Indian Constitution

After the Battle of Plassey in 1757 AD and the Battle of Buxar in 1764 AD, a large part of India went under the control of East India company and the question that aroused in front of the company was that through which laws must it rule over India? Since a long time, the British Parliament used to form laws for the government, such as-Regulation Act, Pitts India Act, Act of 1811, Government of India Act of 1909, Government of India Act of 1919 and Act of 1935, etc.

Back in 1928 Motilal Nehru and 8 others congress leaders drafted a constitution for India, which was not accepted by British government.

When the Second World War started in the year 1939, the British government required Indian assistance in the war greatly. Therefore, in 'August offer' in 1940 AD, the British accepted the demand of formation of constitution by the Indians for the first time.

In July 1945, the new government of Labour Party came into power in England, which shortly gave indications for making India free and formation of the constitution. In March 1946, the government sent a three-member Commission to India, which is known as the 'Cabinet Mission'.

At that time, India was divided into two parts-British provinces and Princely states. Similar criteria of population was kept for the membership of Constituent Assembly of princely states also, but as there were no legislative assemblies in the princely states, therefore it was decided to nominate the members of Legislative Assembly from there. In this way, the Indian Constituent Assembly had both, elected and nominated members. Election to the constituent assembly held in July 1946. Total members were 389. In which 292 from British provinces, 93 from princely states and 4 from Chief commissioner provinces.

First meeting held on 9^th December 1946. Sachchidananda Sinha was elected as the interim President of the Constituent Assembly. On 11 December, 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the permanent President of the Constituent Assembly.

Through the 'Mountbatten Plan' of 3 June 1947, it was decided to divide the country on religious basis. Indian constituent assembly left with 299 members.

Various committees were formed to frame the constitution, out of which, the Drafting committee, which was formed in August 1947, was the most important. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was a renowned advocate and an expert of legal matters, was the Chairman of the seven-member Drafting Committee.

The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949.

The Constitution of India was enforced on 26 January 1950.

In the prime Constitution, there is one preamble (also known as introduction), 8 schedules, 22 parts and 395 articles. The numbers of schedules have been increased from 8 to 12 at present.

Characteristics of Indian Constitution

1. World's lengthiest Constitution.

2. Single Citizenship.

3. Parliamentary Form of government: The Prime Minister and Council of Ministers are responsible for their actions and tenure towards the Legislature, i.e. the Parliament. Such system is known as Parliamentary form.

4. Independent Judiciary: The Supreme Court has the right to review the constitution and protect the constitution.

5. Universal Adult Franchise to all the citizens without any discrimination.

6. Fundamental Rights: Fundamental rights are mentioned from article 13 to 35. In original form, a total of seven fundamental rights were conferred, but through the 44th constitutional amendment 1978, 'right to property' has been removed from the category of fundamental rights and has been made a legal right.

7. Directive Principles of State Policy.

8.  Various Sources of the Constitution:

(a) The concept of fundamental rights and the concept of independent and supreme judiciary is inspired by the American constitution.

(b) Parliamentary form has been derived from the British constitution.

(c) Republic has been derived from the constitution of France,

(d) The Directive Principles of State Policy is inspired by Ireland.