• Indian Constitution came into effect( officially into a legal circulation) on 26th of January in 1950, at 10:18 am after which India became a Republic country.
• Indian Constitution came into effect on 26th of January because on this special day because this day is an anniversary of Purna Swaraj Day.
• The original Constitution of India was handwritten by Prem Behari Narain Raizada in a flowing italic style with beautiful calligraphy. Each page was beautified and decorated by artists from Shantiniketan.
• The original copies of the Indian Constitution, written in Hindi and English, are kept in special helium-filled cases in the Library of the Parliament of India.
• With 25 parts containing 448 articles and 12 schedules, the Indian Constitution is the longest written Constitution of any sovereign country in the world.
• The Constituent Assembly, which first met on December 9, 1946, took precisely 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to come up with the final draft.
• When the draft was prepared and put for debate and discussion, over 2000 amendments were made, before it was finalised.
• The drafting of the Constitution was finally complete on 26th November, 1949. But, it was legally enforced only after two months on 26th January, 1950. This came to be known as the Republic Day.
• The handwritten Constitution was signed on 24th January, 1950, by 284 members of the Constituent Assembly, which included 15 women. It came into force two days later on 26th January.
• Our Constitution makers took inspiration from various other Constitutions while drafting the one for our country, which is why the Indian Constitution is often called a bag of borrowings.
• The concept of Five Year Plans( FYP) was taken from the USSR, and the Directive Principles( socio-economic rights) were taken from Ireland.
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• The ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in our Preamble have been taken from the French Revolution, which is also the French motto.
• The Preamble to our Constitution was inspired by the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, which also starts with“ We the people”.
• The fundamental rights recognized by our Constitution have also been adopted from the American Constitution. The Indian Constitution recognizes nine fundamental rights as the basic human rights of all its citizens.
• Interestingly, in the beginning, the Right to Property was also one of the fundamental rights. The Article 31 of our constitution said that,“ No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.” However, the 44th Amendment, in 1978, deleted it.
• The Indian Constitution has also been hailed as one of the world’ s best Constitution because in 62 years of its adoption, it had been amended only 94 times.
India constitution was written by Drafting Committee of Indian Constitution. It was headed by Ambedkar but the persons were selected on their qualifications, experience etc like IAS officers, Advocates, Judges, intellects, social workers etc. Here we present some of the prominent people who were part of the committee:
Dr B. R. Ambedkar- Chairman K M Munshi( Ex- Home Minister, Bombay)
Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer( Ex- Advocate General, Madras State)
N Gopalaswami Ayengar( Ex-Prime Minister, J & K, member of Nehru Cabinet)
B L Mitter( Ex-Advocate General, India)
Md. Saadullah( Ex- Chief Minister of Assam, Muslim League member)
D P Khaitan( lawyer).
Sir Benegal Narsing Rau was appointed as the constitutional advisor. He later became First Indian Judge in International Court of Justice in 1950.
WINSPIRE: Empowering youth | January, 2017