Savarkar's 1944 Constitution draft: Was it more secular than Ambedkar's?

The constitution that an independent India adopted 75 years ago under the guidance of Dr BR Ambedkar is considered one of the most celebrated works of modern times.

- SOMEN SENGUPTA

The Indian Constitution gave India an unmatched level of dignity where a nation's commitment to its subject is explored and explained most vividly under a democratic secular social framework.

Having said that, this can also be pointed out with no hesitation that the framing of India's constitution was also in the line of a political party's (read Indian National Congress) pre-set agenda.

Interestingly, in colonised India, the idea of framing a constitution of free India was not only in the mind of Congress leaders who were almost sure that once the British era ended, the power would also only come to them, rather it was nursed by some of the smaller parties as well- Hindu Mahasabha (HMS), the radical Hindu organisation and a party with huge political aspirations from 1937 under Vinayak D Savarkar, the legendary revolutionary whose trial in the hands of the British once rocked the judicial system of Europe and India.

After serving his imprisonment in various forms for 27 long years, Savarkar finally had an unconditional release from the British in 1937 and soon joined HMS as its president.