INTRODUCTION xi

Many of the articles of the Constitution, eitlher in wording or in con-

tent, lhave their origins in toreign constitutions. "The members of the
Assembly were not so cliauvinistic as to reject the experience of other
nations. Yet although tlhe Assembly borrowed freely, it fashionecd from
this mass of precedent a document to suit India's needs. Althouglh the
Constitution at some point defies nearly all the rules devised by con-
stitutional law yers for success, it has worked well. The credit for this lies
-insofar as it can be assignedin part with the British, who brought the
vision and some of tlhe reality of parliamentary democracy with them to
India, in part with fortuitous circumstances, and in largest part witli
Indians tlhemselves. Indians had for years demanded a constitution
establishing parliamentary demoeracy; wlhen the opportunity came they
framed one; and for the past decade and a half they have demonstrated
that they lhave the ability make
to it work.
The Constituent Assembly was able to draft a constrinution that was
both a declaration of social intent and an intricate administrative blue-
print because of the extraordinary sense of unity among the members.
The members disagreed hardly at all about the ends they sought and only
slightly about the means for achieving them, although several issues did
produce dep dissension. The atmosphere of the Assembly, generally
speaking, was one of trust in the leadership and a sense of compromise
among the members. The Assembly's hope, which it frequently achieved,
was to reach decisions by consensus. And there can be little doubt that
the lengthy and frank discussion of all the provisions of the future con-
stitution by the Assembly, followed by sincere attempts to compromise
and to reach consensus, have been the principal reason for the strength of
the Constitution.
This book is a political history of the framing of the Constitution, of
how past and present, aims and events, ideals and personalities, moved the
members of the Constituent Assembly to write the Constitution as they
did. It has been called a political history to distinguish it from the many
volumes having a more legalistic approach. Several of tlhese lave been
valuable contributions in their field, but they have not contributed greatly
to our knowledge of India in the years Since World War ll. T he author
has intended to do this in some measure. It is hoped that the book will
provide the general reader with some insight into the political bases and
motivations of Indian life and at the same time provide thhe close student
of Indian affairs with the first account, based on
manuscript sources, of the
working of the Constituent Assembly.
 INTRODUCTION
expressing general principles and of
purpose, it you will-mingle with
humanitarian sentiments-vows
those embodying level-headed prac-
ticality and administrative detail. And as the idealism that marks the Con-
stitution was predominantly a product of the social content of the In-
dependence Movement, which in turn stemmed from an awareness of the
plight of the mass of Indians, so the practical provisions were largely a
product of the Assembly members' experience in government and of the
exigencies of the times. The members of the Constituent Assembly did
not work in a vacuum. Not only did they act as the nation's parliament
from August 1947 until January 1950, but many of their number were also
the leaders of the Union and provincial governments. Hence domestic
conditions-food shortages, communal riots, communist subversion-
had a marked effect on tlhe content of the Constitution, and events
abroad also carried lessons. The news dispatches carried by New Delhi's
najor newspaper uf le period, The Hindustan Times, for dhe month of
September 1948, a few weeks before the members debated the Draft
Constitution, show the atmosphere in which the Assembly worked.
The issue of i September carried news of the continuing trial of
Mahatma Gandhi's murderer, Nathuram Godse. Headlines announced
that Hoods in Kanpur had left twenty thousands homeless, that the Law
Ministry of the Union Government lhad recommended that consideration
of the controversial Hindu Code Bill be postponed, and that a large
Pakistani attack Poonch
near
in Kashmir had been beaten off. The issue
of 4 September reported that Parliament had discussed the infationary
crisis' and that Nehru had assured the House that the rupee was not to be
devalued. Sardar Patel praised the Gaekwar of Baroda tor
inaugurating
ful responsible government in that Princely State. Events in Kashmir
made the headlines on 6September-and on nearly every day-as did
the Russian blockade of Berlin. Troops of the Chinese Red Army were
reported advancing on Chiang Kaji-shek's positions in Honan. And G. S.
Gupta presented his lHindi translation of the Draft Constitution to a press
conterence, saying that it should be acepted along with the English
version to give it legal validity. On 12 September hanner headlines and
black borders announced the death
of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
Two days of the of
later
news invasion the State of
Hyderabad
troops covered the front page, and on i8 September came word that the
by Indian
Nizam had surrendered. That same day the dispatches from Palestine
reported that Bernadotte had been murdered by the Stern gang. For the
last ten days of the month the full of of
paper was
the intentions pro-
vincial food and agriculture ministers to reinstitute food controls, of a
plan for cloth rationing in Delli, and ofa communist revolt in East Java.
India, no less thhan the world at large, was in terment, and amidst such
daily events the members of the Constituent Assembly had to lay the
foundations of the future India.
 INTRODUCTION
THE Constituent Assembly, brought into being by the will of the Indian
people and, in the last scene of the last act, with the help of the British,
drated a
constitution for India in the
years from December 1946 to
December 1949. In the Assembly Indians were for the first time in a
century and a halt responsible tor their own governance. They were at
last free to shape their own destiny, to pursue their long-proclaimed aims
and aspirations, and to create tlhe national institutions that would facilitate
the tulhlment ot these aims. These tasks the members approached with
remarkable idealism and a strength ot purpose born ot the struggle tor
independence. A constitution, Assembly members realized, could not by
itself make a new India, but they intended it to light the way.
The Constitution was to foster the achievement of many goals.
Transcendent among them was that of social revolution. Through this
revolution would be fulfilled the basic needs of the common man, and,
it was hoped, this revolution would bring about fundamental changes in
the structure of Indian society--a society with a long and glorious
cultural tradition, but greatly in need, Assembly members believed, of a
powerful infusion of energy and rationalism. The theme of social revo-
lution runs throughout the proceedings and documents of the Assembly.
It provided the basis for the decisions to adopt parliamentary government
and direct elections, the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles
of State Policy, and even many aspects of the Executive, Legislative, and
Judicial provisions of the Constitution.
Rivalling the social revolution in importance were the goals of
national un+ty and stability. Desirable as ends in themselves, they were
also considered to be necessary prerequisites for a social renascence.
Although evident in many parts ofthe Constitution, unity stood out as the
central issue during the framing of the federal and language provisions as
well during
as the drafting of the Legislative provisions. The need tor
domestic stability affected the shape of the federal structure in general and
particularly caused the inclusion of the Emergency Provisions. Other aims
also played their part in shaping the Constitution-aims such as the pro-
tection of minority interests, the creation of eficient government and
administration, and national security. All these aims were either ex-
plicitly or implicitly embodied in the Constitution as were, Assembly
members hoped, the institutions that would be the means of achieving
them.
The Indian Constitution is, then, a document in which provisions