Chapter 12 — Framing the Constitution

The Constituent Assembly began its sessions on 9 December 1946. The Constitution was framed between December 1946 and November 1949, during which the Assembly held eleven sessions with sittings spread over 165 days.

Members were not elected by universal franchise. Provincial elections were held in the winter of 1945–46, and the Provincial Legislatures then chose the representatives to the Constituent Assembly.

The Muslim League boycotted the Constituent Assembly because it was pressing its demand for Pakistan with a separate constitution.

82 per cent of the members of the Constituent Assembly were also members of the Congress.

Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the Objectives Resolution on 13 December 1946. It proclaimed India to be an 'Independent Sovereign Republic' and guaranteed citizens justice, equality, and freedom, while assuring adequate safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and Depressed and Other Backward Classes.

B.R. Ambedkar served as Chairman of the Drafting Committee. He had been a political opponent of the Congress during British rule but joined the Union Cabinet as law minister on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi.

Sardar Patel called separate electorates a 'poison' that had divided the nation and led to Partition. Govind Ballabh Pant argued they would be 'suicidal to the minorities' by permanently isolating them and preventing them from having any effective voice in government. Most nationalists also saw separate electorates as a colonial device the British had used to divide the people.

N.G. Ranga, a socialist and peasant movement leader, argued that the real minorities were the masses — the poor and the downtrodden. He welcomed the rights the Constitution granted but argued they were meaningless without the economic conditions and support ('props' and a 'ladder', in his words) needed to actually enjoy them.

The Language Committee decided that Hindi in the Devanagari script would be the official language, but the transition would be gradual. For the first fifteen years, English would continue for all official purposes, and each province was allowed to choose one of the regional languages for official work within the province.

The two landmark features were: first, the granting of universal adult franchise — unprecedented for a democracy of India's scale, since other democracies had extended the vote only slowly and in stages; and second, secularism embedded through Fundamental Rights — Articles 25–28 (freedom of religion), Articles 29–30 (cultural and educational rights), and Articles 14, 16, 17 (rights to equality).

The Draft Constitution provided for three lists: the Union List (subjects reserved for the Central Government), the State List (subjects vested with the states), and the Concurrent List (shared between Centre and states). Many more items were placed under exclusive Union control than in other federations, and the Constitution showed a distinct bias towards the rights of the Union of India.

Jaipal Singh, an Adibasi representative, argued that tribes had been dispossessed of their lands, deprived of their forests and pastures, and had suffered continuous exploitation for thousands of years. He was not asking for separate electorates but felt that reservation of seats in the legislature was essential so that tribals could represent themselves and compel others to hear their voice.

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