The making of the Constituent Assembly

Detail

How members were chosen — not by the people directly

• Members were not elected by universal franchise (every adult voting). Ordinary Indians did not vote for the Assembly.
• The route was indirect. First came the provincial elections of winter 1945-46. Only a small, property-and-education-based electorate voted in those.
• The Provincial Legislatures that came out of those elections then chose the representatives to the Constituent Assembly.
• So the Assembly was a body picked by a body — two steps away from the common voter.
• The Assembly was set up under the plan of the Cabinet Mission (three British ministers sent to work out transfer of power). The Mission's scheme also proposed grouping provinces into three blocs — Group A (Hindu-majority: Bombay, Madras, United Provinces, Bihar, Orissa, Central Provinces), Group B (Muslim-majority: Punjab, Sind, North-West Frontier, Balochistan) and Group C (Bengal and Assam), each group with wide self-rule and a right for provinces to opt out [4].
• Planned total strength of the Assembly was 389 members [2][3].

Who came, who stayed away

• Congress swept the general seats. It was by far the largest force.
• The Muslim League won most of the reserved Muslim seats — but it boycotted the Assembly. Its demand: Pakistan, with a separate constitution of its own.
• The Socialists also stayed away at first. Their reason: the Assembly was a British creation, made under a British plan, so it could not be a truly free body.
• Result: 82 per cent of the members were also Congress members.

One party, many voices

• That 82 per cent figure can mislead. Congress was not one single opinion.
• Inside Congress sat opposites:
• socialists who wanted the state to take over land and industry, and defenders of landlordism who wanted property left alone;

• the communally inclined (who thought in terms of religious community) and the assertively secular (who wanted religion kept out of state affairs).

• Why the debate did not break the Assembly: these members had been trained by the national movement. For decades they had argued in public, on platforms and in party sessions, and had learnt to negotiate differences instead of walking out.

Public opinion fed in

• The Assembly did not work behind closed doors. Its deliberations were reported in the press and argued over by readers.
• The public sent in submissions — written demands and suggestions. Three main groups:
• Linguistic minorities — people speaking a language that was not the majority language of their province. They wanted protection for the mother tongue.
• Religious minorities — wanted special safeguards written into the Constitution.
• Dalits — wanted an end to caste oppression and reserved seats in government bodies.

The first sitting

• The Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946 in New Delhi, in the Constitution Hall — the room now called the Central Hall of Parliament House [2][3].
• 207 representatives were present at that first sitting, including nine women [2][3]. The gap between 207 and the planned 389 shows the effect of the League boycott.
• Dr Sachchidananda Sinha, the oldest member, chaired that first sitting as temporary (provisional) President [2][3].

Chapter timeline — learn as one chain

Date	Event
16 May 1946	Cabinet Mission scheme announced
16 August 1946	Direct Action Day
2 September 1946	Interim Government under Nehru takes office
9 December 1946	First sitting of the Constituent Assembly
29 January 1947	Muslim League demands dissolution of the Assembly
14-15 August 1947	Independence; Partition
December 1949	Constitution signed
26 January 1950	Constitution comes into force

• Note the order: the Assembly began work (Dec 1946) before Independence (Aug 1947) and after the violence of Direct Action Day (Aug 1946). It wrote the Constitution in the middle of Partition, not in calm.

Committees and their presidents — the classic matching question

Committee	President
Drafting	B.R. Ambedkar
Union Power · Union Constitution · States	Jawaharlal Nehru
Provincial Constitution · Advisory	Vallabhbhai Patel
Rules of Procedure · Steering	Rajendra Prasad
Flag · Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee	J.B. Kripalani
Minorities Sub-Committee	H.C. Mookerjee
Supreme Court Committee	S. Varadachariar

• Memory hook: Nehru took the Union, Patel took the provinces and the Advisory work, Prasad ran the procedure, Ambedkar drafted the text.

Prelims Hooks

• Constituent Assembly members were chosen by the Provincial Legislatures, not by universal adult franchise.
• The provincial elections that produced those legislatures were held in winter 1945-46.
• 82 per cent of Assembly members were also members of the Congress.
• The Muslim League boycotted the Assembly and demanded a separate constitution for Pakistan; the Socialists stayed away calling it a British creation.
• Cabinet Mission scheme: 16 May 1946; Direct Action Day: 16 August 1946; Interim Government under Nehru: 2 September 1946.
• First sitting: 9 December 1946, chaired by Dr Sachchidananda Sinha, in the Constitution Hall (today's Central Hall of Parliament House) [2][3].
• 207 members, including nine women, attended the first sitting; planned total strength was 389 [2][3].
• The Muslim League demanded dissolution of the Assembly on 29 January 1947.
• Constitution signed December 1949, in force 26 January 1950.
• Committee-President pairs: Drafting — Ambedkar; Minorities Sub-Committee — H.C. Mookerjee; Supreme Court Committee — S. Varadachariar; Flag & Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee — J.B. Kripalani.
• Cabinet Mission's three province-groups: A (Hindu-majority), B (Punjab, Sind, NWFP, Balochistan), C (Bengal and Assam) [4].

Mains Points

• Was the Assembly representative? Against: no universal franchise, indirect election, League and Socialists absent, 82 per cent from one party. For: Congress itself was a wide coalition of socialists, landlord-defenders, secularists and the communally minded, so real argument happened inside it; and press reporting plus public submissions from linguistic minorities, religious minorities and dalits let outside voices in. Judge it as imperfect in form but plural in practice.
• Boycott shaped the content. The League's absence (and its 29 January 1947 demand to dissolve the Assembly) removed the strongest voice for separate communal safeguards. This links directly to the later decision to drop separate electorates and keep reservation mainly for SCs and STs, not for religious minorities.
• Constitution-making under violence. The chain Cabinet Mission (16 May 1946) → Direct Action Day (16 Aug 1946) → Partition (Aug 1947) explains the Assembly's strong preference for a powerful Centre and for unity over group autonomy — the Cabinet Mission's grouping idea (Groups A, B, C) died with Partition [4].
• Committees as a method. Splitting work among committees under Nehru, Patel, Prasad and Ambedkar let a large, slow body produce a long document in under three years — a useful point on institutional design and on Ambedkar's specific role as Drafting Committee chairman.