Constitution – A document that lays down the basic rules and regulations for the people and the government in the country to follow are called constitution.
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India.
It frames fundamental political principles, procedures, practices, rights, powers, and duties of the government.
It imparts constitutional supremacy and not parliamentary supremacy, as it is not created by the Parliament but, by a constituent assembly, and adopted by its people, with a declaration in its preamble. Parliament cannot override it.
The world’s longest constitution is the Indian’s constitution.
At its commencement, it had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules.
It consists of approximately 145,000 words, making it the second largest active constitution in the world.
Currently, it has a preamble, 25 parts with 12 schedules, 5 appendices, 448 articles, and 101 amendments.
The Constitution of India provides its citizens with six fundamental rights.
These rights are the Right to Freedom, Right to Equality, Cultural and Educational Rights, Right to Constitutional Remedies, Right against Exploitation, Right against Exploitation.
Recently, the Right to Privacy has also been added to fundamental rights.
Importance of constitution:
Indian Constitution is important in several dimensions, as it is the noble and universal book for the people of India.
It lays down the basic structure of the government under which its people are to be governed.
It establishes the main organs of the government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
It distributes the power horizontally throughout the three major institutional bodies of the Indian Jurisdiction
Need of Constitution:
Most countries in the world have a Constitution.
The Constitution serves several purposes.
First, it lays out certain ideals that form the basis of the kind of country that we as citizens aspire to live in.
A Constitution tells us what the fundamental nature of our society is.
A country is usually made up of different communities of people who share certain beliefs but may not necessarily agree on all issues.
A Constitution helps serve as a set of rules and principles that all persons in a country can agree upon as the basis of the way in which they want the country to be governed.
This includes not only the type of government but also an agreement on certain ideals that they all believe the country should uphold.
The second important purpose of a Constitution is to define the nature of a country’s political system.
For example, Nepal’s earlier Constitution stated that the country was to be ruled by the King and his council of ministers.
In countries that have adopted a democratic form of government or polity, the Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out certain important guidelines that govern decision-making within these societies.
Important facts:
In 1934, the Indian National Congress made the demand for a Constituent Assembly.
During the Second World War, this assertion for an independent Constituent Assembly formed only of Indians gained momentum and this was convened in December 1946.
The photo on page 2 shows some members of the Constituent Assembly.
Between December 1946 and November 1949, the Constituent Assembly drafted a constitution for independent India.
Free to shape their destiny at last, after 150 years of British rule, the members of the Constituent Assembly approached this task with the great idealism that the freedom struggle had helped produce.
The country of Nepal has witnessed several people’s struggles for democracy.
There was a people’s struggle in 1990 that established democracy that lasted for 12 years until 2002. In October 2002, King Gyanendra, citing the Maoist uprising in the countryside as his reason, began taking over different aspects of the government with the army’s assistance.
The King then finally took over as the head of government in February 2005.
In November 2005, the Maoists joined other political parties to sign a 12-point agreement.
This agreement signalled to the larger public an imminent return to democracy and peace.
In 2006, this people’s movement for democracy began gaining immense force.
It repeatedly refused the small concessions that the King made and finally in April 2006 the King restored the Third Parliament and asked the political parties to form a government.
In 2008, Nepal became a democracy after abolishing the monarchy.
Key Features of Constitution:
The long experience of authoritarian rule under the colonial state convinced Indians that free India should be a democracy in which everyone should be treated equally and be allowed to participate in government.
Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar is known as the Father of the Indian Constitution.
Dr Ambedkar believed that his participation in the Constituent Assembly helped the Scheduled Castes get some safeguards in the draft constitution.
But he also stated that although the laws might exist, Scheduled Castes still had reason to fear because the administration of these laws was in the hands of ‘caste Hindu officers’.
He, therefore, urged Scheduled Castes to join the government as well as the civil services.
Federalism:
This refers to the existence of more than one level of government in the country.
In India, we have governments at the state level and at the centre.
Panchayati Raj is the third tier of government.
While each state in India enjoys autonomy in exercising powers on certain issues, subjects of national concern require that all of these states follow the laws of the central government.
Under federalism, the states are not merely agents of the federal government but draw their authority from the Constitution as well.
All persons in India are governed by laws and policies made by each of these levels of government.
Important facts:
When the Constituent Assembly adopted the principle of universal adult franchise, Shri A.K. Ayyar, a member, remarked that this was done, “with an abundant faith in the common man and the ultimate success of democratic rule, and in the full belief that the introduction of democratic government on the basis of adult suffrage will bring enlightenment and promote the well-being, the standard of life, the comfort, and the decent living of the common man”.
Austin, G. 1966. The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Parliamentary Form of Government:
The different tiers of government consist of representatives who are elected by the people.
Constitution of India guarantees universal adult suffrage for all citizens.
The people of India have a direct role in electing their representatives.
Also, every citizen of the country, irrespective of his/her social background, can also contest in elections.
Separation of Powers:
According to the Constitution, there are three organs of the State.
These are the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
The legislature refers to our elected representatives.
The executive is a smaller group of people who are responsible for implementing laws and running the government.
The judiciary refers to the system of courts in this country.
In order to prevent the misuse of power by any one branch of the State, the Constitution says that each of these organs should exercise different powers.
Through this, each organ acts as a check on the other organs of the State and this ensures the balance of power between all three.
Fundamental Rights:
The section on Fundamental Rights has often been referred to as the ‘conscience’ of the Indian Constitution.
Colonial rule had created a certain suspicion of the State in the minds of the nationalists and they wanted to ensure that a set of written rights would guard against the misuse of State power in independent India.
Fundamental Rights, therefore, protect citizens against the arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the State.
The Constitution, thus, guarantees the rights of individuals against the State as well as against other individuals.
Moreover, the various minority communities also expressed the need for the Constitution to include rights that would protect their groups.
The Constitution, therefore, also guarantees the rights of minorities against the majority.
As Dr Ambedkar has said about these Fundamental Rights, their object is two-fold.
The first objective is that every citizen must be in a position to claim those rights.
And secondly, these rights must be binding upon every authority that has got the power to make laws.
In addition to Fundamental Rights, the Constitution also has a section called Directive Principles of State Policy.
This section was designed by the members of the Constituent Assembly to ensure greater social and economic reforms and to serve as a guide to the independent Indian State to institute laws and policies that help reduce the poverty of the masses.
Right to Equality
All persons are equal before the law.
This means that all persons shall be equally protected by the laws of the country.
It also states that no citizen can be discriminated against on the basis of their religion, caste or sex.
Every person has access to all public places including playgrounds, hotels, shops etc.
The State cannot discriminate against anyone in matters of employment.
But there are exceptions to this that you will read about later in this book.
The practice of untouchability has also been abolished.
Right to Freedom
This includes the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to form associations, the right to move freely and reside in any part of the country, and the right to practise any profession, occupation or business.
Right against Exploitation
The Constitution prohibits trafficking, forced labour, and children working under 14 years of age.
Right to Freedom of Religion
Religious freedom is provided to all citizens.
Every person has the right to practise, profess and propagate the religion of their choice.
Cultural and Educational Rights
The Constitution states that all minorities, religious or linguistic, can set up their own educational institutions in order to preserve and develop their own culture.
Right to Constitutional Remedies
This allows citizens to move the court if they believe that any of their Fundamental Rights have been violated by the State.
Secularism:
A secular state is one in which the state does not officially promote any one religion as the state religion.
The Fundamental Duties:
- To abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;
- To cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;
- To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
- To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;
- To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;
- To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
- To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures;
- To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;
- To safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
- To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.
- To provide opportunities for education by the parent the guardian, to his child, or a ward between the ages of 6-14 years as the case may be.
