A Constitution by the people: How the charter was framed

Making of the Indian Constitution was not solely an elite exercise anchored in the Constituent Assembly. The Indian public took an active part in the process

- Ornit Shani

As the clock struck 11 am on December 9, 1946, the story of India's constitution making goes, the Constituent Assembly convened for the first time in Constitution Hall, New Delhi, to begin the enormous task of framing a Constitution for the soon-to-be-independent India. After three years of debates, spread over 5,546 pages, the so-called founding fathers and mothers produced a constitution on a grand scale, unprecedented in terms of its territory, population size, and demographic complexity. At the time, the making of the Indian Constitution was a critical event and a unique experience in the global history of constitution making and democracy.

Unlike the experience in so many other Asian and African countries, where constitutions at the time of decolonisation typically took the form of a parting gift from the colonial rulers, Indians wrote a constitution for themselves.