With over 300 years of dominance by the British Government on our motherland priced our individuality and identity. The years of struggle were long and difficult. The British administration never gave us the chance to develop administrative system that could benefit Indians.
During the final years of struggle for freedom, the eminent leaders of that time together sat down to formulate Constitution of India. The recommendation of the Motilal Nehru Committee and the decision taken by the meeting of Indian National congress at Karachi enabled the need for the formation of a Constitute Assembly. The Constitute Assembly framed the Constitution of India, which was established in 1946. Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of Constitute Assembly and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar headed the drafting committee. The Assembly met for 166 days spread over 2years, 11months and 18 days. The Constitution was adopted on 26th November 1949 and came into force on 26th January 1950.
The leaders wanted to formulate a constitution which would help India to develop its economy according to the global economy as well as to improve lives of poverty stricken population of India. Therefore, elaborate discussions were held, and during these discussions, previous laws proposed by British Government in 1909, 1919 and 1935 were taken into account. The basic structure of Indian constitution stands on the Government of India Act, 1935. Constitutions of other major countries were studied and some features of their constitution have been added in our constitution.
Features that have been borrowed from other constitutions:
From British Constitution
- Nominal Head ie, President (like Queen)
- Cabinet System of Ministers
- Post of PM
- Parliamentary Type of Government
- Bicameral Parliament
- Lower House more powerful
- Council of Ministers responsible to Lowe House
- Speaker in Lok Sabha
From United States of America\
- Written Constitution
- Executive head of state known as President and his being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
- Vice- President as the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha
- Fundamental Rights
- Supreme Court
- Provision of States
- Independence of Judiciary and judicial review
- Preamble
- Removal of Supreme court and High court Judges
From Former USSR
- Fundamental Duties
- Five year Plan
From Australia
- Concurrent list
- Language of the preamble
- Provision regarding trade, commerce and intercourse
From Japan
- Law on which the Supreme Court function
From Germany
- Suspension of Fundamental Rights during the emergency
From Canada
- Scheme of federation with a strong centre
- Distribution of powers between centre and the states and placing. Residuary Powers with the centre
From Ireland
- Concept of Directive Principles of States Policy(Ireland borrowed it from SPAIN)
- Method of election of President
- Nomination of members in the Rajya Sabha by the President
From South Africa
- Election of members of the Rajya Sabha
• Amendment of the Constitution
From France
- Concept of “Republic”
• Ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (contained in the Preamble)
By Sanjukta Biswas, Content Writer- Legal Desire
