12-23-2005, 03:25 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The making of the Constitution was entrusted to a senior Indian member of the British officer corps who was appointed as the Constitutional Adviser. A committee of seven members was formed, six of whom had been leading legal and administrative luminaries under the British administration. The committee was constituted on August 29, 1947. It was given the task of scrutinising the draft which emerged from the Adviserâs labour.17 This drafting and scrutiny evidently took a whole year. When the draft of the Constitution was placed before the Constituent Assembly, there was no mention in it of villages, towns, cities or even of districts.
The Law Minister who placed it before the Assembly was in fact proud that no such mention had been made in the draft. In his speech, he observed:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->âAnother criticism against the Draft Constitution is that no part of it represents the ancient polity of India. It is said that the new Constitution could have been drafted on the entire ancient Hindu model of a State and that instead of incorporating Western theories the new Constitution should have been raised and built upon village panchayats and district panchayats.â<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And he added:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->âThe love of the intellectual Indian for the vil-lage community is of course infinite if not pathetic.â <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Quoting an early 19th century British authority he felt that no one could feel any pride in them. Then he added:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->That they have survived through all vicissitudes may be a fact. But mere survival has no value. The question is on what plane they have survived. Surely on a low, on a selfish level. I hold that these village republics have been the ruination of India... What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism? I am glad that the Draft Constitution has discarded the village and adopted the individual as its unit.18<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Law Ministerâs observations produced great anger and much anguish. Of the 32 members who spoke in the Constituent Assembly at this stage, only three came to his defence. The others, in-cluding several past, contemporary and future prime
ministers of Indian provinces, felt greatly hurt and betrayed. A member felt that the âConstitution as a whole, instead of being evolved from our life and reared from the bottom upwards is being imported from outside and built from above downwards.â19 Another member said that âin the whole Draft Constitution we see no trace of Congress outlook, no trace of Gandhian social and political outlook. I feel the whole Constitution lacks in Congress ideal and Congress ideology.â Answering the point that âthe villages have been the ruination of India,â he said, âour villages have been starved; our villages have been strangled deliberately by the foreign governments; and the townspeople have played a will-ing tool in this ignoble task.â20 A very senior and prominent member from the south, prime minister of the Madras Presidency around 1947â1948 stated:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I was hoping, having seen the Preamble that everything would follow in regular course and bring out a Constitution that will give food and cloth to the millions of our people and also give education and protection to all the people of the land. But to the utter disappointment of myself and some of us who think with me, this Draft Constitution has drifted from point to point until at last it has become very difficult for us to understand where we are, where the country is, where the people are, what is it that they are going to derive out of this Constitution when it is put on the statute book.21<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Most members who spoke found the Draft Constitution âtotally foreignâ.22 A member even implied that when most of India was fighting for freedom, the Law Minister and his colleagues âwere applying grease on the backs of the British.â23
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Law minister is B R Ambedkar.
The Law Minister who placed it before the Assembly was in fact proud that no such mention had been made in the draft. In his speech, he observed:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->âAnother criticism against the Draft Constitution is that no part of it represents the ancient polity of India. It is said that the new Constitution could have been drafted on the entire ancient Hindu model of a State and that instead of incorporating Western theories the new Constitution should have been raised and built upon village panchayats and district panchayats.â<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And he added:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->âThe love of the intellectual Indian for the vil-lage community is of course infinite if not pathetic.â <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Quoting an early 19th century British authority he felt that no one could feel any pride in them. Then he added:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->That they have survived through all vicissitudes may be a fact. But mere survival has no value. The question is on what plane they have survived. Surely on a low, on a selfish level. I hold that these village republics have been the ruination of India... What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism? I am glad that the Draft Constitution has discarded the village and adopted the individual as its unit.18<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Law Ministerâs observations produced great anger and much anguish. Of the 32 members who spoke in the Constituent Assembly at this stage, only three came to his defence. The others, in-cluding several past, contemporary and future prime
ministers of Indian provinces, felt greatly hurt and betrayed. A member felt that the âConstitution as a whole, instead of being evolved from our life and reared from the bottom upwards is being imported from outside and built from above downwards.â19 Another member said that âin the whole Draft Constitution we see no trace of Congress outlook, no trace of Gandhian social and political outlook. I feel the whole Constitution lacks in Congress ideal and Congress ideology.â Answering the point that âthe villages have been the ruination of India,â he said, âour villages have been starved; our villages have been strangled deliberately by the foreign governments; and the townspeople have played a will-ing tool in this ignoble task.â20 A very senior and prominent member from the south, prime minister of the Madras Presidency around 1947â1948 stated:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I was hoping, having seen the Preamble that everything would follow in regular course and bring out a Constitution that will give food and cloth to the millions of our people and also give education and protection to all the people of the land. But to the utter disappointment of myself and some of us who think with me, this Draft Constitution has drifted from point to point until at last it has become very difficult for us to understand where we are, where the country is, where the people are, what is it that they are going to derive out of this Constitution when it is put on the statute book.21<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Most members who spoke found the Draft Constitution âtotally foreignâ.22 A member even implied that when most of India was fighting for freedom, the Law Minister and his colleagues âwere applying grease on the backs of the British.â23
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Law minister is B R Ambedkar.