M N Roy
Manabendra Nath Roy born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
and popularly known as M. N. Roy, was an Indian
nationalist revolutionary and an internationally known
radical activist and political theorist. Roy was a founder
of the Communist Parties in both Mexico and India and
was a delegate to congresses of the Communist
International. Following the rise of Joseph Stalin, Roy
left the mainline communist movement to pursue an
independent radical politics. In 1940 Roy was
instrumental in the formation of the Radical Democratic
Party, an organization in which he played a leading role
for much of the decade of the 1940s. Roy later moved
away from Marxism to become an exponent of the
philosophy of Radical Humanism.
M.N.ROY ( RADICAL DEMOCRATIC OF COMMUNIST PARTY ) IN 1934 FIRST TO PUT FORTH IDEA OF CONS ASSEMBLY. ACCEPTED BY BRITISH IN 1940 AUGUST OFFER
1935--INC DEMANDED CONS ASSEM TO FRAME INDIAN CONS
1938--J.NEHRU COS OF INDIA MUST BE FRAMED W/O OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE, BY CONS ASSEMB ELECTED BY ADULT FRANCHISE
1940---AUGUST OFFER.
1942-- CRIPPS MISSION WITH DRAFT PROPOSAL REJECTED BY MUS LEG ASKING 2 SEP CONS ASSEM
1946--- CABINET MISSION PLAN NOT 2 CONS ASSEM BUT SATISFIED BY MUS LEG
Making of the Constitution
Before the constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950, two big laws enacted by British were the Government of India Act 1935 and Indian Independence Act 1947. Both of these laws were repealed as per Article 395 of the present constitution on 26 November 1949, the day on which the constituent assembly of India enacted our constitution.
However, we Indians did not get the opportunity to frame our own constitution overnight. Those were the days when major decisions about the fate of Indian people were taken in London. For at least 100 years there was a gradual awakening and it was the unexpressed desire of the people India to write their own basic law of the land. In
1922, Mahatma Gandhi, while explaining the meaning of Swaraj had indicated that the Constitution of India would be drafted by Indians. This was probably the
first expressed intention, regarding the Indians made constitution for Indian people. Six year later, in
1928, for the first time a constitution for India was drafted by Nehru Committee that was headed by Moti Lal Nehru. A year later, in the
Lahore session of December 1929, Congress passed the
Poorna Swaraj resolution.
It was the same session in which
Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as president of the Congress. This 41 years old anglophile, aristocratic, and only son of Motilal Nehru had dedicated all his energy for the national movement and was
youngest president of Congress till that time. He later emerged as Gandhi’s designated successor to congress leadership. Here, please note that though the congress passed the Poorna Swaraj Resolution in December 1929, it was a month later on
January 26, 1930, when a Pledge of Indian Independence also known as
Declaration of Independence was taken. You must note here that while the
Poorna Swaraj Resolution was drafted by Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, the “
Declaration of Independence” pledge was drafted by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 and it echoed the essence of American Declaration of Independence. After this pledge January 26, 1930 was declared a
s Independence Day by Indian National Congress.The “declaration of Independence” expresses the pain and pity of the people of India, highlights the Indian grievances against British. It reads as follows:
We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or to abolish it. The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India
economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj, or complete independence. India has been ruined economically. The revenue derived from our people is out of all proportion to our income. Our average income is
seven pice (less than twopence) per day, and of the heavy taxes we pay, 20 per cent are raised from the land revenue derived from the peasantry and 3 per cent from the salt tax, which falls most heavily on the poor.Village industries, such as hand-spinning, have been destroyed, leaving the peasantry idle for at least four months in the year, and dulling their intellect for want of handicrafts, and nothing has been substituted, as in other countries, for the crafts thus destroyed.Customs and currency have been so manipulated as to heap further burdens on the peasantry. British manufactured goods constitute the bulk of our imports. Customs duties betray clear partiality for British manufactures, and revenue from them is used not to lessen the
burden on the masses but for sustaining a highly extravagant administration. Still more arbitrary has been the manipulation of the exchange ration, which has resulted in millions being drained away from the country.
Politically, India’s status has never been so reduced as under the British regime. No reforms have given real political power to the people. The tallest of us have to bend before foreign authority. The rights of free expression of opinion and free association have been denied to us, and many of our countrymen are compelled to live in exile abroad and cannot return to their homes. All administrative talent is
killed, and the masses have to be satisfied with petty village offices and clerkships.
Culturally, the system of education has torn us from our moorings, and our training has made us hug the very chains that bind us. Spiritually, compulsory disarmament has made us unmanly, and the presence of an alien army of occupation, employed with deadly effect to crush in us the spirit of resistance, has made us think that we cannot look after ourselves or put up a defense against foreign aggression, or even defend our homes and families from attacks of thieves, robbers, and miscreants.We hold it to be a crime against man and God to submit any longer to a rule that has caused this fourfold disaster to our country. We recognize, however, that the most effective way of gaining our freedom is through Non-violence. We will therefore prepare ourselves by withdrawing, so far as we can, all voluntary association from the British Government, and will prepare for civil disobedience, including non-payment of taxes. We are convinced that if we can but withdraw our voluntary held and stop payment of taxes without doing violence, even under provocation, the end of this inhuman rule is assured. We therefore hereby solemnly resolve to carry out the Congress instructions issued from time to time for the purpose of establishing Purna Swaraj.
The Constituent Assembly
For the
first time, 1934 that the
idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was put forward by M. N. Roy or Manabendra Nath Roy a pioneer of communist movement in India and an advocate of radical democratism. However, it became the official demand of the Indian National Congress in 1935. The demand was accepted in August 1940 offer by the British. On august 8, 1940, a statement was made by the by the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, on the expansion of the Governor- General’s Executive Council and the establishment of a War Advisory Council. This offer also known as “August Offer of
1940” also promised for giving full weight to minority opinion, recognizing the Indians to form their own constitution. Under the cabinet mission plan of 1946, elections were held for the first time for constituent Assembly. The
Constitution of India was drafted by the constituent assembly and it was
set up under the cabinet Mission plan on 16 May 1946. The members of the constituent assembly were elected
by the Provincial assemblies by method of single transferable vote system of proportional representations. Total membership of the constituent assembly was
389, out of which
292 the representatives of the states were,
93 were representatives of princely states and
4 were from the chief commissioners provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Mewar, Coorg and British Baluchistan.
The
elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British Indian provinces were completed by July-August 1946.
Congress won 208 seats and
Muslim league won 73 seats. After this election, the
Muslim
league refused to cooperate with the Congress. The political situation got worse and Hindu Muslim riots started. The Muslim league demanded for a separate Constituent assembly for Muslims in India.
On June 3, 1947, Lord
Mountbatten , the last British Governor General of India announced his plan of
scrapping the Cabinet Mission plan and this later culminated in Indian Independence Act and
separate
nations India and Pakistan. The Indian Independence act was passed on July 18, 1947. Earlier it was declared that India will get its independence in June 1948, but this event led to an early independence on August 15, 1947.
The Cabinet assembly which was elected for an undivided India
met for the first time on June 9, 1946. It reassembled on 14 August 1947 as a sovereign body and successor to the British parliament’s plenary authority and power in India.
As a result of the partition, under the Mountbatten plan a
separate constituent assembly was set up for Pakistan on June 3, 1947. The representatives of the members which were from the areas of the Pakistan ceased to be members of the Constituent assembly of India.
Fresh elections were held for west Punjab and east Bengal which were now in Pakistan.
The
membership of the Constituent assembly became
299 after this reorganization and it met on December 31, 1947.
The first leaders of Constituent Assembly
The Constituent assembly was the First parliament of Independent India.
Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha was the first president (temporary Chairman of
the Assembly) of the Constituent Assembly when it met on December 9,
1946. Dr. Rajendra Prasad then became the President of the Constituent
Assembly, and who later become the first President of India. The Vice
President of the Constituent Assembly was Professor Harendra Coomar
Mookerjee, former Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University and a prominent
Christian from Bengal who also served as the Chairman of the Minorities
Committee of the Constituent Assembly. He was appointed Governor of
West Bengal after India became a republic.
Constituent Assembly had been elected firstly, for undivided India. Its first sitting was held on December 9, 1946 and re-assembled as Constituent Assembly for divided India on 14 August 1947.
Its
members were elected by indirect election by the members of the Provisional Legislative Assemblies that had been established in 1935.
The Constituent Assembly was composed roughly along the lines suggested by the plan proposed by the committee of the British cabinet, known as the Cabinet Mission.
As per the Cabinet Mission plan, each Province and each Princely State or group of States were allotted seats proportional to their respective population roughly in the ratio of 1:10 Lakh. As a result the Provinces (that were under direct British rule) were to elect 292 members while the Princely States were allotted a minimum of 93 seats.
The seats in each Province were distributed among the three main communities, Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their respective populations.
Members of each community in the Provisional Legislative Assembly elected their own representatives by the method of proportional representation with single transferable vote.
The method of selection in the case of representatives of Princely States was to be determined by consultation.
As a consequence of the Partition under the plan of 3 June 1947 those members who were elected from territories which fell under Pakistan ceased to be members of the Constituent Assembly.
The numbers in the Assembly were reduced to 299 of which 284 were actually present on 26 November 1949 and appended their signature to the Constitution as finally passed.
Objectives Resolution
Before the framing of the constitution started, an Objectives Resolution (the resolution that defined the aims of the Assembly) was moved by
Nehru in 1946. This resolution enshrined the aspirations and values behind the Constitution making. On the basis of the Objectives Resolution, India’s Constitution gave institutional expression to the fundamental commitments: equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan identity. This made the moral commitment to establish a government that will fulfil the many
promises that the nationalist movement held before the people of India.
The summary of the Objective Resolution is as follows:
1. India is an independent, sovereign, republic
2. India shall be a Union of erstwhile British Indian territories, Indian States, and other parts outside British India and Indian States as are willing to be a part of the Union
3. Territories forming the Union shall be autonomous units and exercise all powers and functions of the Government and administration, except those assigned to or vested in the Union
4. All powers and authority of sovereign and independent India and its constitution shall flow from the people
5. All people of India shall be guaranteed and secured social, economic and political justice; equality of status and opportunities and equality before law; and fundamental freedoms - of speech, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action - subject to law and public morality
6. The minorities, backward and tribal areas, depressed and other backward classes shall be provided adequate safeguards
7. The territorial integrity of the Republic and its sovereign rights on land, sea and air shall be maintained according to justice and law of civilized nations
8. The land would make full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and welfare of mankind
Late in the evening of 14 August, 1947 the Assembly met in the Constitution Hall and at the stroke of midnight, took over as the Legislative Assembly of an Independent India. On 29 August, 1947, the Constituent Assembly set up a Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to
prepare a Draft Constitution for India. While deliberating upon the draft Constitution, the Assembly moved, discussed and disposed of as many as 2,473 amendments out of a total of 7,635 tabled. The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November, 1949 and the members appended their signatures to it on 24 January, 1950. In all, 284 members actually signed the Constitution. On that day when the
Constitution was being signed, it was drizzling outside and it was interpreted as a sign of a good omen.
The Constitution of India came into force on 26 January, 1950. On that day, the Assembly ceased to exist, transforming
itself into the Provisional Parliament of India until a new Parliament was constituted in 1952.
The drafting committee was entrusted with the responsibility to prepare the Draft constitution.
The constituent assembly took 2 years , 11 months and 17 days to frame the constitution. It spent 6.4 crore Rupees in
the preparation. The final outcome of the almost three year’s long process was the constitution document with 22
parts, 395 articles and 8 schedules.
Though, the constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, some provisions relating to Citizenship,
Elections, provisional parliament, temporary & transitional provisions were given immediate effect
on 26 November 1949.
This was the basic information about the creation of the constitution of India. In many countries
constitutions remain defunct because they are imposed by military leaders or
leaders who are not popular and do not have
the ability to carry the people with them. The
most successful constitutions, like India, South
Africa and the United States, are constitutions
which were created in the aftermath of popular
national movements. Although India’s
Constitution was formally created by a
Constituent Assembly between December 1946 and November 1949, it drew
upon a long history of the nationalist movement that had a remarkable ability to
take along different sections of Indian society together.
Constituency Seats
Madras 49
Bombay 21
West Bengal 19
United Provinces (Maximum) 55
East Punjab 12
Bihar 36
Central Provinces and Berar 17
Assam 8
Orissa 9
Delhi 1
Ajmer-Merwara 1
Coorg 1
Total 229
Important Committees of the Constituent Assembly (and their
Chairmen)
MAJOR COMMITEE
1.Union Powers Committee : Jawaharlal Nehru
2.Union Constitution Committee : Jawaharlal Nehru
3.States Committee : Jawaharlal Nehru
4.Committee on the Rules of Procedure : Rajendra Prasad
5. Steering Committee : Rajendra Prasad
6.PROVINCIAL CONST COMMIT---PATEL
7.Drafting Committee: B.R. Ambedkar
8. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas : Vallabhbhai Patel------ Minorities Sub-Committee: H.C. Mookherjee...Fundamental Rights : Sub-Committee J.B. Kripalani
MINOR COMMITEE
- Finance and Staff Committee: Rajendra Prasad
- Credential Committee : Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
- House Committee : B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
- Order of Business Committee: K.M. Munsi
- Ad hoc Committee on the National Flag: Rajendra Prasad
- Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly : G.V. Mavalankar
- North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee: Gopinath Bardoloi
- Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee : A.V. Thakkar
DRAFTING COMMITEE
SET UP ON 25 TH AUG 1947 TO PREPARE DRAFT
7 MEMBERS
AMBEDHKAR (CHAIRMAN), GOPALSAMY AYYANGAR, ALLADI KRISHNASAMY, K.M.MUNSHI, SYED MOHAMMED SADULLAH, N.MADHAVA RAO (RELACED BY MITTER LEFT BECOS OF ILL HEALTH), T.T.KRISHNAMACHARI (REPLACED KHAITAN DIED IN 1948)
1ST DRAFT PUB IN FEB 1948 PPL GIVEN 8 MONS TO DISCUSS AND PROPOSE AMEN
2 ND DRAFT PUB OCT 1948 (LESS THAN 6 MONS)
Sessions of the Constituent Assembly
There were 11 sessions of the Constituent assembly.
1. First Session: 9-23 December, 1946
2. Second Session:20-25 January, 1947
3. Third Session:28 April - 2 May, 1947
4. Fourth Session:14-31 July, 1947
5. Fifth Session:14-30 August, 1947
6. Sixth Session:27 January, 1948
7. Seventh Session:4 November,1948 - 8 January, 1949
8. Eighth Session:16 May - 16 June, 1949
9. Ninth Session:30 July - 18 September, 1949
10. Tenth Session:6-17 October, 194
11. Eleventh Session: 14-26 November, 1949
The Assembly met once again on 24 January, 1950, when the
members appended their signatures to the Constitution of India
ENACTMENT OF CONSTITUTION
FIRST READING ON NOV 4, 1948 BY AMBEDKAR---GENRAL DISCUSSION FOR 5 DAYS TILL 9 NOV.
SECOND READING (CLAUSE BY CLAUSE) STARTED ON NOV 15 ENDED OCT 17,1949.
7653 AMEN PROPOSED AND 2473 WERE DISCUSSED.
THIRD READING NOV 14, 1949
DRAFT DECLARED PASSED ON NOV 26 GOT MEM SIGN OUT OF 299 ONLY 284 SIGNED
CONS ADOPTED ON 26 NOV 1949 AS PREAMBL, ART 395 AND 8 SCHED
PREAMBLE ENACTED AFTER ENTIRE CONS ENACTMENT.
AMBEDKAR---MODERN MANU , FATHER OF INDIAN CONST
ENFORCEMENT OF CONSTITUTION
NOV 26,1949---ART (5,6,7,8,9, 60, 324, 366, 367, 379, 380,388, 391, 392,393) CAME TO FORCE
OTHERS ON JAN 26 1950
1947 AND 1935 ACT ABLOISHED, ABOLITION OF PRIVY COUNCIL JURISDICTION ACT 1949 CONTINUED.
CRITICISM OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY---
1. NOT A REPRESENTATIVE BODY COS MEMB NOT DIRECTLY ELECTED
2.NOT SOVERIGN BODY---COS CREATED BY PROPOSAL OF BRITISH GOVT
3.TIME CONSUMING---LONG TIME TAKEN BUT USA ONLY 4 MONS
4.DOMINATED BY CONG---GRANVILLE AUSTIN( BRITISH CONS EXPERT) CONS ASS---ONE PARTY BODY
5.LAWYER POLITICIAN DOMINATION
6.DOMINATION OF HINDUS--LORD VISCOUNT SIMON--BODY OF HINDUS, WINSTON CHURCHILL---ONLY ONE MAJ COMMUNITY REP IN CONS ASSEM.
FIRST MEETING DEC 9, 1946 FOR UNDIVEIDED INDIA
MEMBERS ELECTED BY INDEIRECT ELECTION BY MEM OF PROVISIONAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (LOWER HOUSE ONLY)
IN JUNE1947---MEMBERS FROM SINDH,EAST BENGAL,BALUCHISTAN,WEST PUNJAB,NWFRONTIER PROVINCE FORMED CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF PAKISTAN IN KARACHI.
MEMBERS OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was established in 1982.
