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On November 17, 1949, the draught Constitution was taken up for its 3rd and last speechmaking successful the Constituent Assembly of India. Over the adjacent fewer days, successful a fig of speeches, members of the Assembly harshly criticised the document. Three arguments were peculiarly striking: That the caller Constitution was acold excessively long, that it contained thing archetypal and that it was not Indian enough.
For instance, Seth Govind Das, a Congressman who had been imprisoned 5 times during the state question and who would service arsenic an MP for astir 5 decades (between 1923 and 1970), highlighted however immoderate felt that the Constitution had “become excessively bulky”, that it contained “too galore articles arsenic besides galore details which could good person been near out”. Laxminarayan Sahu, a prolific writer from Odisha, called the Constitution a “khichri” oregon “cocktail”, a “queer and unwholesome amalgam” which borrowed heavy from the aged Government of India Act, 1935, and from different constitutions of the world, and which would “break down soon aft being brought into operation”. Perhaps the astir trenchant disapproval came from K Hanumanthaiya, a lawyer who aboriginal became main curate of Mysore state, and national curate of instrumentality and railways. Hanumanthaiya, who had been imprisoned 7 times by the assemblage regime, said that galore members of the Drafting Committee had ne'er been portion of the state movement, and their draught Constitution lacked a definite Indianness. “It is thing similar this,” helium said, “we wanted the euphony of veena oregon sitar, but present we person the euphony of an English band.”
Many of these criticisms were not wholly unjustified. With 395 articles and 8 schedules, the archetypal Constitution of India was possibly the longest successful the world. By November 1949, it had been debated implicit 165 days and 7,635 amendments had been suggested to it. In places, it contained seemingly banal details — however states cannot taxation energy consumed portion constructing railways (Article 287), however the lawman president tin preside implicit a authorities legislature successful the impermanent lack of the president (Article 184), and however judges successful the subordinate judicial work of a authorities should beryllium appointed (Article 234). Large chunks of the Constitution heavy borrowed from the Government of India Act, 1935, the past Constitution of assemblage India that had been enacted by Britain’s Parliament successful August 1935.
Parts of the Constitution had besides been inspired by constitutions crossed the globe. In 1946, the law advisor to the Constituent Assembly, B N Rau, prepared a 115-page dossier for members of the Assembly containing extracts from the constitutions of respective countries similar Lithuania, Hungary, Peru, Syria, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, and truthful on. The dossier proved to beryllium rather useful. The words “equal extortion of the laws” successful Article 14 were copied from the 14th amendment to the US constitution. In Article 19(2), the framers of India’s Constitution decided to follow the Irish illustration of mounting retired the exceptions to the state of code and look successful the substance of the Constitution itself. The operation “procedure established by law” successful Article 21 was borrowed from Article 31 of the Japanese constitution, aft a treatment Rau had with Justice Felix Frankfurter of the US Supreme Court.
Seventy-five years aft it was fixed to us, is determination nary crushed to observe our Constitution, which was criticised for being unendingly long, unoriginal and un-Indian?
Perhaps the champion reply to these criticisms came from 2 speeches made by B R Ambedkar, president of the drafting committee of the Constitution, successful the Constituent Assembly. In the archetypal speech, successful November 1948, Ambedkar addressed the statement that the Constitution was unoriginal. “I marque nary apologies” astir this, helium said, due to the fact that “[t]here is thing to beryllium ashamed of successful borrowing. It involves nary plagiarism. Nobody holds immoderate patent rights successful the cardinal ideas of a constitution.” In fact, India was not the lone state to person looked beyond its shores for inspiration portion drafting its constitution. Relying connected crates of books sent by Thomas Jefferson from Paris, James Madison, 1 of the main draughtsmen of the US constitution, had written an effort akin to Rau’s connected past and modern confederacies, examining law provisions successful the past Greek city-states. India’s civilization has ne'er been shy of borrowed contented either. The celebrated autobiography, Roses successful December (1973), written by main justness M C Chagla of the Bombay High Court, begins with a quotation from the Rig Veda, “Let noble thoughts travel to america from each side.”
Ambedkar agreed that the Constitution contained acold excessively galore administrative details, but felt that its magnitude had been necessitated by the information that India lacked a civilization of constitutionalism, which helium called “constitutional morality”. Ambedkar, who had taken a people called “History 121” astatine Columbia University successful the US successful 1914-15, quoted from a 19th-century British historiographer called George Grote. In his 12-volume past of Greece, which helium had prepared without ever visiting that country, Grote wrote that “constitutional morality” was “the indispensable information of authorities astatine erstwhile escaped and peaceable”. In the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar explained that it was lone erstwhile India had internalised a civilization of constitutionalism that banal details could beryllium near retired of the Constitution. At the time, however, Ambedkar explained that law morality successful India was “not a earthy sentiment”, it had to beryllium “cultivated”, due to the fact that ideology was “only a top-dressing connected an Indian soil, which is fundamentally undemocratic”.
Though the Constitution borrowed a operation present and a connection determination from constitutions crossed the globe, it was surely not an unthinking reproduction of immoderate overseas constitution. In Article 21, for example, the framers of India’s Constitution avoided the American operation “due process of law” due to the fact that they did not privation to springiness courts the powerfulness to onslaught down societal payment authorities similar the US Supreme Court had done during the Great Depression. The exceptions to escaped code successful Article 19(2), though modelled connected the Irish constitution, were drawn from India’s ain unsocial past and circumstances. For instance, Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s demands for the forcible reunification of India and Pakistan gave emergence to the words “friendly relations with overseas states” successful the Constitution — an objection to escaped speech. The provisions successful India’s Constitution for quota-based preservation successful legislative bodies, authorities jobs and acquisition institutions are besides uniquely Indian, with nary overseas precedent.
But it was possibly successful his adjacent speech, connected November 25, 1949, that Ambedkar made the astir important point. “[H]owever bully a constitution whitethorn be,” helium said, “it is definite to crook retired atrocious due to the fact that those who are called to enactment it, hap to beryllium a atrocious lot”. Equally, helium added, “[H]owever atrocious a constitution whitethorn be, it whitethorn crook retired to beryllium bully if those who are called to enactment it, hap to beryllium a bully lot.” This code is reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin’s celebrated words, uttered connected the past time of the Philadelphia normal astatine which the US constitution was drafted. On September 17, 1787, a woman by the sanction of Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Franklin, “Well, doctor, what person we got — a republic oregon a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic – if you tin support it.” The draughtsmen of our Constituent Assembly gave america the Constitution. For 75 years, successive generations of Indians person preserved it. It is for america to support it.
The writer is an advocator astatine the Bombay High Court
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