NCERT 9th Class (CBSE) Social Science: Constitutional Design

Question: What are the factors which contributed to the making of the Indian Constitution?

Answer:

1. Motilal Nehru and eight other Congress leaders had drafted a constitution for India popularly known as Nehru Report of 1928.
2. In 1931, the resolution at the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress dwelt on how independent India’s constitution should look like.
3. The familiarity with political institutions of colonial rule also helped develop an agreement over the institutional design.
4. The experience gained by Indians in the working of the legislative institutions, when they formed Congress ministries in 1937 proved to be very useful for the country in setting up its own institutions and working in them. The Indian constitution adopted many institutional details and procedures from colonial laws like the Government of India Act 1935.
5. Many of our leaders were inspired by the ideals of French Revolution, the practice of parliamentary democracy in Britain and the Bill of Rights in the US.
6. The socialist revolution in Russia had inspired many Indians to think of shaping a system based on social and economic equality. Yet they were not simply imitating what others had done. At each step they were questioning whether these things suited our country.

Question: Write a short note on the making of the Constituent Assembly of India.

Answer:

1. The drafting of the document called the constitution was done by an assembly of elected representatives called the Constituent Assembly.
2. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in July 1946. Its first meeting was held in December 1946. Soon after the country was divided into India and Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly was also divided into the Constituent Assembly of India and that of Pakistan.
3. The Constituent Assembly that wrote the Indian constitution had 299 members. Dr. B.R Ambedkhar was the chairman
4. The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 but it came into effect on January 26, 1950. To mark this day we celebrate January 26 as Republic Day every year.

Question: Why should we accept the Constitution made by the Constituent assembly 50 years ago?

Answer:

1. The Constitution does not reflect the views of its members alone. It expresses a broad consensus of its time.
2. Over the last half a century, several groups have questioned some provisions of the Constitution. But no large social group or political party has ever questioned the legitimacy of the Constitution itself.
3. The second reason for accepting the Constitution is that the Constituent Assembly represented the people of India. There was no universal adult franchise at that time. So the Constituent Assembly could not have been chosen directly by all the people of India. It was elected mainly by the members of the existing Provincial Legislatures. This ensured fair geographical share of members from all the regions
   of the country.
4. The Assembly represented members from different language groups, castes, classes, religions and occupations. Even if the Constituent Assembly was elected by universal adult franchise, its composition would not have been very different.

Question: What are constituent assembly debates? Why are they important?

Answer: Several rounds of thorough discussion took place on the Draft Constitution, clause by clause. More than two thousand amendments were considered. The members deliberated for 114 days spread over three years. Every document presented and every word spoken in the Constituent Assembly has been recorded and preserved. These are called ‘Constituent Assembly Debates’. When printed these debates are 12 bulky volumes. These debates provide the rationale behind every provision of the Constitution. These are used to interpret the meaning of the Constitution.