The Constitution Of India

The constitution of India is the longest written national constitution in the world. In December 1946 a Constituent Assembly (CA) was formed to frame a constitution and define a political structure for India. The Chairman of the CA was Dr Rajendra Prasad. In August 1947, the CA appointed a drafting committee to draft the Constitution of India. The drafting committee was headed by Dr B. R. Ambedkar, often referred to as the father of the Constitution of India. The constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949. It came into force on 26 January 1950.

Salient features

1) The Constitution of India is one of the bulkiest and lengthiest constitutions in the world.

2) The Constitution of India establishes a parliamentary system of government both at the centre and in the states.

3) The constitution also provides for single citizenships, special provisions for the schedule tribes and the schedule caste emergency provisions etc.

4) The constitution guarantees universal adult franchise, i.e., every adult of the age of 18 and above has the right to vote.

5) The constitution of India empowers the citizens of India with fundamental rights.

6) The constitution of India declared India to be a secular state, which means that India has no state religion. Our country is non religious, and not irreligious. The Constitution of India believes that no religion should be accorded any special status.

7) The constitution of India is partly rigid and partly flexible. The Constitution is rigid insofar as the basic structure is concerned as it cannot be amended. Also, certain amendments required 2/3rd majority and states' ratification. On the other hand a large number of provisions require only a simple majority. But to a large extent, we can say that our constitution is flexible as could be seen from the fact that it has been amended more than 100 times.

8) Another important feature of the Indian constitution is the probation for fundamental duties.

9) The constitution of India also provides foreign independent judiciary.