CLASS 9 POLITICAL SCIENCE CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN

 

Constitutional Design 

1. Nelson Mandela being tried for treason by the white South African government. 

2. Nelson Mandela and 7 other leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for daring to oppose the Apartheid regime in his country. 

3. Nelson Mandela spent the next 28 years in South Africa's most dreaded prison in Robben Island.



Struggle against Apartheid

1. Apartheid is a system of racial discrimination unique to South Africa imposed by the white Europeans.

2. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the trading companies from Europe occupied it with arms and force and became the local rulers. 

3. The system of apartheid divided the people and labelled them on the basis of their skin colour.

4. The white rulers treated all Non-Whites as inferiors. The Non-Whites did not have voting rights and were forbidden from living in white areas.

 4. The blacks, coloured and Indians fought against the apartheid system, from 1950. 

5. The African National Congress (ANC) was the umbrella organisation that led the struggle against the policies of segregation. 


Towards A New Constitution


1.As the protests and struggles against apartheid increased, the blacks could no longer be kept under the rule of the government through repression.

2.The white regime changed its policies. Discriminatory laws were repealed.

3. Ban on political parties and restrictions on the media were lifted. 

4. The apartheid government came to an end on the midnight of 26 April 1994, paving way for the formation of a multi-racial government.

5. Following the emergence of the new democratic South Africa, the party that ruled through oppression and brutal killings and the party that led the freedom struggle sat together to draw up a common constitution.

6. This constitution gave to its citizens the most extensive rights available in any country. Together, they decided that in the search for a solution to the problems, nobody should be excluded.

Why the Need for Constitution?

1. It generates a degree of trust and coordination that is necessary for different kind of people to live together

2. It specifies how the government will be constituted, who will have the power to take which decisions

3. It lays down limits on the powers of the government and tells us what the rights of the citizens .

4. It expresses the aspirations of the people about creating a good society


Making of the Indian Constitution

1. India’s Constitution was drawn up under very difficult circumstances. 

3. The country was born through a partition on the basis of religious differences and was a traumatic experience for the people of India and Pakistan.

3. The British had left it to the rulers of the princely states to decide whether they wanted to merge with India or with Pakistan or remain independent. 

4. The merger of these princely states was a difficult and uncertain task.

5. When the constitution was being written, the future of the country did not look as secure as it does today.

The Path to the Constitution

1.  In 1928, Motilal Nehru and eight other Congress leaders drafted a constitution for India.

2.  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 included features such as-

A. Universal Adult Franchise

B.  Right to Freedom 

C. Right to equality 

D. To protecting the rights of minorities in the constitution of independent India. 

3. The British rule had given voting rights only to a few

4. On the basis the British had introduced very weak legislatures.

5. Elections were held in 1937 to provincial legislatures and Ministers all over the British India.

6.There were not fully democratic government.

7. But this election give experience gained by the Indians in the working of the legislative Institutions.

It is based on the Government of India Act 1935


The Constituent Assembly

1. The drafting of the constitution was done by an assembly of elected representatives called the Constituent Assembly. 

2. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in July 1946 and its first meeting was held in December 1946. 

3. Soon after, the country was divided into India and Pakistan and the Constituent Assembly was also divided into the Constituent Assembly of India and that of Pakistan. 

4. The Constituent Assembly that wrote the Indian constitution had 299 members. 

5. The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 but it came into effect on 26 January 1950.

6. To mark this day we celebrate January 26 as Republic Day every year.

Why should we accept the Constitution made by this Assembly more than six decades ago?

1. The Constitution does not reflect the views of its members alone. It expresses a broad consensus of its time.

2. The second reason for accepting the Constitution is that the Constituent Assembly represented the people of India.

3. Finally, the manner in which the Constituent Assembly worked gives sanctity to the Constitution. The Constituent Assembly worked in a systematic, open and consensual manner.

4. some basic principles were decided and agreed upon. Then a Drafting Committee chaired by Dr B.R. Ambedkar prepared a draft constitution for discussion. 

5. Several rounds of thorough discussion took place on the Draft Constitution, clause by clause. 

6. More than two thousand amendments were considered. 

7. Every document was presented and every word spoken in the Constituent Assembly has been recorded and preserved. These are called ‘Constituent Assembly Debates.’

Guiding Values of the Indian Constitution

First, understand the overall philosophy of what our Constitution is all about. Read the views of some of our major leaders on our Constitution and read what the Constitution says about its own philosophy. This is what the preamble to the Constitution does.

The Dream and the Promise

There were many members who followed the vision of Mahatma Gandhi. This dream of an India that has eliminated inequality was shared by Dr Ambedkar, who played a key role in the making of the Constitution, but his vision of removing inequalities from India was different from Gandhiji.

Philosophy of the Constitution

Values that inspired and guided the freedom struggle and were in turn nurtured by it, formed the foundation for India’s democracy. Given below are the values embedded in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.

Constitution of India-Preamble

We, the People of India: 

The Constitution has been drawn up and enacted by the people through their representatives, and not handed down to them by a king or any outside powers.

Sovereign: 

People have the supreme right to make decisions on internal as well as external matters. No external power can dictate the Government of India.

Socialist:

 Wealth is generated socially and should be shared equally by society. The government should regulate the ownership of land and industry to reduce socio-economic inequalities.

Secular

Citizens have complete freedom to follow any religion. But there is no official religion. The government treats all religious beliefs and practices with equal respect.

Democratic: 

A form of government where people enjoy equal political rights, elect their rulers and hold them accountable. The government is run according to some basic rules.

Republic: 

The head of the state is an elected person and not a hereditary position.

Justice: 

Citizens cannot be discriminated against on the grounds of caste, religion and gender. Social inequalities have to be reduced. The government should work for the welfare of all, especially of the disadvantaged groups.

Liberty:

 There are no unreasonable restrictions on the citizens in what they think, how they wish to express their thoughts and the way they wish to follow up their thoughts in action.

Equality

All are equal before the law. The traditional social inequalities have to be ended. The government should ensure equal opportunity for all.

Fraternity: 

All of us should behave as if we are members of the same family. No one should treat a fellow citizen as inferior.

Institutional Design

A Constitution is not merely a statement of values and philosophy. It is mainly about embodying these values into institutional arrangements. It is a very long and detailed document. Therefore it needs to be amended quite regularly to keep it updated. Provisions are made to incorporate changes, known as constitutional amendments from time to time. Like any Constitution, the Indian Constitution also lays down a procedure for choosing persons to govern the country. It defines who will have how much power to make 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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