3 Difference between a Federation and a Confederation
Federation is a close association (legal) between two or more units, while Confederation is a loose association of two or more States.
Federalism is a mixed or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) Examples of a federation or federal province or state include Canada, Germany, India,
In a Federation, units normally do not have the right to secede (as in India and Pakistan), but in the case of a Confederation, the States always enjoy the right to secede. (e.g. CIS, erstwhile USSR). Confederation, mostly unimplemented, comprising Russia and Belarus. An economic union of 5 sovereign states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Contains a common internal market, a planned monetary union, and common policy.
A Federation is a sovereign body, while in a Confederation the units or the States are sovereign. In a Federation, there exists a legal relation between the Federation and its people, but in Confederation, the people are the citizens of the respective units of the Confederation.
4 Constitutional Experiments
Constitutional Developments linked to National Movement:- As early as 1922 Mahatma Gandhi has put forward the demand that India's political destiny should be determined by the Indians themselves:
'Swaraj will not be a free gift of the British Parliament; it will be a declaration of India's full self-expression ...
(The) Act of parliament will be merely a courteous ratification of the declared wish of the people of India'.
The demand for a constitution for the country being 'framed by its own people without outside interference' was first made by the Indian National Congress in 1935 and repeated several times between 1935 and 1939.
In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru definitely formulated his demand for a Constituent Assembly thus: 'The National Congress stands for independence and democratic state.
It has proposed that the constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise'. This was reiterated by the Working Committee of the Congress in 1939.
This demand was, however, resisted by the British Government until the outbreak of World War II. In March 1942, when the Japanese were about to attack India, they sent Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the Cabinet, with a draft declaration of the proposals of the British Government which were to be adopted at the end of the War, provided the two major political parties Congress and the Muslim League could come to an agreement to accept them. But the two parties failed to come to an agreement to accept the proposals.
5 Constituent Assembly
Composition of the Constituent Assembly:- The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.
The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. Of these 296 seats were to be allotted to British India, 93 seats to the Princely States. Out of 296 seats allotted to British India, 292 members were to be drawn from the eleven governors' provinces and four from the four chief commissioners' provinces, one from each.
Each province and princely state (or group of states in case of small states) were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population. Roughly, one seat was to be allotted for every million people.
Seats allocated to each British province were to be decided among the three principal communities -Muslims, Sikhs and general (all except Muslims and Sikhs), in proportion to their population.
The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
The representatives of princely states were to be nominated by the heads of the princely seats. It is thus clear that the Constituent Assembly was to be a partly elected and partly nominated body.
There was hardly any cultural or religious sect that went unrepresented in the Assembly. The Hindu Maha Sabha was represented by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the Parsi and Marwari communities by H.P. Modi and D.P. Khaitan; Anglo-Indians by Frank Anthony; the Adivasis by Jaipal Singh; women by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Durgabai and Sarojini Naidu. The members also included lawyers such as Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, K.M. Munshi; retired judges Bakshi Tekchand and P.K. Sen; retired civil servants such as K.T. Shah. The members jointly worked in the larger interests of the nation and a 'spirit of compromise' marked the proceedings of the Assembly. The other members were Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad, Sardar Patel, Acharya Kripalani, Rajendra Prasad, Sarojini Naidu, G.B. Pant, Dr. Ambedkar, Sarad Chander Bose, C. Rajagopalacharya.
The elections to the Constituent Assembly (for 296 seats allotted to the British Indian Provinces) were held in July-August 1946. The Indian National Congress won 208 seats, the Muslim 73 seats, and the small groups and independents got the remaining 15 seats. However, the 93 seats allotted to the princely states were not filled as they decided to stay away from the Constituent Assembly.
The Constituent Assembly was set up in November 1946 as per the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.
The Drafting Committee was appointed on 29th August 1947, with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as the Chairman.
Originally, it had 22 parts, 395 articles and 8 schedules.
The only state having a constitution of its own is Jammu and Kashmir.
The first election to the Parliament was held in 1952.
The British Government accepted this demand for the first time in the Aug offer of 1940.
The Mountbatten plan of June 3, 1947 announced the partition of the country and a separate constituent assembly for the proposed state of Pakistan.
The first meeting of the Constituent assembly was boycotted by the Muslim League.
5.1 Working of the Constituent Assembly
The Constituent Assembly held its first meeting on December 9, 1946. The Muslim League boycotted the meeting and insisted on a separate state of Pakistan. The meeting was thus attended by only 211 members. Dr. Sachchidanand Sinha, the oldest member, was elected as the temporary President of the Assembly, following the French practice.
Later on December 11, 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and HC Mukherjee were elected as the president and vice-president of the Assembly respectively. Sir B N Rau was appointed as the Constitutional advisor to the Assembly.
On December 13, 1946, Pandit Nehru moved the historic 'Objectives Resolution' in the Assembly. It was adopted by the Assembly on January 22, 1947. It influenced the eventual shaping of the Constitution through all its subsequent stages. Its modified version forms the Preamble of our Constitution.
The representatives of the princely states, who had stayed away from the Constituent Assembly, gradually joined it. On April 28, 1947, representatives of the six states were part of the Assembly. After the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan of June 3, 1947 for the partition of the country, the representatives of most of the other princely states took their seats in the Assembly. The members of the Muslim League from the Indian Dominion also entered the Assembly.
The Indian Independence Act of 1947 made the following three changes in the position of the Assembly:
The Assembly was made a fully sovereign body, which could frame any Constitution it pleased. The act empowered the Assembly to abrogate or alter any law made by the British Parliament in relation to India.
The Assembly also became a legislative body. In other words, two separate functions were assigned to the Assembly, that is, making of a constitution for free India and enacting ordinary laws for the country. These two tasks were to be performed on separate days. Thus, the assembly became the first Parliament of free Indians (Dominion Legislature). Whenever the Assembly met as the Constituent body it was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad and when it met as the legislative body, it was chaired by G V Mavlankar. These two functions continued till November 26, 1949, when the taste of making the Constitution was over.
The Muslim League members (hailing from the areas included in Pakistan) withdrew Consequently, the total strength of the Assembly came down to 299 as against 389 originally fixed in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan. The strength of the Indian provinces (formerly British Provinces) was reduced from 296 to 229 and those of the princely states from 83 to 70.
In addition to the making of the Constitution and enacting of ordinary laws, the Constituent Assembly also performed the following functions:
It ratified India's membership of the Commonwealth in May 1949.
It adopted the national flag on July 22, 1947.
It adopted the national anthem on January 24, 1950.
It adopted the national song on January 24, 1950.
It elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first president of India on January 24, 1950.
In all, the Constituent Assembly had 11 sessions over 2 years, 11 months and 18 days. The Constitution-makers had gone through the constitutions of about 60 countries, and the Draft Constitution was considered for 114 days. The total expenditure incurred on making the Constitution amounted to Rs. 64 lakh.
Only January 24, 1950, the Constituent Assembly held its final session. It however, did not end, and continued as the provisional parliament of India from January 26, 1950 till the formation of new Parliament after the first general elections in 1951-52.
Acceptance of Constitution :- On 29 August 1947 the Constituent Assembly appointed a Drafting Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Ambedkar. The members of this Committee were N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswamy (Ayyar K.M. Munshi, Mohd. Sa'adullah, B.L. Mitter (later replaced by N. Madhava Rao), Dr. D.P. Khaitan, (replaced on death by T.T. Krishnamachari). This committee came out with a draft Constitution of India in February 1948.
5.2 The Constituent Assembly worked in three phases:-
I Phase:- 6 December 1946 to 14 August 1947.
II Phase:- 15 August 1947 to 26 November 1949.
III Phase:- 27 November 1949 to March 1952.
5.3 Committees on Substantive Affairs
Drafting Committee (Chairman: Dr. B R Ambedkar)
Committee for Negotiating with States (Chairman: Dr. Rajendra Prasad)
Union Constitution Committee (Chairman: Jawaharlal Nehru)
Provincial Constitution Committee (Chairman: Sardar Patel)
Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities (Chairman: Sardar Patel)
5.4 Criticism of the Constituent Assembly
Not a Representative Body:- The critics have argued that the Constituent Assembly was not a representative body as its members were not directly elected by the people of India on the basis of universal adult franchise.
Not a Sovereign Body:- The critics maintained that the Constituent Assembly was not a sovereign body as it was created by the proposals of the British Government. Further, they said that the Assembly held its sessions with the permission of the British Government.
Time Consuming:- According to the critics, the Constituent Assembly took an unduly long time to make the Constitution. They stated that the framers of the American Constitution took only four months to complete their work.
Dominated by Congress:- The critics charged that the Constituent Assembly was dominated by the Congress party. Granville Austin, a British Constitutional expert, remarked: 'the Constituent Assembly was a one-party body in an essentially one-party country. The Assembly was the Congress and the Congress was India'.
Lawyer-Politician Domination:- It is also maintained by the critics that the Constituent Assembly was dominated by lawyers and politicians. They pointed out that other sections of the society were not sufficiently represented. This, to them, is the main reason for the bulkiness and complicated language of the Constitution.
Dominated by Hindus:- According to some critics, the constituent Assembly was a Hindu dominated body. Lord Viscount Simon called it 'a body of Hindus'. Similarly, Winston Churchill commented that the Constituent Assembly represented 'only one major community in India'.
