Learn the unknown matters about the making of constitution.26.01.25(in English,தமிழ், हिंदी)
They, the people: Meet BR Ambedkar’s team that made his vision of the Constitution a reality
As we commemorate 75 years of the making of the Constitution, we revisit the man and his vision, and understand why he is regarded as the ‘father of the Indian Constitution’.
The man & his vision: Why BR Ambedkar is regarded as the ‘father of the Indian Constitution’
BR Ambedkar advocated for a truly free India. While he envisioned a document that would address the challenges of a modern, evolving society, he thought about the Constitution as a “workable”, “flexible” document, “strong enough to hold the country together in peace time and in war”. As we commemorate 75 years of the making of the Constitution, we revisit the man and his vision, and understand why he is regarded as the ‘father of the Indian Constitution’.
Ambedkar handled the task of presenting the draft, answering various questions, and making necessary changes according to the suggestions of the Constituent Assembly. “The role was pivotal in drafting and finalising; that is why he is called the architect of the Constitution,” says constitutional expert PDT Achary, who was also a former secretary general of Lok Sabha.
As per Achary, Ambedkar particularly added the word ‘fraternity’. His belief in Buddha was ultimate, as he knew it was because of this vision that India and the rest of the world would be an enlightened society.From his idea to provide reservation for the marginalised classes and his clear vision on the governors’ powers, Ambedkar was an uncompromising opponent for many reasons, says Achary. “Firstly, he advocated the abolition of the caste system in India and wanted the Manu Dharma Shastra to be burnt, as it propagated the caste system. As a representative of a different class, and for his vast knowledge of the Constitution and the laws, he was made the chairman of the drafting committee,” he explains.
Secondly, when we say he piloted the Constitution Bill, it means he led the debates and discussions, and that was not an easy task, says Achary. “It wasn’t an ordinary Bill. The way he presented his views, replied to the points raised by the members that would satisfy everyone and used minimum words to explain the intention behind a certain proposal in an article were extraordinary,” he adds.
The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, and came into force on January 26, 1950. While drafting the Constitution, Ambedkar stayed at Kanika House, 1, Hardinge Avenue (now Tilak Marg), his residence in Delhi from 1947 to 1951—a fact that finds mention in the book, Princely Palaces in New Delhi, by author Sumanta K Bhowmick.
The Constitution was handwritten and signed by 284 members. Prominent members such as Dr Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad, were part of the historic debates. BN Rau was the Constitutional adviser and prepared the draft, while N Gopalaswami Ayyangar and KM Munshi were famous for their ‘Munshi-Ayyangar formula’, a compromise solution that established Hindi as the official language of India and English as an associate official language for 15 years. But many names, especially the women, who helped draft the Constitution, have receded from public memory.
As per Ajay Gudavarthy, associate professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, “Any constitution making is a collective effort. Dr Ambedkar’s anti-caste politics got fully identified with the Constitution over its egalitarian vision and the provision for affirmative action. No other social group other than the Dalits, and later the OBCs, has a comparable identification with the Constitution.”
Gudavarthy further explains why women, dominant castes and tribes don’t have a strong identification with the Constitution. “Even Muslims began to identify with it strongly only after the impending threats of NRC and CAA,” he adds.
Purnima Banerji
(1911-1951)
The history of the Constitution of India would be incomplete without the mention of Purnima Banerji. A revolutionary woman leader, who was part of the Constituent Assembly from 1946 to 1950, Banerji was a key figure in drafting the Constitution. One of her arguments included adding a new paragraph in Clause 16 to promote comparative religious education in schools.
Even in one of her discussions on the Preamble to the Constitution, and her ideology around how ‘ultimate sovereignty lies with the people’, she wished to drop the word ‘sovereign’ from the Preamble.
As the secretary of the Indian National Congress committee in Allahabad, Banerji was married to Pyarelal Banerji, the then Solicitor General of Allahabad, and participated in the 24-day-long Dandi March in 1930 led by Mahatma Gandhi.
A fighter for women’s rights in society, and a leader of the freedom struggle, Banerji was known for her never-say-die spirit even after being arrested repeatedly for her participation in the Quit India movement of 1942.
Even though her struggle for freedom was short-lived, owing to declining health as the cause of her death at the age of 40 years, she was a prominent member of the Jayaprakash Narayan-founded Congress Socialist Party in 1934.
She will also be remembered as the first woman to lead and sing Jana Gana Mana in chorus for the first time after its adoption as the national anthem on January 24, 1950.
Dinanath Bhargava
(1927-2016)
Dinanath Bhargava will always be remembered for giving us the national emblem, the ‘Lion Capital of Ashoka’, while also decorating the pages of the Constitution’s manuscript.
When India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru assigned the task to design the Constitution’s original manuscript to Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan, noted painted Nandalal Bose, who was also the principal of Kala Bhavan, handpicked his favourite art student Dinanath Bhargava.
Bhargava is believed to have sketched the sign (lions) from the Pillars of Ashoka for the Constitution. He copied the national emblem from Sarnath and inserted its motto extracted from Mundaka Upanishad—Satyameva Jayate (Truth alone triumphs).
However, it wasn’t easy to sketch the lions. Bhargava visited the Kolkata zoo for three months to closely observe the lions, their actions, expressions, how they sit and stand to reach a level of perfection that Bose wanted in the design of India’s national emblem.
While Bhargava was born in Multai in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh in 1927 and died in Indore in 2016, he is credited with the sketching of not just the lions, but also adorning them on the first 30 pages of the Constitution’s first copy using pencil and brush, and embellished in gold calligraphy. In his unique representation of Indian artistry and traditions for text and touchup of the Constitution, Bhargava used gold spray prepared by mixing pure gold powder with wild gum and babul.
Hansa Jivraj Mehta
(1897-1995)
Apart from Sucheta Kripalani, one of the 15 women members of the Constituent Assembly who sang the first verse of the national song Vande Mataram at its opening session on August 14, 1947, there was another fierce advocate for women’s rights in the team— Hansa Jivraj Mehta.
Mehta had the honour of presenting the Indian national flag to the Assembly on India’s Independence Day on August 15, 1947.
“The average woman in this country has suffered now for centuries from inequalities heaped upon her by laws, customs and practices of people… There are thousands of women today who are denied ordinary human rights. They are put behind the purdah, secluded within the four walls of their homes, unable to move freely. The Indian woman has been reduced to such a state of helplessness that she has become an easy prey of those who wish to exploit the situation. In degrading women, man has degraded himself,” Mehta had said in one of her speeches.
Mehta was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946 from Bombay under a Congress ticket and served as the parliamentary secretary of the health and education departments. On the personal front, she married Dr Jivraj Mehta, while her active role (under Mahatma Gandhi’s advice) led her to be a part of the first batch of women freedom fighters in the 1930s.
Her educational efforts made her introduce the Secondary School Certificate Examination Board for students to learn vocational training in universities.
A fierce supporter of the controversial Hindu Code Bill, Mehta strongly argued in favour of women’s rights and intervened in debates on uniform civil code and reservation.
Dakshayani Velayudhan
(1912–1978)
A fearless soul, who advocated for the abolition of untouchability and social equality, Dakshayani Velayudhan broke barriers as the youngest and only Dalit woman member of the Constituent Assembly. Born to the Pulaya community in Kerala, which was considered a depressed caste, subject to acute discrimination and humiliation, Velayudhan was also the first Dalit woman graduate in India. She not only saw and fought for women’s struggle for equality and recognition within her community, but her family also withstood norms that didn’t allow the community to cover torsos, cut hair, or have equal access to education.
Whether it was organising the All India Dalit Women’s conferences or commitment to both Gandhian and Ambedkar’s principles of non-violence and rights of marginalised communities, respectively, Velayudhan opposed ‘untouchability’ and warned the Constituent Assembly members against the centralisation of powers.
“There are two ways of making India a strong unit. One is by the method of centralisation of power and the other is by decentralisation; but centralisation is possible only through a parliamentary system which now goes under the safe words ‘democratic methods’, but in this draft we can’t find anything that is democratic and decentralisation is totally absent. It is a great tragedy that in making the Constitution of a great country with thirty crores of people, with a great culture behind it and the great principles and teachings of the greatest man of the world on the surface, we were only able to produce a Constitution that is totally foreign to us,” she had said in one of her speeches.
Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul
(1909–2001)
Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul was the first and only Muslim woman in the Constituent Assembly. She was one of the 28 Muslim League members who joined the Constituent Assembly after the Partition of India. She was instrumental in creating consensus among the Muslim leadership to voluntarily give up the demand for reserved seats for religious minorities. During the discussions pertaining to the rights of minorities in an assembly of the Drafting Committee, she opposed the idea of having ‘separate electorates’ for Muslims.
A member of the UP Legislative Assembly, she defied traditional norms like the purdah system and raised her voice against the orthodox and communal elements of society. Rasul was among the very few women legislators to be elected from a non-reserved province in British India.
During her tenure as a member of the UP Assembly, she served in important posts like the leader of the opposition (1950-1952) and deputy president of the council (1937-1940).
Known to popularise sports like hockey for Indian women, she served as the president of Indian Women Hockey Federation and Asian Women’s Hockey Federation for 20 years, and was later sent to Japan in 1953 and Turkey in 1955 as part of the Prime Minister’s ‘goodwill delegation’.
Whether it was her autobiography titled From Purdah to Parliament, narrating her journey as a Muslim woman in the Indian political and constitutional space, or her deep dive into the world of sports, Rasul consistently worked towards the evolution of a progressive society. In 2000, she was awarded a Padma Bhushan for her contribution to social work.
Prem Bihari Raizada
(1901- 1966)
Born into a family of calligraphers, there were no two ways that Prem Bihari Raizada could have not tried his hands on some artistic renditions.
Since the Constitution was a reflection of the country’s history and struggles, Raizada was the only calligrapher chosen by India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru to hand-write the long legal document rather than printing it.
Raizada did not charge any remuneration, but requested to be allowed to write his name on every page of the Constitution and the name of his grandfather, Ram Prasad Saxena, who was a scholar of English and Persian and taught him the art of calligraphy.
Known for his graceful handwriting, right from his graduation days in St Stephen’s College in Delhi, Raizada was confined to a room in the Constitution Hall of India for over six months.
The writing on the document was nothing short of a princely affair. The 432 pen-holder nibs used inside the pages were brought from England and Czechoslovakia, to inscribe each letter on the leaves of the manuscript. In the 251 pages, he wrote 395 articles, eight schedules, and a preamble in both English and Hindi, and is impeccably and blot-free placed on each leaf without a single word being misplaced.
The carefully illustrated borders on each page of the Constitution prove his creative genius and spectacular artistry of his mentor and other students from Shantiniketan. The original manuscript is today present in the Parliament library in New Delhi, in a vault-like room in a helium-filled case. The 251-page bound manuscript weighs 3.75 kg.
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