Rajendra Prasad

Topic: Framing the Indian Constitution · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"

Meaning

Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963) was a Congress leader from Bihar who served as the President of the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly was the body of about 300 members that wrote India's Constitution. As President he was the person in the chair, and he steered its debates. In 1950 he became the first President of India.

He matters because the way he ran the debates gave the Constitution its open, public character. Every member got a chance to speak, so the final text came out of argument, not out of a closed room.

Explanation

Background: who he was

• Rajendra Prasad was a senior Congress leader from Bihar.
• He belonged to the generation of leaders who came into national politics through Mahatma Gandhi's movements. He worked with Gandhi in Bihar during the Champaran campaign for indigo farmers.
• When the Constituent Assembly met, the Congress had the most members in it. Three Congress leaders stood out:
• Jawaharlal Nehru, who moved the big resolutions,
• Vallabhbhai Patel, who worked behind the scenes,
• Rajendra Prasad, who sat in the chair.

His role: President of the Assembly

• The Assembly had about 300 members. Only six played especially important roles in shaping the Constitution, and Prasad was one of them.
• As President of the Assembly, his main job was to steer the discussion:
• he kept the debate moving,

• he made sure every member got a chance to speak.

• He also chaired important committees of the Assembly:

• the Rules of Procedure Committee, which set the rules for how the Assembly would conduct its business,
• the Steering Committee, which planned and arranged the Assembly's work.

How it worked in practice

• The members disagreed strongly. Their speeches show "many conflicting ideas of India". They clashed over:
• language: which language the new nation should use,
• the political system: how power should be shared,
• the economic system: how wealth and land should be handled,

• moral values: what the nation should stand for.

• The chair kept the debate open. Because Prasad let every side speak, these clashes were argued out in public. Nobody was shut out.

• Others did the drafting. The Draft Constitution came from the Drafting Committee under B.R. Ambedkar, which the Assembly set up on 29 August 1947 [2]. Ambedkar guided the Draft through the Assembly. Prasad presided over the House where it was debated.

Results

• The Constitution became a negotiated settlement, a product of argument and not of one mind.
• The printed record of these debates, the Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD), fills eleven bulky volumes. The size of this record shows how much open discussion the chair allowed.
• When the Constitution came into force in 1950, Prasad became the first President of India. He moved from heading the body that made the Constitution to heading the Republic it created.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Constituent Assembly years, 1946–1950.
• Place: the Constituent Assembly, which sat in New Delhi. Prasad's own political base was Bihar.
• Key people around him:
• Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution, a statement of the main aims of the new Constitution. He moved it on 13 December 1946, and the Assembly adopted it unanimously on 22 January 1947 [3].
• Vallabhbhai Patel drafted many committee reports and brought opposing sides together.
• B.R. Ambedkar was Chairman of the Drafting Committee.

• B.N. Rau was Constitutional Advisor, and S.N. Mukherjee was Chief Draughtsman.

• How we know:

• Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD): the official printed proceedings, in eleven volumes. They include the record of 29 August 1947 [2] and of 22 January 1947 [3].
• NCERT Class 12, Chapter 4, "Framing the Constitution", which names Prasad among the dominant voices.

Don't confuse with

• B.R. Ambedkar: Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee and guided the Draft through the House. Prasad was President of the whole Assembly and sat in the chair.
• Jawaharlal Nehru: Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution and the flag resolution on the floor. Prasad presided over the debates and did not move these resolutions.
• Vallabhbhai Patel: Patel worked behind the scenes, drafting reports and settling quarrels. Prasad's role was public: he ran the House from the chair.
• Sachchidananda Sinha: Sinha, the oldest member, chaired the Assembly's first sitting as temporary President. Prasad was its permanent President.

Prelims Hooks

• Rajendra Prasad was President of the Constituent Assembly. He was not Chairman of the Drafting Committee, because that was B.R. Ambedkar.
• Prasad chaired the Assembly's Rules of Procedure Committee and Steering Committee.
• Prasad became the first President of India in 1950.
• The Congress trio in the Assembly:
• Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution and the flag resolution,
• Patel drafted reports behind the scenes,

• Prasad presided over the Assembly.

• The Assembly had about 300 members, and only six played especially important roles. Prasad was one of them.

• The Constituent Assembly Debates, which record the sittings Prasad presided over, run to eleven volumes.

Mains Points

• Open procedure gave the Constitution legitimacy.
• A small group did the drafting, but Prasad made sure all ~300 members could speak.

• Because the Constitution was argued out in public, it can be defended as a negotiated settlement and not a text imposed by an elite.

• The Assembly divided its work between different roles.

• Nehru set the aims, Patel negotiated in private, Ambedkar and the lawyers drafted, and Prasad kept the forum fair.

• This is useful for answers on how the Constituent Assembly worked as an institution and not just as a group of famous names.

• There was continuity from the freedom movement to the Republic.

• Prasad came from Gandhian mass politics in Bihar, presided over the making of the Constitution, and became the first head of state.
• His career shows how the national movement's leaders turned into the founders of India's constitutional order.

Related concepts

• B.R. Ambedkar
• Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly
• K.M. Munshi
• Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar
• B.N. Rau
• S.N. Mukherjee
• Women in the Constituent Assembly
• Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
• Vijayalakshmi Pandit
• Sucheta Kripalani

Read more

• The dominant voices