constituent assembly signed on a English and a Hindi copy of the finalized constitution on 24th. January 1950. Pandit Jahwarlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India had officially placed this resolution for adopting new constitution of India in the constituent assembly meeting.
Through a protracted process of exchange of opinion the new Indian Constitution was drafted and adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly and decided to celebrate Republic Day of Independent India on 26th January every year as India became a republic country. On 26 January 1950 India was announced as Republic of India officially. And from there Republic day celebrated every year on 26th.
January in India to honor the new constitution and it came into force on the same day as the governing document of India in the year 1950 replacing the Government Act, 1935. The 26 January 1950 was declared National holiday by the Indian Government. This Year 26 January is 67th. Republic Day of India.
There are more interesting stories behind the drafting of Indian Constitution. The Constitution of India was not an original document but drafted on the basis of experiences of adoption and application of constitution from different countries.
The framers of the Constitution, without any narrowness and prejudice in mind, tried to study the good features of other country's constitutions in one hand and always tried to consider ground realities of India.
While adopting or rejecting good or bad experiences from other countries, they always made necessary modification with free mind for its suitability to the Indian conditions and to avoid their defects and bad experiences. The Constitutions which exercised profound influence on the Indian Constitution were that of UK, USA, Ireland, Canada etc.
India is a multi lingual, multi state and multi cultural country. It was extremely complicated task to formulate system guiding rule of The Parliamentary system of India. 'Unity in Diversity' is fundamental ideological contain of India society. The balance and constrains of existing society should have been incorporated and well protected into the guiding principal of The India Parliamentary system.
The good experience of parliamentary system of government, rule of law, law-making procedure and single citizenship ideas were taken from the British Constitution. The ideas of Independence of Judiciary, Judicial Review, Fundamental Rights and guidelines for the removal of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts were adopted from the US Constitution. The idea of federal system with a strong central authority was adopted from Constitution of Canada.
The ideas of Directive Principles of State Policy were borrowed from the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. The ideas of Concurrent List were borrowed from the Australian Constitution. The constitutional provisions relating to emergency were influenced by the Weimer Constitution.
Above all, the Government of India Act, 1935, exercised had a great influence of the new Indian Constitution. The federal scheme, office of Governor, powers of federal judiciary, etc., were drawn from this Act.
In short, the Indian Constitution incorporated the best features of several existing constitutions. On the 67th anniversary day of incorporation of the new Indian Constitution as 'The Republic Day' is being observed today.
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