Constituent Assembly – Making of the Constitution

Background

• The Constituent Assembly was elected to frame the Constitution of India. Following India’s independence from the British Government in 1947, its members served as the nation’s first Parliament as the ‘Provisional Parliament of India’. The Constituent Assembly was elected by the ‘Provincial Assembly’.
• The idea for a Constituent Assembly was proposed in 1934 by M. N. Roy. The official demand for Constituent Assembly was raised by the Indian National Congress in it’s Lucknow session in April 1936 presided by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. 
• On 8 August 1940, Viceroy Lord Linlithgow made a statement about the expansion of the Governor-General’s Executive Council and the establishment of a War Advisory Council. This offer, known as the August Offer, included giving full weight to minority opinions and allowing Indians to draft their own constitution.
• Under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946, elections were held for the first time for the Constituent Assembly.
• The Constitution of India was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, and it was implemented under the Cabinet Mission Plan on 16 May 1946.
• The members of the Constituent Assembly were elected by the provincial assemblies by a single, transferable-vote system of proportional representation.
• The total membership of the Constituent Assembly was 389 of which 292 were representatives of the provinces, 93 represented the princely states and four were from the chief commissioner provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg and British Baluchistan.
• Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the president and Its vice-president was Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University.
• Jurist B. N. Rau was appointed constitutional adviser to the assembly; Rau prepared the original draft of the constitution and was later appointed a judge in the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague.

Committees of the Constituent Assembly

1. Drafting Committee – B. R. Ambedkar
2. Union Power Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
4. Provincial Constitution Committee – Vallabhbhai Patel
5. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas – Vallabhbhai Patel. This committee had the following sub-committees:
   • Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee – J. B. Kripalani
   • Minorities Sub-Committee – Harendra Coomar Mookerjee,
   • North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee – Gopinath Bordoloi
   • Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Apart from those in Assam) Sub-Committee – A V Thakkar
6. Rules of Procedure Committee – Rajendra Prasad
7. States Committee (Committee for negotiating with states) – ⁣Jawaharlal Nehru
8. Steering Committee – Rajendra Prasad
9. National Flag and HOC Committee – Rajendra Prasad
10. Committee for the function of the Constitution Assembly – ⁣G V Mavlankar
11. House Committee – ⁣B Pattabhi Sitaramayya
12. Language Committee – ⁣Moturi Satyanarayana
13. Order of Business Committee – ⁣K M Munshi

Criticisms of Constituent Assembly

• The constitution has been, in more recent times, critiqued on the basis of the fact that the members of the Constituent Assembly were not truly chosen by universal suffrage, but rather were elected by provincial assemblies that themselves were not elected by universal suffrage. 
• It has been argued that the Congress party did not seek to completely dismantle British power, but rather transfer its power into its own hands.
• The Indian people did not have much say in the making of the Constitution which was they had no choice but to accept.