Fundamental Rights in Independent India

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UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD
Department of Law
Stream: BA LLB (Hons.)
Subject: Political Science III
Topic: Episode 3/10 of Samvidhaan video series
Roll No: 145
Section: B
Submitted by: Submitted to:

Vipul Prajapati Ms. Anushree Pandey,
Asst. Professor,
(Political Science)
Department of Law.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Ms.
Anushree Pandey, who gave me the opportunity to do this wonderful project of
Political Science III on "FIRST HALF OF EIPSODE 3/10 OF SAMVIDHAAN
VIDEO SERIES", who also helped me in completing my project. I came to
know about so many new things I am really thankful to her. Secondly I would
also like to thank Internet who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within
the limited time frame.
Vipul Prajapati,
BALLB, Sem 2,
University of Allahabad.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION:.............................................................................................................4
2. CONTENT OF EPISODE 3:..............................................................................................4
2.1 Historical background of Fundamental Rights:...................................................................4
2.2 Discussion and Draft of Fundamental Rights:.....................................................................5
3. WOKS DONE BY COMMITTEE:....................................................................................5
3.1 Fundamental Rights given to the Citizen/Person:................................................................6
i. Right to Freedom:...........................................................................................................6
ii. Equality before the Law:.................................................................................................7
iii. Right to adult suffrage:....................................................................................................8
3.2 Rights which is to be avoided:.............................................................................................9
i. Special status/titles:.........................................................................................................9
ii. Force and bonded labor:................................................................................................10
iii. Employment of children:...............................................................................................11
3.3 Proposals which had not been accepted:............................................................................11
i. Proposal of National language:.....................................................................................11
ii. Compulsory Military training:......................................................................................12
iii. Rights of Illegitimate children:....................................................................................13
4. Conclusion:.......................................................................................................................14
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................15
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1. INTRODUCTION:
I have been assigned first half of video clip of Samvidhaan, Episode 3 as my
assignment topic of Political Science III. This video was telecasted 7 years ago on RSTV
which now replaced as Sansad TV. The Title of episode 3 is Independent India: Righting
Fundamental Wrongs with Fundamental Rights. This video series is about How
Constitution of India have been made. I will be covering time frame of 00m:01s to
25m:14s.
2. CONTENT OF EPISODE 3:
2.1 Historical background of Fundamental Rights,
2.2 Discussion and draft of Fundamental Rights,
2.1 Historical background of Fundamental Rights:

In the 1931 session of the Congress (Karachi Session), Pt. Jawahar Lal Neharu
articulated Fundamental Rights for every Indian citizen and Gandhi Ji has supported it.
In this session the Congress demanded Fundamental Rights for every Indian from British
Government. Those demands are as follows:
i) We demand for every citizen the right of free expression, free association, and
free assembly.
ii) We demand for every citizen the right to profess and practise his religion.
Citizen of each area and particularly minorities have the right to protect their
language and culture.
iii) We demand for equality before law in respect of religion, caste, creed and sex.
iv) No citizen by reason of religion, caste, creed or sex be debarred from
employment.
v) We demand that no person shall be illegally arrested, searched or deprived of
liberty.
vi) We demand that every citizen be free to stay and settle in any part of India, to
follow any trade or profession.
Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru further said that until these Fundamental Rights are not
gained by every Indian, I promise that neither I nor Congress party shall remain silent. 1
1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XK89zSgK8o&t=562s
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Basically the concept of Fundamental Rights had been emerged many years before of
Independence. These Fundamental Rights can be seen as vision of Congress Party for
Independent India. It can also be said that the Fundamental Rights which are embedded in
the Constitution of India, are result of Congress Party’s visionary thoughts.
2.2 Discussion and Draft of Fundamental Rights:

Constituent assembly much before Independence and partition, in 1947, had set up
a committee of Fundamental Rights. It met for the first time on 27 th Feb, 1947.
Members who appeared in this committee:
i) Acharya J B Kriplani;
ii) Alladi Krishna Swami Ayyar;
iii) Dr. K M Munshi;
iv) Prof. K T Shah;
v) Dr. B R Ambedkar;
vi) Rajkumari Amrti Kaur;
vii) Sir Benegal N. Rau;
viii) Smt. Hansa Mehata;
These 8 members have been appeared in my duration of assigned video.
Other than these members, few others members were also in this committee but they
joined later. Those members were as follows:
ix) K M Panikkar;
x) Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee;
xi) C Rajagopalachari;
xii) H C Mookerjee.
3. WOKS DONE BY COMMITTEE:

To make draft of Fundamental Rights, committee had taken Constitution of US and
Ireland as model. The works which had been done by this committee (subject to allotted duration of video
to me) , can be categorised as given below:
3.1 Fundamental Rights given to the Citizen/Person;

3.2 Rights which is to be avoided;
3.3 Proposals which had not been accepted;
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3.1 Fundamental Rights given to the Citizen/Person:

i. Right to Freedom;
ii. Equality before the Law;
iii. Right to adult suffrage.
i. Right to Freedom:
Provisions of Right to Freedom is recognised in the Constitution of India under

Article 19-22.2
During debate of the committee Acharya JB Kripalani opined that “Every

citizen shall be free to move, reside and settle in any part of India, to acquire
property, and to follow any occupation, trade, business or profession.”
It is can be seen in the Article 19 of the Constitution of India.
Further in the discussion Dr. BR Ambedkar added that “Subject to such

restraints as the law may impose.”
Acharya JB Kriplani replied with “oh, yes! Of course, that goes without
saying.”
Dr. BR. Ambedkar replied with “No, Acharya Ji. In a constitution nothing goes
without saying.”
Dr. KM Munshi and committee agreed with Ambedkar’s wordings. 3
Later in the debate Dr. KM Munshi proposed that “The most important right we
can give to the citizen of free India, is Right to Freedom.
The British took away this right at the whim of their government. We must
ensure for our citizens full and absolute liberty.”
Smt. Hansa Mehta, Prof. KT Shah, Acharya JB Kriplani agreed with Dr. KM
Munshi’s proposal.
But Alladi K Swami Ayyar given descent opinion, he said that “absolute
liberty is simply a utopian dream, just because we become free nation from
tomorrow society will not become free from crime and criminals. And for the
sake of law and order we will have to jail and arrest people.”
2
https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/COI-updated.pdf, 27.
3
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Dr. Ambedkar opined, “In that case we should have a provision that the person
has to be informed of his deprivation of liberty within 24hrs of his detention.”
Further in this way Dr. KM Munshi also added that “the right to seek legal
advice, has to be given every citizen. Else there will be no difference between a
free and enslaved India.”
In last Acharya JB Kripalani said “How can anyone object this provision?
Didn’t Lokmanya many years ago say: Swaraj is my birth right and I shall
have it.”4
This is how draft of Right to Freedom (Article 19-22) had been formulated by
constituent assembly.
ii. Equality before the Law:
Article 14 of the Constitution of the India says that “the State shall not deny to
any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the
territory of India. This provision confers rights on all persons whether citizens or
foreigners. Moreover, the word ‘person’ includes legal persons, viz, statutory
corporations, companies, registered societies or any other type of legal person.”5
As we can see that Equality before the law is not limited to citizens only but it
gives protection to foreigners as well.
This happened only because of great thoughts of members of the Constituent
Assembly.
In the discussion of committee Dr. KM Munshi read a sentence from a paper

that is “All the citizens of the Union will be equal before the Law.” Dr. KM
Munshi improved the statement and said “All the persons not merely citizens of
the Union will be equal before the Law.”
In addition to it Acharya JB Kripalani said, “That is right. We can’t give

different punishment just because someone is not a citizen of the Union.” 6
Committee accepted the view of Dr. KM Munshi and we can see it in Article
14.
4
5
M Laxmikanth, Indian Polity, 6/e, 190.
6
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iii. Right to adult suffrage:
It is Right to Vote. The committee had accepted it as a Fundamental Right but

later on it was recognized as Constitutional Right. The provisions of adult
suffrage is embodied in the Part XV under Article 325 and 326 of the
Constitution of India.
Article 325 says that “No person to be ineligible for inclusion in, or to claim to
be included in a special, electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.”
Article 326 says that “Elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative
Assemblies of States to be on the basis of adult suffrage.”7
As far as adult suffrage is concerned, Dr. KM Munshi first said “I propose that
universal adult suffrage must be guaranteed by the Constitution.”
He added that “Election shall be free, secret and periodical.”
And further said that “Election shall be managed by an independent commission
setup under the Union Law.”8
The most significant thing is that first time in the history Right to Vote was given
without any discrimination. If you see the history then we would find that in many
in many western countries women were not allowed to vote, in United States of
America and Africa black people had not right of adult suffrage. Even under
British rule in India, Right to Vote was not absolute.
But India as a young Independent country have given the Right to Vote to all the
adult citizens of the Union without any type of discrimination.
Every committee member agreed with the proposal of Dr. KM Munshi.

Acharya JB Kriplani proudly said that “Today for the first time in the history of
the world, a nation at its very inception, without exception to caste, religion,
gender, class or region is giving adult suffrage to all. The greatest Fundamental
Right giving to our citizen, is Right to Vote.”9
As I have mentioned above that adult suffrage is a Constitutional Right rather

than Fundamental Right.
If we see Article 324 it says that, “Superintendence, direction and control of
elections to be vested in an Election Commission.”10
7
8
9
10
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So provision for Independent Election Commission have been given under

Article 324.
3.2 Rights which is to be avoided:

i. Special status/titles,
ii. Force and bonded labor,
iii. Employment of children.
i. Special status/titles:
The provisions for special status/titles is given under Article 18 of the

Constitution of India. According to article 18,
“Abolition of titles.—(1) No title, not being a military or academic distinction,

shall be conferred by the State.
(2) No citizen of India shall accept any title from any foreign State.
(3) No person who is not a citizen of India shall, while he holds any office of
profit or trust under the State, accept without the consent of the President any title
from any foreign State.
(4) No person holding any office of profit or trust under the State shall, without
the consent of the President, accept any present, emolument, or office of any kind
from or under any foreign State.”11
At the time of discussion Prof. KT Shah pointed over one the committee
member, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. Prof. KT Shah commented that “Being a
Rajkumari gives me a thought- In our new India where everyone will be equal
would titles like Rajkumari, Rajadhiraj, Nawab Bahadur, Chhatrapati,
Kunwarpal be valid. Hereditary titles should have no place in new India.”
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur agreed with Prof. KT Shah’s comment and she said that
“From today you can address me simply as Amrit Kaur.”
But Alladi K Swami Ayyar argued that “From tomorrow shall we stop
addressing Kripalani Ji as ‘Acharya’, Ambedkar Ji as ‘Doctor’ and you (KT
Shah) as ‘Professor’.”
11
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Prof. KT Shah replied with saying “No, No! Academic degrees and
professional titles will remain, but no inherited titles.”
In the way of it Sir BN Rau raised a concern that “What about people like me
who have been given a title by the King of England?”
Acharya JB Kripalani responded with saying that “Firstly, We no longer have

any role for the King of England. And if a foreign state wants to confer some
honor on an Indian citizen, then permission of the Union Legislature will be
required.”12
It can also be considered as a concept Equality. It is how special

status/hereditary titles is abolished to create the society more equal.
ii. Force and bonded labor:
Dr. KM Munshi said that, “Treated worse than slaves, Harijan and other poor
people have been used as forced labor in our villages. We have to see that
bonded labor has no place in free India.”
Prof. KT Shah added that “Why only fields? In the factories, and mines as well,
slavery has to be wiped out completely.” 13
If we see history of forced labor in India, lower caste people exploited by upper
caste people. People even didn’t get wages of their work. In fact property of
poor people’s captured by landlords. Harijan peoples were most affected by this
system. To give rise to Harijan and poor people committee articulated to ban
force and bonded labor.
Provisions for force and bonded labor is recognized under Article 23 of the
Constitution of India. Article 23 says that,
“Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour.—(1) Traffic in
human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited
and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in
accordance with law.
(2) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory
service for public purposes, and in imposing such service the State shall not make
any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class or any of
them.”14
12
13
14
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iii. Employment of children:
At the point when concern of Rights of Children came then Rajkumari Amrit
Kaur said that “Worst is the employment of children under 14 for dangerous
work in mines and factories. How can we tolerate this? This must be banned in
the Constitution.” 15
In Article 24 of the Constitution Rights of children is given and in the view of

Article 14: “Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc.—No child
below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine
or engaged in any other hazardous employment.”16
Further development happened and by 86th Amendment Act, 2002 children who
are between ages of 6-14 year got Fundamental Right of Right to Education under
Article 21A.
According to article 21A: “The State shall provide free and compulsory
education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the
State may, by law, determine.”17
3.3 Proposals which had not been accepted:

i. Proposal of National language;
ii. Compulsory Military training;
iii. Rights of Illegitimate children.
i. Proposal of National language:
Dr. KM Munshi proposed that “Hindustani, written either in Devanagri or

Persian script shall, as the national language be the first official language of
the Union.”
Dr. Ambedkar opposed and said that “I do not think that question of national
language has anything to do with Fundamental Rights.”
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur agreed with Dr. Ambedkar and she opined that “I agree
with Dr. Ambedkar, Whatever we chose as our national language tomorrow has
15
16
17
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no bearing on what we decide about the Fundamental Rights of the people

totally.” 18
So, India has no National Language. The national government uses Hindi and

English as official languages in its communications, such as for parliamentary
proceedings, texts of national laws and communications between the national
government and the various state governments. State governments use their own
languages in official communications. They may adopt one or more of the 22
languages listed in the Indian constitution's eighth schedule—
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani,
Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Meitei, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sin
dhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. The Indian Supreme Court uses English as its sole
official language; high courts in some states use other languages spoken in the
state in addition to English.
Since 2004, the Indian government has accorded the status of classical language to
languages of great antiquity and uniqueness. As of 2021, six languages—Tamil,
Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Sanskrit and Telugu—have been declared classical
languages.19
If you think further why India has no national language? As we know in the world
India is most dynamic and with heavy cultural diversity country and taking one
language as national language could had created a chaos. Choosing no national
language has been united the all parts of country.
ii. Compulsory Military training:
Like before Dr. KM Munshi proposed this one also that “I wish to propose that
like in America, every citizen undergo compulsory military training for few
years.”
Dr. Ambedkar opposed this proposal, he strictly speaking questioned that

“Doesn’t this amount to slavery and involuntary serve too?”
Dr. KM Munshi replied with “This is not slavery, but service.”20
Dr. Ambedkar demanded vote on this, and out of 9, 3 were in favour and 6 were
against of it. Thus this proposal had not been accepted.
18
19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_language
20
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iii. Rights of Illegitimate children:
“There are no illegitimate children – only illegitimate parents.”
– Leon R. Yankwich
While discussion over rights of children ongoing Dr. Ambedkar proposed that
“There should be no difference between legitimate and illegitimate children as
far as laws of inheritance is concerned.”
Dr. KM Munshi questioned, “Won’t that raise a question on the institution of

marriage?”
Smt. Hansa Mehta said, “We have agreed not to talk of marriage and such things
here.”
Alladi K Swami Ayyar added, “For that matter all the personal laws are not over
per view here.”
Dr. Ambedkar replied with, “Here we are not interfering with anyone’s personal
law, this is about children, their rights. You Dewaan Sahab (pointing Alladi K
Swami Ayyar), a learned man and you know what Shakespeare says about this
question of legitimate and illegitimate. Bastard? Why bastard? Where for base?
When my dimensions are as well compact, my mind as generous and my shape as
true as an honest maiden issue.”
Acharya JB Kriaplani said, “It’s difficult to counter Shakespeare! Let’s vote on

it!21
Smt. Hansa Mehta, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Dr. Ambedkar was in support of it
and other 6 members were against of this proposal and so this had not been
adopted.
Who considered as illegitimate child?

a. Children born of void marriage;
b. Children born of annulled/voidable marriage;
c. Children born of illicit relationship;
d. Children born through concubine; and
21
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e. Children born of a marriage which is not valid for want of proper

ceremonies.22
4. CONCLUSION:
In conclusion I would like to put the saying of Acharya JB Kripalani that is
“Fundamental Rights of citizen is the most important topic for any constitution.”
Most importantly every Fundamental Right is enforceable in court of Law. If any

Fundamental Right get denied by anyone in the territory of India then we can go to
Supreme Court under article 32 of the Constitution of India. Significantly
constitutional right of adult suffrage have a big role in the Indian democracy. It is one
of the most important right which established India as a Democratic Republic
country. Gandhi Ji has said that it is dream and vision of Congress Party for India.
सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिन्दोस्तां हमारा

हम बुलबुलें हैं इसकी, ये गुलिस्तां हमारा
-मुहम्मद इक़बाल
22
https://zafarjudicialacademy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/04/The_Rights_of_Illegitimate_Children__Under_Hindu_Law.pdf, 2.
16 | P a g e
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
(n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_language
Benegal, S. (Director). (2014). Samvidhaan - Episode 3/10 [Motion Picture].
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. (2019, April 01). Legislative Department. Retrieved from

https://legislative.gov.in/: https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/COI-updated.pdf
Laxmikanth, M. (2020). Indian Polity (6 ed.). McGraw Hill.
Zafarjudicialacademy. (2019, April).

The_Rights_of_Illegitimate_Children__Under_Hindu_Law. Retrieved from
https://zafarjudicialacademy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/04/The_Rights_of_Illegitimate_Children__Under_Hindu_Law.
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Submitted by: Submitted to:

2. CONTENT OF EPISODE 3:..............................................................................................4

2.1 Historical background of Fundamental Rights:...................................................................4

2.2 Discussion and Draft of Fundamental Rights:.....................................................................5

3. WOKS DONE BY COMMITTEE:....................................................................................5

3.1 Fundamental Rights given to the Citizen/Person:................................................................6

ii. Equality before the Law:.................................................................................................7

iii. Right to adult suffrage:....................................................................................................8

3.2 Rights which is to be avoided:.............................................................................................9

ii. Force and bonded labor:................................................................................................10

iii. Employment of children:...............................................................................................11

3.3 Proposals which had not been accepted:............................................................................11

i. Proposal of National language:.....................................................................................11

ii. Compulsory Military training:......................................................................................12

iii. Rights of Illegitimate children:....................................................................................13

2.1 Historical background of Fundamental Rights:

2.2 Discussion and Draft of Fundamental Rights:

Members who appeared in this committee:

These 8 members have been appeared in my duration of assigned video.

3. WOKS DONE BY COMMITTEE:

3.1 Fundamental Rights given to the Citizen/Person;

3.1 Fundamental Rights given to the Citizen/Person:

Provisions of Right to Freedom is recognised in the Constitution of India under

During debate of the committee Acharya JB Kripalani opined that “Every

Further in the discussion Dr. BR Ambedkar added that “Subject to such

Dr. KM Munshi and committee agreed with Ambedkar’s wordings. 3

ii. Equality before the Law:

In the discussion of committee Dr. KM Munshi read a sentence from a paper

In addition to it Acharya JB Kripalani said, “That is right. We can’t give

iii. Right to adult suffrage:

It is Right to Vote. The committee had accepted it as a Fundamental Right but

Every committee member agreed with the proposal of Dr. KM Munshi.

As I have mentioned above that adult suffrage is a Constitutional Right rather

So provision for Independent Election Commission have been given under

3.2 Rights which is to be avoided:

The provisions for special status/titles is given under Article 18 of the

“Abolition of titles.—(1) No title, not being a military or academic distinction,

Acharya JB Kripalani responded with saying that “Firstly, We no longer have

It can also be considered as a concept Equality. It is how special

ii. Force and bonded labor:

iii. Employment of children:

In Article 24 of the Constitution Rights of children is given and in the view of

3.3 Proposals which had not been accepted:

i. Proposal of National language:

Dr. KM Munshi proposed that “Hindustani, written either in Devanagri or

no bearing on what we decide about the Fundamental Rights of the people

So, India has no National Language. The national government uses Hindi and

ii. Compulsory Military training:

Dr. Ambedkar opposed this proposal, he strictly speaking questioned that

iii. Rights of Illegitimate children:

“There are no illegitimate children – only illegitimate parents.”

Dr. KM Munshi questioned, “Won’t that raise a question on the institution of

Acharya JB Kriaplani said, “It’s difficult to counter Shakespeare! Let’s vote on

Who considered as illegitimate child?

e. Children born of a marriage which is not valid for want of proper

Most importantly every Fundamental Right is enforceable in court of Law. If any

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिन्दोस्तां हमारा

Benegal, S. (Director). (2014). Samvidhaan - Episode 3/10 [Motion Picture].

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. (2019, April 01). Legislative Department. Retrieved from

Laxmikanth, M. (2020). Indian Polity (6 ed.). McGraw Hill.

Zafarjudicialacademy. (2019, April).

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