INDIAN CONSTITUTION: THE BIG BOOK

INDIAN CONSTITUTION: THE BIG BOOK

   October 12, 2020       Ankur Jangra

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Constitution- It can simply be defined as a set of rules and regulations in order to run an organization, family, society, country, or maybe any other grouping. It can be both written as well as not written. Constitutions have been existing for ages in some form or the other. Today lets have a walk through some of the glimpses and special features about our constitution. As a responsible citizen of our country, it's important for us to know at least a little about the book by which we are governed.

Historical Making of the Book

Ok, so let us start from scratch. India was a colony back then in 1919 when the colonial government passed the Government of India Act, 1919 famously known as the Montague-Chelmsford reforms. It had few provisions which actually became part of our constitution later. Meanwhile, a negative remark came from a very famous personality back then that Indians were not qualified to draft a constitution on their own. In response came a famous Nehru Report(by Motilal Nehru, not Pandit Nehru). Although it was also a controversial one yet, it had many features which are still the part of our constitution like- Fundamental Rights including equal rights for women, universal adult suffrage, linguistic provinces/states(for example current states organization- Gujarat for Gujarati speaking, Tamilnadu for Tamil speaking, Maharashtra for Marathi speaking and so on), etc. Post-Nehru report, came the most important act i.e the Government of India Act, 1935. Most of our constitution is based on this act. 

After a tussle of almost 10 years came the D-Day i.e 9th of December, 1946 when the constituent assembly first met. For those who don't know, the constituent assembly was basically a sitting of few indirectly elected people who were given the task of setting a framework for governing independent India. 

There were many committees which were made with some assigned particular task. One such committee was the Drafting Committee which was headed by none other than the father of our Constitution Dr. B.R.Ambedhkar. Drafting Committee, as the name suggests was given the task of making the constitution. It took almost 3 years to compile the constitution of our country and after lots of debates and discussions, finally, on 26th November 1949, the constitution was adopted and came into force from 26th January 1950 which we celebrate as the Republic Day. 

Did you observe one thing? It took almost 3 years to make the big book. The reason our constitution is the bulkiest constitution in the world. Now one might have a thought that how come the makers of our constitution got so many ideas to add in the big book. The answer to this is that many constitutions did exist back then. So basically our big bookmakers played smart. They borrowed many features from the constitutions of different countries. Few such examples are- the Fundamental Rights borrowed from the USA, the Directive Principles of State Policy borrowed from Ireland, the Parliamentary form of government from the UK, and the list goes on. 

Many famous policymakers and political thinkers had criticized that the Indian Constitution is nothing but a copy and paste of multiple features of multiple constitutions, basically just a borrowed one. We can't say that they are wrong but at the same time, not completely correct as well. During that time, if there existed many successful constitutions, then what's wrong in borrowing some from it. The intelligence played a major role here. For a country with multiple diversities and people of different ethnicities, it's not easy to define a set fixed standard that could be applicable and followed by everyone. Our constitution makers were smart enough that they took the best out of the rest and compiled into a single unit. 

The constitutions are either rigid, flexible, or both. A rigid Constitution means it is very difficult to add something/amend the constitution i.e the process of amending the constitution is very complex. And a flexible constitution means as and when one thinks, an amendment can be made. The Indian constitution is a perfect blend of rigidity as well as flexibility. As per the need of the situation, it can set its gear as it wants. But the same is not the scenario in comparison to most of the nations. For example, the US constitution is very rigid in nature i.e it is very difficult to add an amendment to it since it is based on the principles of complete federalism and the UK constitution which in contrast is very flexible. 

Certain provisions which form the part of the Basic Structure of our constitution(Fundamental Rights, DPSPs, Independent Judiciary, etc) are not easier to amend. Consider one of our fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, now this cannot be taken away by amending the constitution since it is the very basic part of an individual's personality and wholly for a democracy. So in this case our constitution acts as a rigid one. Now consider another example for changing the name of the states. This can be done easily since this is not going to have any impact on individuals or our country and here our constitution acts as a flexible one. 

Few features of our constitution are: 

1. Secular state character

2. A federal system with Unitary bias

3. Parliamentary form of Government

4. A mixture of Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy

5. Independent Judiciary

6. Universal Adult Franchise

7. Single Citizenship

8. Democratic Decentralisation- 3 tiers of government

When the constitution was made, many political experts argued/predicted that India being a country of multiple diversities and ethnicities, it's constitution would fail. Today, our constitution consists of a Preamble, 25 parts, 12 schedules, and more than 400 articles and stand strong and united even after 70 years. Until now, it has been amended 104 times. The fact that our's is such a diverse country, it is the constitution that binds us all together under a single roof. Our constitution acts as a parent that guides its children when they are young and once they mature, it lets them modify itself i.e transition them from one generation to another with a new set of rules and regulations as per the changing times.  A dialogue from the movie "Article 15" starring Ayushmann Khurrana, which said, "Uss Kitab Ki Chalani Padegi, Ussi Se Chalega Desh", stands true today and for generations to come.

JAI HIND!!