Class - 12 History NCERT Chapter - 15

        Farming The Constitution  

              The Beginning of A New Era 

Introduction 

• The India constitution , which came into effect on 26 January 1950, has the dubious distinction of being the 
• The Constitution of India was framed between December 1946 and December 1949 .
• The Assembly held eleven sessions , with sittings spread over 165 days .

A Tumultuous Time 

• On August 1947 , India had been made free, but it had also been divided 
• The quit India struggle of 1942 - perhaps the most widespread popular movement against the british Raj - as well as the bid by Subhas Chandra Bose to win freedom through armed struggle with aid .
• The Great Calcutta killings of August 1946 began a year of almost continuous rioting across northern and eastern India 
• on Independence Day, 15 August 1947 , There was an outburst of joy and hope , unforgettable for those who lived through that time .
• During the period of the Raj , approximately one - third of the area of the subcontinent was under the control of nawabs and maharajas who owed allegiance to the british crown , but were otherwise left mostly free to rule - or misrule - their territory as they wished .

The making of the Constituent Assembly 

• The members of the constituent Assembly were not elected on the basis of universal franchise .
• In 1945 - 46 provincial elections were held in India .
• The provincial Legislatures then chose the representatives to the constituent Assembly .
• The Congress swept the general seats in the provincial elections, and the Muslim league capture most of the reserved Muslim seats .

The dominant voices 

• The Constituent Assembly had 300 members . of these , six members played particularly important roles . three were representatives of the congress , namely , Jawaharlal Nehru , Vallabh bhai Patel and Rajerdra prasad.
• Rajendra prasad's role was as president of the Assembly , where he had to steer the discussion along constructive lines while making sure all members had a chance to speak .
• A very important member of the Assembly was the lawyer and economist B.R.Ambedkar. During the period of british rule, Ambedkar had been a political opponent of the congress 
• These six members were given vital assistance by two civil servants One was B.N ratu, constitutional advisor to the government of India .
• The other was the Cheif Draughtsman , S.N. Mukherjee , who had the ability to put complex proposals in clear legal language .

The vision of the Constitution 

• On 13 December 1946 , Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the "Objectives Resolution " in the constituent Assembly .
• It was a momentous resolution that outlined the defining ideals of the constitution of Independent India , and provided the framework within which the work of constitution - making was to proceed .

The will of the people 

• A communist member , Somnath Lahiri saw the dark hand of british imperialism hanging over the deliberations of the constitution Assembly .
• /In 1946 - 47 , as the Assembly deliberated , the british were still in India 
• An interim administration headed by jawaharlal Nehru was in place , but it could only operate under the directions of the viceroy and the british government in London .
•  Nehru admitted that most nationalist leaders had wanted a different kind of constitution Assembly .
• Democracy , equality and justice wee ideals that had become intimately associated with social struggles in India since the 19th century.
• When Jyotiba phule in Maharashtra pointed to the suffering of the depressed castes , or communists and socialists organised workers and peasants , they were demanding economic and social justice .
• The executive was made partly responsible to the provincial legislature in 1919 , and almost entirely so under the Government of India Act of 1935.
• When election were held in 1937, under the 1935 Act, the Congress came to power in eight out of the 11 province.

Defining rights 

The problem with separate electorates 

• On 27 August 1947 , B. Pocker Bahadur from Madras made a powerful plea for continuing separate electorates. 
• only separate electorates would ensure that Muslims had a meaningful voice in the governance of the country .
• Most nationalists saw separate electrodes as a measure deliberately introduced by the british to divide the people . 
• Separate electrodes was a "poison that has entered the body political of our country " declared Sardar Patel it was a demand that had turned one community against another , divided the nation caused bloodshed, and led to the tragic partition of the country .
• Countering the demand for separate electrodes , Govind Ballabh Pant declared that it was not only harmful for the nation but also for the minorities .
• In order to build political unity and forge a nation , every individual had to be moulded into a citizen of the state , each group had to be assimilated within the nation.
• In 1949 , most Muslim members of the constituent Assembly were agreed that separate electorates were against the interests of the minorities .

"We will need much more than this resolution"

• The objectives resolution, N.G. Ranga , a socialist who had been a leader of the peasant movement, urged that the term minorities be interpreted in economic terms .
• The Real minorities for Ranga were the poor and the downtrodden .
• some members of the depressed castes emphasis that the problem of the "Untouchables " safeguards alone .These disabilities were caused by the social norms and the moral values of caste society .
• The assembly , K.J. Khanderkar of the central provinces said: We were suppressed for thousands of years suppressed to such an extent that neither our minds nor our bodies and now even our hearts work, nor are we able to march forward . this is the position .
• The constituent be abolished, hindu temples be thrown open to all castes , and seats in legislatures and jobs in government offices be reserved for the lowest castes.

The Powers of the state 

• The Draft constitution provided for three lists of subjects: Union , state , and concurrent .
• The Subjects in the first list were to be the preserve of the central government , while those in the second list were vested with the states . As for the third list , here center and state shared responsibility .
• The Union had control of minerals and key industries .
• Article 356 gave the on the recommendation of the governor.
• The constitution also mandated for a complex system of fiscal federalism.

The centre is likely to break 

• The rights of the states were most eloquently defended by K. Samantha from Madras. 
• A reallocation of powers was necessary, he felt , to strengthen not only the states but also the centre .
• The fiscal provisions would imporverish the provinces since most taxes  , except land revenue , had been made the preserve of the centre .
• The centre is likely to break since powers had been excessively centralized under the constitution .

What we want today is a strong government 

• THe argument for greater power to the provinces provoked a strong reaction in the Assembly 
• Ambedkar had declared that he wanted a strong and united centre much stronger than the centre we had created under the government of India Act of 1935 .
• Gopalaswami Ayyangar declared that "the centre should be made as strong as possible ". one member from the United provinces , Balakrishna sharma , reasoned at length that only a strong centre could plan for the well - being of the country ,mobilize the available economic resources , establish a proper administration, and defend the country against foreign aggression .

The language of the nation 

• In the 1930, the congress had accepted that Hindustani ought to be the national language .
• Mahatma Gandhi felt everyone should speak in a language that common people could easily understand .
• This Multi - cultural language , Mahatma Gandhi thought , would be the ideal language of communication between diverse communities ; it could unify Hindus and muslims , and people of the north and the south .
• From the end of the 19th century , however , Hindustani as a language had been gradually changing .

A Plea for Hindi 

• In one of the earliest sessions of the constituent Assembly , R.V. Dhulekar , a congressman from the United provinces, made an aggressive plea that Hindi be used as the language of constitution - making .
• On 12 September 1947, Dhulekar 's speech on the language of the nation once again sparked off a huge storm.
• Dhulekar was not one who liked such an attitude of reconciliation .he wanted Hindi to be declared not an official language, but a national language .

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