Criticisms of the Constitution and its makers

Detail

1. The charge of a "borrowed constitution"

• Borrowed constitution means the claim that India's Constitution has no ideas of its own. Critics called it "a bag of borrowings": parts taken from Britain, the USA, Ireland, Canada and other countries, joined together.
• When the charge was answered: Ambedkar presented the Draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948 [4]. Before that, the draft had been put out for public comment from 21 February to 26 October 1948 [4].
• Ambedkar's reply (CAD, 4 November 1948):
• "All Constitutions in their main provisions must look similar." [3]
• "The only new things, if there can be any, in a Constitution framed so late in the day are the variations made to remove the faults and to accommodate it to the needs of the country." [3]
• He said that the charge of a "blind copy" of other constitutions came from "an inadequate study of the Constitution" [3].

• "There is nothing to be ashamed of in borrowing. It involves no plagiarism. Nobody holds any patent rights in the fundamental ideas of a Constitution." [6]

• NCERT's answer: the framers did not copy blindly.

• Innovative borrowing: they took an idea and changed it to fit India.
• Selective adaptation: they took only what suited India and left out the rest.

• They defended each borrowed provision as suited to Indian needs.

• NCERT material for revision: the "borrowed" cartoon and exercise 4(c) in Class 11 "Constitution: Why and How?". The idea of an alternative modernity (India's own way of being modern, not a Western copy) is covered in the preamble-philosophy note.

2. The charge of a "carbon copy of the 1935 Act"

• Carbon copy of the 1935 Act means the claim that the Constitution simply repeats the Government of India Act, 1935, the last British law that set out how India was governed.
• The criticism in 1948: critics said about half of the draft had been copied from the 1935 Act and the rest taken from foreign constitutions [6].
• Ambedkar's reply (same speech, 4 November 1948):
• He made "no apologies" for borrowing from the 1935 Act [6].
• Administrative details that had already been tested in India could be reused without shame.

• He did regret one thing: the parts taken from the 1935 Act were mostly about details of administration [6].

• What was taken (pointer to the sources note): the federal scheme, the office of Governor, the judiciary, public service commissions, emergency provisions and administrative details.

3. The charge of being "un-Indian" or "un-Gandhian"

• The charge: the Constitution is an alien document. Its ideas come from the West and do not fit Indian tradition. A Gandhian design would have been built up from self-governing villages.
• K. Hanumanthaiya (CAD, 17 November 1949): "We wanted the music of veena or sitar, but here we have the music of an English band."

• This was said on the first day of the third reading, the final stage of debate (17–26 November 1949) [4].

• What survived of the village idea: only Article 40, a Directive Principle of State Policy (a guideline for the government that a court cannot enforce). It says the State shall organise village panchayats as units of self-government.

• Pointer: panchayati-raj note (73rd Amendment, 1992).

• NCERT's line of reply: borrowed ideas were changed to suit India. Modern ideas such as equality and rights were needed to fight caste and other social injustice.

4. The charge of a "lawyers' paradise"

• Lawyers' paradise (Sir Ivor Jennings, 1953) means that the Constitution is so long and so full of legal detail that it invites court cases. This keeps lawyers busy.
• Related complaint (Class 11, Rajat exercise): the Constitution uses "tough language" that ordinary people cannot read easily.
• The reply: detail is a safeguard in a new democracy.
• Written detail leaves less room for rulers to misuse power.
• What is spelt out is harder to twist.

5. The charge that the Constituent Assembly was unrepresentative

The charge, point by point

• Indirect election: members were not chosen by the people. Members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies elected them, under the Cabinet Mission scheme (1946) [2][5].
• Limited franchise: the provincial assemblies had themselves been elected by a small electorate (franchise means the right to vote). There was no universal adult franchise (every adult has one vote).
• Princely members were nominated: they were picked by the princely states and were not elected.

Stage	Total	Provinces	Princely States	Chief Commissioner's Provinces
As planned in 1946 (Cabinet Mission)	389	292 (elected)	93	4
After Partition (December 1947)	299	229 (from 12 provinces)	70 (nominated, from 29 states)	—

Sources for the table: [2][5]

• Congress dominance: Granville Austin (1966) wrote, "The Assembly was the Congress, and the Congress was India."
• The League's boycott: the Muslim League stayed away from the Assembly.
• Social make-up: the Assembly was mostly lawyers and upper castes.

Replies in Class 11, "Constitution: Why and How?"

• Representativeness: the Assembly made a serious attempt to include every community. It had 28 SC members (NCERT).
• Congress was diverse: it held many views, from left to right, and from religious to secular.
• Public reason: members argued openly and gave reasons. Decisions did not rest on numbers alone.
• Long, open debate: the Assembly held 11 sessions over 165 days. It spent 114 of those days on the Draft Constitution [2]. The whole task took two years, eleven months and seventeen days [2].

Reply in Class 11, "The Philosophy of the Constitution"

• Voice: people choosing their own representatives through a vote. The Assembly lacked this, because there was no universal adult franchise.
• Opinion: the range of views present in the hall. The Assembly did represent a wide range of opinion.

Acceptance after 1950

• Dalits treat the Constitution as their own. Statues of Ambedkar holding the Constitution in town squares show this.
• Ratification in practice: the people took part in the first general election (1951–52), the first held under the new Constitution. This gave the Constitution the popular approval that indirect election had not. Pointer: one-party-dominance note.

6. Assessment

• Survival: many constitutions written around the same time "perished with the paper they were first written on". India's Constitution survived.
• Model for others: it became an example for other countries, most notably South Africa.
• Timeline that shows legitimacy built over time: adopted 26 November 1949 → signed 24 January 1950 → in force 26 January 1950 [4].
• Exercises for evaluation (Class 11):
• Rajat asks: "Why should I obey a fifty-year-old document?"

• Harbans, Neha and Nazima give different positions. One of them is "we have failed the Constitution", meaning the fault lies in how it is worked, not in the text.

• Class 7 epigraph (Rajendra Prasad, President of the Constituent Assembly): democratic institutions work only when people respect others' views and are willing to compromise and accommodate.

Prelims Hooks

• "Lawyers' paradise" — Ivor Jennings (1953).
• "The Assembly was the Congress, and the Congress was India" — Granville Austin (1966).
• "Music of veena or sitar … English band" — K. Hanumanthaiya, 17 November 1949, the first day of the third reading.
• "No apologies" for borrowing from the Government of India Act, 1935 — Ambedkar, 4 November 1948, when he presented the Draft Constitution.
• The only part of the Gandhian village design that survived = Article 40 (a Directive Principle: organise village panchayats).
• Assembly strength: 389 as planned (292 + 93 + 4) → 299 after Partition (229 + 70) [2][5].
• Members were chosen by indirect election by the Provincial Legislative Assemblies, under the Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946, and not by universal adult franchise [2].
• 11 sessions, 165 days, of which 114 were spent on the Draft Constitution [2].
• Trap: the Assembly lacked the "voice" part of representation but had "opinion". It did not lack both.
• The Constitution was a model for South Africa's constitution (NCERT).

Mains Points

• "Borrowed but not copied": use Ambedkar's 4 November 1948 line, "variations made to remove the faults and to accommodate it to the needs of the country", with examples of selective adaptation. Borrowing tested administrative detail from the 1935 Act was prudence, not slavish imitation.
• Legitimacy of an indirectly elected body: it lacked voice but had a wide range of opinion. It had 28 SC members, Congress itself was diverse, and debate was long and reasoned (165 days). The people then ratified it through the 1951–52 election and continued acceptance, for example by Dalits. This answers the "unrepresentative" charge.
• Length vs. clarity: the "lawyers' paradise" criticism (Jennings, 1953) and the "tough language" complaint are real costs. But detail limited the scope for abuse in a new democracy with weak conventions. Survival when other constitutions "perished" is the test of this choice.
• "Un-Gandhian" debate (GS-I/II): the village republic was left out, and only Art. 40 kept the idea alive. The later revival of panchayats shows that the debate continued. Close with Rajendra Prasad's point that institutions work only with compromise and accommodation, which links to "we have failed the Constitution".