Objectives Resolution

Topic: Framing the Indian Constitution · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"

Meaning

The Objectives Resolution was the statement of aims that Jawaharlal Nehru moved in the Constituent Assembly on 13 December 1946. It said India would be an "Independent Sovereign Republic", that all citizens would get justice, equality and freedom, and that minorities, backward and tribal areas, and Depressed and Other Backward Classes would get "adequate safeguards". The Assembly adopted it unanimously on 22 January 1947 [2][3].

It matters because it set the ideals and the outline for the whole Constitution. It later became the basis of the Preamble [2].

Explanation

Background: an Assembly that had only just begun

• 6 December 1946: the Constituent Assembly was constituted [4].
• 9 December 1946: it held its first sitting in the Constitution Hall, New Delhi. This hall is now the Central Hall of Parliament House [4].
• Dr Sachchidananda Sinha chaired that first meeting as temporary Chairman because he was the oldest member [4].
• 11 December 1946: Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected President of the Constituent Assembly [4].
• 13 December 1946: Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution, just four days after the first sitting. It was the Assembly's first statement of purpose [2][3].

What the Resolution promised

• Independent Sovereign Republic: India would be fully free and would have no king.
• Justice, equality and freedom for all citizens.
• Adequate safeguards (special protections) for:
• minorities,
• backward and tribal areas,

• Depressed and Other Backward Classes.

• Its job was to "lay down the fundamentals of the Constitution", meaning the basic rules that everything else had to follow [2].

The debate around it

• Learn from others, but do not copy them.
• Nehru placed India's effort beside three earlier struggles: the American founding, the French Constituent Assembly with its Tennis Court Oath, and the Russian Revolution.
• He said: "We are not going just to copy."

• Anything India borrowed had to "fit in with the temper of our people and be acceptable to them."

• Why the word "democratic" was missing.

• Some members asked why the Resolution said "Republic" but not "democratic".
• Nehru said a republic already contains democracy, because it has no king and the people choose its head.
• He said the Resolution also carried "the content of economic democracy", meaning a fair share of wealth as well as votes.

• Nehru was a socialist. He did not put the word "socialism" into the text, but he wanted its idea of economic justice to be there.

• Somnath Lahiri's attack.

• Somnath Lahiri, a Communist member, said the Assembly was British-made and worked "under the shadow of British guns".
• This was literally true in winter 1946-47. The British had not left yet, and the Interim Government worked under the Viceroy's direction.

• He asked the Assembly to declare independence at once.

• Nehru's reply.

• He agreed that the British had a "hand in its birth".
• But he said "Governments are, in fact, the expression of the will of the people."
• So the Assembly would go as far as the people wished it to go.

Results

• 22 January 1947: the Assembly adopted the Resolution unanimously [2][3].
• It became the basis of the Preamble [2].
• It joined liberal democracy (rights, votes and freedoms) with the socialist idea of economic justice, both shaped to suit Indian conditions.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the last months of British rule, between December 1946 and January 1947. The Assembly's work ran from 1946 to 1950.
• Place: the Constitution Hall, New Delhi, now the Central Hall of Parliament House [4].
• Key people:
• Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Resolution.
• Dr Rajendra Prasad was President of the Assembly. He later became the first President of India in 1950 [4].
• Dr Sachchidananda Sinha was temporary Chairman of the first sitting. He had been a member of the Imperial Legislative Council from 1910 and the Central Legislative Assembly from 1921 [4].

• Somnath Lahiri was the Communist critic of the Assembly.

• How we know:

• the official report of the Constituent Assembly Debates for 22 January 1947 [3],
• the PIB e-Photo Exhibition "Making of the Constitution" [2],
• Lok Sabha records on the Constituent Assembly [4],
• NCERT Class 12, Chapter 4, "Framing the Constitution".

Don't confuse with

• Preamble: the Objectives Resolution (1946-47) was a statement of aims that became the basis of the Preamble. The Preamble is the actual opening text of the Constitution. Also note that the Resolution said "Republic" and did not use the word "democratic".
• Government of India Act 1935: this was a colonial law made by the British. Only 10-15 per cent of adults could vote under it. The Objectives Resolution came from an Indian Assembly and aimed at self-rule by the people.
• Dr Sachchidananda Sinha vs Dr Rajendra Prasad: Sinha was only the temporary Chairman of the first sitting on 9 December 1946. Prasad was elected the President of the Assembly on 11 December 1946 [4].
• Tennis Court Oath: this is French history, from the French Constituent Assembly. Nehru only cited it as an example. It is not part of the Indian Assembly's proceedings.

Prelims Hooks

• The Objectives Resolution was moved by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 December 1946 and adopted unanimously on 22 January 1947 [2][3].
• Correct order: Assembly constituted (6 Dec 1946) → first sitting (9 Dec) → Rajendra Prasad elected President (11 Dec) → Objectives Resolution moved (13 Dec) [4].
• Trap: the Resolution called India an "Independent Sovereign Republic". It did not use the word "democratic".
• Safeguards were promised for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and Depressed and Other Backward Classes.
• Three revolutions Nehru cited: the American founding, the French Constituent Assembly (Tennis Court Oath) and the Russian Revolution.
• Somnath Lahiri (Communist) said the Assembly worked "under the shadow of British guns".

Mains Points

• Political plus economic democracy.
• Nehru said "Republic" already included democracy and that the Resolution also carried "the content of economic democracy".

• This mix of liberal rights and socialist economic justice is the root of the later split between enforceable Fundamental Rights and non-enforceable Directive Principles.

• Legitimacy of the Assembly.

• Lahiri argued that a British-made body, meeting while the Interim Government worked under the Viceroy, could not speak freely for India.
• Nehru replied that a government's authority comes from the will of the people.

• Use this debate in answers on whether a body born under colonial rule could make a free nation's constitution.

• Continuity or rupture?

• The Acts of 1909, 1919 and 1935 let more Indians into government. In 1937, Congress ministries were formed in 8 of the 11 provinces.
• But those Acts were imposed from above, gave the vote to only 10-15 per cent of adults, and kept British-appointed Governors on top.
• The NCERT argument is that 1946 was a rupture (a clean break): for the first time Indians wrote their own rules and aimed at universal adult franchise.
• The ideals themselves had Indian roots. They came from nineteenth-century reform against child marriage and for widow remarriage, from Vivekananda and Jyotirao Phule, and from Communist and Socialist organising of workers and peasants.

Related concepts

• Somnath Lahiri
• Indian Councils Act 1909
• Edwin Montagu
• Government of India Act 1919
• Dyarchy
• Government of India Act 1935
• Federal Court of India
• Jyotiba Phule
• Swami Vivekananda

Read more

• The Objectives Resolution and the vision of the Constitution