Framing of a Constitution
Mahatma Gandhi had voiced the demand that India’s political destiny should be determined by the Indians themselves. Indian National Congress officially asserted the demand in 1935 for a Constitution made by the people of Indian without outside interference. This demand for a Constituent Assembly was consistently resisted by the British government till they were forced by external events to involve a satisfactory solution. In March 1942 when the Japanese invasion threatened the security of India they sent Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the Cabinet with a draft declaration of the proposals which were to be adopted at the end of the war. It was proposed that :
(a) The Constitution of India was to be framed by an elected Constituent Assembly by the Indian people.
(b) That the Constitution should give India Dominion status.
(c) That there should be one Indian Union comprising all the provinces and Indian states but.
(b) That any province or Indian States which was not prepared to accept the Constitution would be free to retain a constitutional position and with them the British Government could enter into separate constitutional arrangements. But the Congress and the Muslim League both rejected these proposals.
The British Cabinet sent in March 1946 three of its members including Cripps himself. The Congress and Muslim League again failed to came to any agreement, the cabinet mission recommended on 16th May 1946 that India’s Constitution should take the following form :
(a) There would be Union of India comprising both British India and States which should deal with foreign affairs defence and communications. All residuary powers were to vest in the provinces.
(b) The Union would have an Executive and Legislature constituted of representatives of the Provinces and States.
(c) The Provinces were to be free to form groups with executives and legislatures and each group could determine the provincial subjects to be taken in common.
(d) There would be a provision in the Constitution of the Union and the groups whereby any province could by a majority vote of its legislative assembly, call for a reconsideration of the Constitution after an initial period of 10 years.
The Constituent Assembly appointed different Committees to deal with the various aspects of the Constitution. These Committees were presided over by the front rank political leaders like Nehru and Patel and included among others many well known competent leaders. The reports of these Committees formed the basis on which the first draft of the Constitution was prepared by B.N. Rau, the Constitutional Adviser and the revised draft by the Drafting Committee headed by B.R. Ambedkar.
After the transfer of power was effected, the constituent Assembly with Dr. Rajendra Prasad as its president prepared the Draft Constitution. In the eleven sessions held, covering a period of 165 days the Assembly considered the Draft constitution which had 315 Articles and 13 Schedules. In the final form the Constitution had 395 Articles and 8 Schedules.
Discussions on the Constitution were conducted in a friendly manner. As many as 7635 amendments were originally tabled by the members to modify the various provisions of the Draft Constitution. Of these 2973 were actually moved and disposed of Members enjoyed perfect freedom in discussion and showed great tolerance of criticism. There was no attempt to impose ideas from any quarter. The Constitution in its final form was adopted on 26 November 1949 on which date the constitution received the signature of the President of the Assembly. The provisions regarding citizenship, elections, provisional Parliament were given immediate effect from 26th January 1950 which was recognised as ‘Republic Day’ from 1930 onwards.
Integration of Indian states
With regard to the Indian States, the Cabinet Mission announced on 16 May 1946 that the attainment of independence by British India, the relationship which had hitherto existed between the States and the Crown would no longer be possible. But paramountcy would not be transferred to the new Government. The Cabinet mission recommended that there should be a Union of India embracing both British India and the States which should deal with the following subjects:—
(i) Foreign affairs,
(ii) Defence,
(iii) Communications.
The states should retain all subjects and powers other than those ceded to the Union. These proposals were embodied in a detailed manner in the form of a ‘Memorandum on States—Treaties and Paramountcy’ which was presented to the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes on 22 May 1946.
The rulers of the states agreed to accept the Cabinet mission’s Plan. They expressed their views in a resolution passed by the Standing Committee of the Chamber of Princes on 29 January 1947 : “The entry of the states into the Union shall be on no other basis than that of negotiation and the final decision will rest with each state. The proposed Union of India will exercise only such functions in relations to the states in regard to Union subjects as are assigned or delegated by them to the Union. The Constitution of each state its territorial integrity and the succession of its reigning dynasty shall not be interfered with by the union or any part thereof.
The Indian independence Act 1947 declared that the Sovereignty of His Majesty over the Indian states lapses and with it all treaties and engagements in force on that date’. The states were allowed to decide to join either India or Pakistan. Before that date, most of the states had signed the Instrument of Accession by which they agreed to accede to India. But there were some states who thought that in the changed situation they were entitled to declare their independence. Jinnah supported their move and declared : “Constitutionally and legally the Indian States will be independent, sovereign states on the termination of (British) Paramountcy and they will be free to decide for themselves to adopt any course they like; it is open to them to join the Indian Constituent Assembly or the Pakistan Assembly or decide to remain independent. Such a dictarion was not liked by the Congress which stated on 15 June 1947 that they could not admit the right of any state in India to declare its independence and to live in isolation from the rest of India. Pandit Nehru said that any recognition of any such independence by any foreign power would be considered an unfriendly act.
A keen competition took place between Pakistan and Indian leaders in securing the accession of princes to their respective dominions. It was suspected that the British activity encouraged the princes to join Pakistan. Carnfield, the head of the Political Department of the Government of India tried to prevent the princes from joining the Indian Union and surprisingly he was backed by the secretary of State for India Lord Listwell. Nehru felt annoyed and Cornfield was eventually sent home.
Sardar Patel and the accession of Indian States
Sardar Patel who took charge of the States Department in July 1947 tackled this situation with consummate ability assisted by the tactful and experience Secretary of the Ministry, V.P. Menon. Appealing to the patriotic and nationalist sentiments of the princes, Patel asked them to join the Indian Constituent Assembly. He asked them to hand over authority only in external affairs, defence, and communications to the India Dominion pointing out that during the British rule they had exercised little authority in any of the three subjects. Mountbatten also urged the rulers of the states to enter into relations with either of the Dominions depending on the contiguity of their territory. By 15th August 1947 all the states except Kashmir, Hyderabad and Junagarh had been incorporated in the new federal Union. Hundreds of small states merged with neighbouring provinces and disappeared altogether from the Country’s political map. Some like Baroda, Kathiawar and the Rajput states were grouped together to from Kerala while Mysore became a federal unit on its own. The other unions of this kind were Madhya Bharat and the Patiala and East Punjab States Union. The administration of a Union of 21 states known as Himachal Pradesh, Kutch, Bhopal and Manipur passed under the control of the centre. Thus a bloodless revolution had been brought about on the one hand by the operation of democratic forces unleashed by freedom and on the other by the patriotic attitude of the rulers who had been quick to appreciate the change.
Junagarh
The small state of Junagarh situated on the Coast of Kathiawar had a Muslim Nawab though it contained a good Hindu population. The Nawab opted for Pakistan and adopted repressive measures to force the Hindus to leave their homes. But the Indian troops quickly occupied the state. A plebiscite was held which decided in favour of the Indian Union.
Hyderabad
The accession of Hyderabad, the biggest state in India with the Indian Union was not effected without bloodshed. The state with a Muslim ruler and a large Hindu population entered into a year’s stand still agreement with the Indian Union on 29 November 1947. As a result of the agreement Indian troops were withdrawn but the Hyderabad Police Force and the Razakar troops under Sayed Kassim Razvi took complete control over the civil population. Moreover the Nizam demanded an outlet to the sea and the part of his choice was Goa. The Government of India tried to persuade Hyderabad to accede to the Indian Union and prepared a Draft Agreement for that purpose. Even Lord Mountbatten before his departure from India appealed to the Nizam to accept the Draft Agreement but without any success.
In his defiance against the Government of India, the Nizam received direct encouragement form Mr. Jinnah. Defying diplomatic norms, Jinnah declared on 1 June 1948 that the Nizam’s dominion was an independent state and not only the Muslims of Pakistan but the Muslim of the world over fully sympathise with Hyderabad in its struggle. Moreover, the growing violence of the Razakars troops in Hyderabad and the smuggling of arms from foreign governments precipitated the crisis. The Government of India demanded the immediate disbandment of the Razakar troops and the deployment of the Indian troops at Secundrabad. But the Nizam who had sought the intervention of the United Nations refused to accept these terms. Consequently the Indian troops under major General J.N. Chaudhury marched into Hyderabad on 13 September 1948. The Government of India declared that it was not act of war but a ‘police action’ intended to restore peace and order in the state. Kassim Razvi was arrested, the Razakar organisation was dissolved and the Nizam submitted. To restore peace and order, the state was placed under the control of Major General
J. N. Choudhury who with the assistance of Civil Officers quickly brought the situation under control. Eventually Hyderabad acceded to India in November 1949.
Kashmir
The State of Jammu and Kashmir presented a very perplexing problem to the Indian Union. Bordering on India and Pakistan the state could have joined either. In view of the numerical strength of the Muslims, Pakistan was naturally anxious to bring the state under her control.
In autumn of 1947 tribesmen from Pakistan territory invaded Kashmir. Advancing up the Jhelum valley, the raiders even threatened Srinagar the Capital of Kashmir and Jammu. The Maharaja of Kashmir sought the assistance of the Government of India. On 26 October, he formally acceded to the Indian Union whose air borne troops saved the situation in the nick of time. The step was ratified by Sheikh Abdullah leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, an organisation enjoying popular support.
On 31 October 1947 an interim Government was formed with Shiekh Abdullah as its head which with the help of Indian troops successfully repelled tribal raids, aided and abetted by Pakistan. On 31 December the Indian Government appealed to the Security Council of the United Nations to stop this act of aggression on the part of Pakistan against India. The conflicting claims of India and Pakistan were put forward before the Security Council which could not arrive at a fruitful solution. Meanwhile the two dominions fought a war for over a year till the U.N. Commission arranged for a cease fire between the two Governments on 1 January 1949.
The efforts of the security Council to arrive at and ending solution of the dispute between the Governments by sending successive U.N. representatives like Sir Owen Dixon and Dr. Frank Graham proved unsuccessful. In 1951 the Constituent Assembly met in Jammu and Kashmir to frame a Constitution for the State. The Constituent Assembly ratifed the accession of the state to India in February 1954. In November 1956 the Constituent Assembly legalized the status of Jammu and Kahsmir as an integral part of the Indian Dominion. Pakistan retains her de-facto control over the area which her troops occupied in 1947.
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