Framing the Constitution — The Beginning of a New Era — Class 12 History

This chapter studies how the Indian Constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, was framed between December 1946 and November 1949 amid a tumultuous time of freedom, Partition and communal violence. The Constituent Assembly debated each clause, and its records — the Constituent Assembly Debates — are a major source. A few hundred members, dominated by the Congress but including diverse voices, did the work, guided by leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, who moved the Objectives Resolution setting out ideals of justice, liberty and equality; Vallabhbhai Patel, who handled the integration of states and contentious clauses; Rajendra Prasad, who presided; and B.R. Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee. The Assembly worked to keep a large, diverse and divided country together, nurturing democratic institutions in a society long marked by hierarchy. Major debates concerned the balance between a strong centre and the powers of the provinces, the rights of minorities and whether separate electorates should continue (they were rejected), the protection and upliftment of depressed castes and tribes through reservations and the abolition of untouchability, and the question of national language, settled by adopting Hindi in the Devanagari script while retaining English for official purposes. The result was the longest constitution in the world, reflecting the country's size and diversity. The chapter shows how the framers drew on different traditions and visions to craft a document meant to unite Indians of many classes, castes and communities in a shared democratic experiment.