2019-11-26 Tue

“IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this 26th day of November 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.” On this day, back in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India formally adopted the Constitution of India, which came into effect on January 26, 1950.

Though today 26th November is not a National Festival, it is still a significant date in India’s transition after gaining independence. Today is also known as National Law Day or Samvidhan Divas to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India.

The Constituent Assembly of India, consisting of indirectly elected representatives, was established to draft a constitution for India. The Assembly had a variety of tasks at hand and had many committees and sub-committees that worked on them. One of such major committees was the Drafting Committee that was given the mammoth task of actually drafting the Indian Constitution.

The Drafting Committee with Dr B.R Ambedkar as its Chairman had six other members who played the key role in writing India’s Constitution. The members were as follows:

Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
N. Gopalaswami
K.M Munshi
Mohammad Saadulla
B.L. Mitter (replaced by N Madhav Rau as the former was taken ill)
D.P. Khaitan (replaced by T T Krishnamachri as the former passed away)

B.N. Rau, who was appointed as the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly, played a major part preparing the general democratic framework of the Constitution and prepared its initial draft in February 1948.

Did you know, the Longest Written Constitution of the World was drafted within 2 years, 11 months and 17 days! Indian Constitution has a lot many unique features. We have compiled all of them in an interesting blog. Read the blog here: Features of Indian Constitution.

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