A Constitution by the people: How the charter was framed
Making of the Indian Constitution was not solely an elite exercise anchored in the Constituent Assembly. The Indian public took an active part in the process
As the clock struck 11am on December 9, 1946, the story of India’s constitution making goes, the Constituent Assembly convened for the first time in Constitution Hall, New Delhi, to begin the enormous task of framing a Constitution for the soon-to-be-independent India. After three years of debates, spread over 5,546 pages, the so-called founding fathers and mothers produced a constitution on a grand scale, unprecedented in terms of its territory, population size, and demographic complexity. At the time, the making of the Indian Constitution was a critical event and a unique experience in the global history of constitution making and democracy. Unlike the experience in so many other Asian and African countries, where constitutions at the time of decolonisation typically took the form of a parting gift from the colonial rulers, Indians wrote a constitution for themselves.
The making of the Indian Constitution was not solely an elite exercise anchored in the Constituent Assembly in Delhi. Based on hitherto unstudied materials, our forthcoming book, Assembling India’s Constitution uncovers a new and different story. The Indian public took an active and significant part in the constitution making. From the sparsely populated Spiti and Lahaul region in the northern Himalayas to the small village of Kattunedungulam in the deep South, from the remote Chittagong Hill Tracts in the East to the numerous princely states of Saurashtra in the West, Indians from all rungs of the society, assembled and debated the future constitution, interacted with the Constituent Assembly and its members, made constitutional demands, and continuously asked to have a say and even take part in the decision making process. This public engagement was so extensive that the Constituent Assembly Secretariat devised previously unplanned procedures to insert the public demands into the Constituent Assembly, and the drafting committee of the assembly, despite no prior intention to do so, was compelled to publish the draft constitution for the public and the state organs to have a chance to comment on it.
Informed by their lived social realities and experiences, and with a clear understanding that the constitution could transform their lives, the Indian public deeply engaged with the future constitution. This included recognising that the mere declaration of rights without enforcement mechanisms were insufficient. For instance, Dalit organisations across the political spectrum demanded an independent constitutional body to enforce minority rights. This body would have the authority to call for information, examine government officials, and review legislation and administrative acts. Others, such as the citizens of Delhi who felt they were left out of the constitutional settlement, gathered in large conventions to protest that the draft constitution placed Delhi “under the same form of government as that at the time of slavery”. They demanded that Delhi should be a true province. If every other province had achieved independence, why was Delhi deprived of this right? Both groups took seriously the constitutional principles of equality and federalism to demand concrete mechanisms of implementation, and when these demands were not met, they sought to change the text of the constitution.
Of the three years of debates, the members of the Constituent Assembly sat in the Constitution Hall for a little over a year. The Indian public, however, engaged with and debated the Constitution throughout the three years of its making. And they continued doing so long after the Constitution came into force. The Indian public turned the Constitution into an open site of struggle. They pushed the state to fulfil the constitutional vision and its core values. They used the Constitution in creative ways to address grievances against the state and to protect their rights.
While the Indian Constitution did not live up to some of its core promises, it became, over more than 70 years and against many odds, embedded in Indians’ everyday life, in the country’s political culture, and played a key role in sustaining the biggest democracy in the world. The foundation for this, we argue, was in large part laid with the public’s ongoing engagements with the Constitution while it was in the making, a process through which Indians claimed and gained ownership over it.
In November 2015, the ministry of social justice and empowerment notified the decision of Government of India to celebrate the 26th day of November every year as Constitution Day as a tribute to the members of the Constituent Assembly who adopted the Constitution on that day in 1949, and to remind and promote constitutional values among citizens. Our new history of India’s Constitution making suggest that Constitution Day should not be simply a tribute to the members of the Constituent Assembly, but also a tribute to all Indian citizens, as a reminder that the Indian Constitution sustained itself because Indians from all rungs of society and from across the subcontinent saw the Constitution as their own, and themselves as its makers. And it is a day to remind both citizens and the state of the constitutional values and principles they should adhere to.
[Rohit De teaches at Yale University. Ornit Shani teaches at the University of Haifa. Their forthcoming book Assembling India’s Constitution will be published in 2025 with Cambridge University Press, and Penguin Random House India. The views expressed are personal]
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