Making of the Constitution of India- notes

Making of the Constitution of India

Demand for the constituent Assembly:

1934- M.N. Roy – gave the idea of Constitution Assembly for India. (MN Roy was the main architect of Communist movement).

1935- Indian National Congress (INC) officially demanded for the constituent assembly.

1938- Jawahar Lal Nehru declared about the formation of constitution assembly.

• declared that constitution of free india will be formed by the members elected on the basis of adult franchise. (without outside interference).

1940- ‘August offer’ came. It accepted the demand of the constituent assembly.

1942- ‘Crips Mission’ . It proposed to accept constitution of India after World War II. But Rejected by Muslim League (ML).

24 march 1946- ‘Cabinet Mission’ arrived. Its conditions and recommendations satisfied the ML, which cleared the path for creation of constituent assembly.

Composition of Constituent Assembly

India was divided in two categies. One was the “Princely States” and the other was ” British Provinces”. Originally, total strength was 389. 296 were from British Provinces. These were to be elected. Rest, 93 were to be nominated by princely states.

Out of 296, 292 people were to be selected from 11 Governor’s provinces while 4 were to be selected from 4 Chief commissioner’s provinces.

The representation was 1 member for 1 million (10 lakh) people.

Therefore, we can say that the assembly was partly elected and partly nominated body.

Elections for Constituent Assembly- The elections were held for 296 seats in July august 1946 as the members from 93 princely states were to be nominated.

Results of elections for constituent assembly- INC-208, ML- 73 and small groups & independents-15.