CLASS- IX SPL-I: DEMOCRATIC POLITICS
02. CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
There are certain basic rules that the
citizens and the government have to follow. All such rules together are called
constitution.
DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION
IN SOUTH AFRICA
· Nelson Mandela and seven other leaders were sentenced to life
imprisonment in 1964 for daring to oppose the apartheid regime in his country.
· Nelson Mandela spent the next 28 years in South Africa’s most
dreaded prison, Robben Island.
· The system of apartheid divided the people and labelled them on
the basis of their skin colour. The white Europeans imposed this system on
South Africa.
· Besides these two groups, there were people of mixed races who
were called ‘coloured’ and people who migrated from India. The white rulers
treated all nonwhites as inferiors. The non-whites did not have voting rights.
· The apartheid system was particularly oppressive for the blacks.
They were forbidden from living in white areas.
· They could work in white areas only if they had a permit.
Trains, buses, taxis, hotels, hospitals, schools and colleges, libraries,
cinema halls, theatres, beaches, swimming pools public toilets, were all
separate for the whites and blacks. This was called segregation.
· Blacks could not form associations or protest against the
terrible treatment.
· Since 1950, the blacks, coloured and Indians fought against the
apartheid system. They launched protest marches and strikes. The African
National Congress (ANC) was the umbrella organization that led the
struggle against the policies of segregation.
· Several countries denounced apartheid as unjust and racist. But
the white racist government continued to rule by detaining, torturing and
killing thousands of black and coloured people.
· The apartheid government came to an end on 26 April 1994.After
the emergence of the new democratic South Africa, black leaders appealed to
fellow blacks to forgive the whites for the atrocities they had committed while
in power
· After two years of discussion and debate they came out with one
of the finest constitutions that gave to its citizens the most extensive rights
available in any country.
WHY DO WE NEED A
CONSTITUTION?
· First, it generates a degree of trust and coordination that is
necessary for different kind of people to live together;
· Second, it specifies how the government will be constituted, who
will have power to take which decisions;
· Third, it lays down limits on the powers of the government and
tells us what the rights of the citizens are;
· Fourth, it expresses the aspirations of the people about
creating a good society.
MAKING OF THE INDIAN
CONSTITUTION
· In 1928, Motilal Nehru and eight other Congress leaders drafted
a constitution for India.
· In 1931, the resolution at the Karachi session of the Indian
National Congress dwelt on how independent India’s constitution should look
like. Both these documents were committed to the inclusion of universal adult
franchise, right to freedom and equality and to protecting the rights of
minorities in the constitution of independent India.
· The familiarity with political institutions of colonial rule
also helped develop an agreement over the institutional design. The experience
gained by Indians in the working of the legislative institutions proved to be
very useful for the country in setting up its own institutions
· Indian constitution adopted many institutional details and
procedures from colonial laws like the Government of India Act 1935
· Many of our leaders were inspired by the ideals of French
Revolution, the practice of parliamentary democracy in Britain and the Bill of
Rights in the US. The socialist revolution in Russia had inspired many Indians
to think of shaping a system based on social and economic equality.
The Constituent Assembly
The drafting of the document called the
constitution was done by an assembly of elected representatives called the
Constituent Assembly.
· Its first meeting was held in December 1946. Soon after the
country was divided into India and Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly was also
divided into the Constituent Assembly of India and that of Pakistan.
· The Constituent Assembly that wrote the Indian constitution had
299 members.
· The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 but it
came into effect on January 26, 1950. To mark this day we celebrate January 26
as Republic Day every year.
· The Constitution does not reflect the views of its members
alone. It expresses a broad consensus of its time. No large social group or
political party has ever questioned the legitimacy of the Constitution itself.
This is an unusual achievement for Indian constitution.
· The second reason for accepting the Constitution is that the
Constituent Assembly represented the people of India. Constituent Assembly was
elected mainly by the members of the existing Provincial Legislatures. This
ensured a fair geographical share of members from all the regions of the
country.
· The manner in which the Constituent Assembly worked gives
sanctity to the Constitution. First some basic principles were decided and
agreed upon. Then a Drafting Committee chaired by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar prepared a
draft constitution for discussion. Several rounds of thorough discussion took
place on the Draft Constitution, clause by clause. More than two thousand
amendments were considered.
Philosophy of the
Constitution
· The Constitution begins with a short statement of its basic
values.
This is called the Preamble to the constitution.
· Preamble contains the philosophy on which the entire
Constitution has been built.
· It provides a standard to examine and evaluate any law and
action of government, to find out whether it is good or bad.
· It is the soul of the Indian Constitution.
Institutional design
· Constitution of India is a very long and detailed document.
Those who crafted the Indian Constitution felt that it has to be in accordance
with people’s aspirations and changes in society. So, they made provisions to
incorporate changes from time to time. These changes are called constitutional
amendments.
· Constitution lays down a procedure for choosing persons to
govern the country. It defines who will have how much power to take which
decisions. And it puts limits to what the government can do by providing some
rights to the citizen that cannot be violated.
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