The experience of oppression

The British enacted several laws that might appear liberal, only to then veto the invocation of progressive measures. Nevertheless, these milestones guided the founding fathers in conceiving and creating the Constitution of India

- R. PRASANNAN

Rome was not built in a day; nor was the Constitution of India. Nor was it made just in the Constituent Assembly. It was discussed, debated, crafted and shaped in the assembly, but several stones in its foundation had been laid and layered over, over several thousand years.

The final Constitution that came out in 1949 drew voluminously from the principles of governance that had prevailed in ancient India, from the traditions that had evolved in the medieval Islamic period, and from the modern structures and a broad framework created during the European period. The doctrine that people ought to be governed by the people's laws, and not by the rulers' laws, had been recognised in the ancient Janapada republics, in England's Magna Carta and in the decrees of the first Sultan Iltutmish in medieval India. It was in continuation of this doctrine that “we the people”, on the 26th day of November 1949, “adopt[ed]; enact[ed], and g[a]ve to ourselves this Constitution”.

Though rulers were often foreign, the doctrine—of ruling the people with their laws—was recognised even in the early days of the East India Company rule, as it had been during the Hindu period and the Islamic period. In other words, Indians were ruled with their laws, and the few Europeans in India by their laws. This was often overlooked or violated by the courts themselves, as illustrated in the infamous Raja Nancomar (Nand Kumar) case in which an Indian nobleman was tried, convicted and executed by applying English law. The legality of the trial—over this and several other issues—would later be questioned during the impeachment of both the first governor-general (Warren Hastings) and the first chief justice (Elijah Impey) in the British parliament, and also later by the liberal intelligentsia in England, including Lord Macaulay.