The dominant voices

Detail

How many spoke, and how few led

• The Constituent Assembly had about 300 members.
• Of these, only six played especially important roles in shaping the Constitution.
• The rest still mattered: their speeches are printed in the record, and they show "many conflicting ideas of India".

The Congress trio — Nehru

• Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution in the Assembly. This was the statement of the big aims of the new Constitution.
• He moved it on 13 December 1946, and the Assembly adopted it unanimously on 22 January 1947 [3].
• Nehru also moved the flag resolution. The flag he described:
• a horizontal tricolour of saffron, white and dark green,
• the three bands in equal proportion,
• a navy blue wheel in the centre of the white band.

The Congress trio — Patel

• Vallabhbhai Patel worked mostly behind the scenes, not on the floor of the House.
• Two jobs were his:
• drafting many of the reports that the committees placed before the Assembly,

• bringing opposing sides together when members could not agree.

• So his power was in quiet negotiation, not in famous speeches.

The Congress trio — Rajendra Prasad

• Rajendra Prasad was the President of the Assembly — the person in the chair.
• His task was to steer the discussion: keep debate moving, and make sure every member got a chance to speak.
• This is why the debates stayed open even when members strongly disagreed.

B.R. Ambedkar — the Chairman of the Drafting Committee

• B.R. Ambedkar was a lawyer and economist by training.
• During British rule he had been a political opponent of the Congress. He attacked the Congress for failing the Depressed Classes.
• After Independence he still joined the Union Cabinet as law minister — on Gandhi's advice.
• He was made Chairman of the Drafting Committee. The Assembly set up this committee on 29 August 1947 [2].
• What the Drafting Committee did: it prepared the Draft Constitution, and Ambedkar then guided that Draft through the Assembly — a job that took three years.
• The printed record of those debates — the Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD) — fills eleven bulky volumes.

The lawyers who worked with Ambedkar

• K.M. Munshi, a lawyer from Gujarat.
• Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar, a lawyer from Madras.
• Both were, like Ambedkar, men trained in law. This shows how much legal skill the drafting work needed.

The two civil servants

• Elected leaders got the credit, but two civil servants gave vital help.
• B.N. Rau — Constitutional Advisor to the Government of India
• He prepared background papers on the political systems of other countries.

• So the Assembly could compare models before choosing.

• S.N. Mukherjee — Chief Draughtsman

• His skill was turning complicated proposals into clear legal language.
• A rule written loosely can be twisted later; his job was to close that gap.

The fifteen women members

• The Assembly had fifteen women members. Named in the NCERT account:
• Sarojini Naidu
• Hansa Mehta
• Dakshayani Velayudhan
• Begum Aizaz Rasul
• G. Durgabai
• Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
• Sucheta Kripalani
• Vijayalakshmi Pandit

Many ideas of India

• Reading the speeches shows the members did not share one single picture 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 final Constitution is therefore a product of argument, not of one mind.

Prelims Hooks

• The Constituent Assembly had about 300 members; six played especially important roles.
• Nehru moved both the Objectives Resolution and the flag resolution.
• Objectives Resolution moved 13 December 1946, adopted 22 January 1947 [3].
• Flag: horizontal tricolour, saffron–white–dark green in equal proportion, navy blue wheel at centre.
• Rajendra Prasad was President of the Constituent Assembly; Patel worked behind the scenes drafting reports.
• Ambedkar joined the Cabinet as law minister on Gandhi's advice and chaired the Drafting Committee, set up on 29 August 1947 [2].
• The Constituent Assembly Debates run to eleven volumes.
• B.N. Rau = Constitutional Advisor (background papers on other countries); S.N. Mukherjee = Chief Draughtsman (clear legal language).
• K.M. Munshi (Gujarat) and Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar (Madras) were the lawyers working with Ambedkar.
• The Assembly had fifteen women members, including Dakshayani Velayudhan and Begum Aizaz Rasul.

Mains Points

• A small group drafted, but the process was open. Six members dominated, yet Rajendra Prasad as President made sure every one of the ~300 members could speak. The Constitution gained legitimacy from being argued in public, not written in a closed room.
• Ambedkar's appointment shows the Congress choosing competence over loyalty. He had opposed the Congress during British rule, yet he was made law minister and Drafting Committee chairman. This tells us the framing was treated as a national task, not a party one.
• Expertise mattered as much as politics. Lawyers (Munshi, Alladi) and civil servants (B.N. Rau, S.N. Mukherjee) supplied comparative knowledge and precise drafting. A useful line for answers on why the Indian Constitution borrows from many countries yet reads as one document.
• "Many conflicting ideas of India." Debates over language, economy and moral values mean the Constitution was a negotiated settlement. Use this to argue against the view that it was simply imposed by an elite.