Constitution: Why and How?

Why this chapter matters for UPSC: This opening chapter answers two questions the rest of Indian polity assumes: what a constitution is for, and why India's commands obedience. NCERT gives five functions of a constitution, three tests of a constitution's authority, and an account of how the Constituent Assembly was formed, deliberated and borrowed. Prelims asks the making-of-the-Constitution facts directly (dates, numbers, the Drafting Committee, which Articles came into force on 26 November 1949); Mains asks whether the Assembly was representative and why the document has lasted (GS1 2015 on how it finished in three years; GS2 2016 on the adjectives in the Preamble). The chapter is unchanged in the rationalised Reprint 2026-27. This page follows NCERT's sections in order and adds, with dates and sources, the Assembly's own words: Nehru moving the Objectives Resolution (13 December 1946), Ambedkar presenting the Draft (4 November 1948) and closing the debate (25 November 1949).

🧠 First Principles — Read This First

Start from NCERT's thought experiment. Imagine a large, diverse group (Hindus, Muslims, Christians, people of no religion; rich and poor; old and young) that must live together and will disagree about property, schooling, security spending and whether discrimination is allowed. What lets them live together peacefully? Basic rules that are "publicly promulgated and known to all" and, just as important, enforceable: "If citizens have no assurance that others will follow these rules, they will themselves have no reason to follow these rules." That is NCERT's first function, and everything else in the chapter builds on it.

A constitution is "a body of fundamental principles according to which a state is constituted or governed." NCERT's definition. Before you can know what the law is, you must know who has the authority to enact it; and if Parliament has that authority, "there must be a law that bestows this authority on Parliament in the first place. This is the function of the constitution. It is an authority that constitutes government in the first place." Hold this: it is why the Constitution's authority is higher than Parliament's (NCERT's Exercise 2).

Authority is earned, not declared. NCERT's second half asks what makes a constitution effective rather than "mere words existing on a parchment": who made it and with what credibility (mode of promulgation), whether it gives everyone a reason to go along with it (substantive provisions), and whether it fragments power so no single group can subvert it (balanced institutional design). India passes all three, and NCERT says the rest of the book is the evidence.

PART 1 — Quick Reference

The Chapter at a Glance

The Five Functions of a Constitution (NCERT's list, in NCERT's order)

The five headings are NCERT's own.

What Makes a Constitution Effective (NCERT's three tests)

NCERT turns the tests into three questions: were the enactors credible (this chapter); was power intelligently organised and does the constitution give everyone a reason to go along with it (most of the book); is it just (chapter 10).

The Making of the Constitution: Dates and Numbers

PART 2 — Concepts & Narrative

Why Do We Need a Constitution?

NCERT builds the answer function by function.

Coordination and assurance. The diverse group of the thought experiment needs "some basic rules that are publicly promulgated and known to all members of that group to achieve a minimal degree of coordination". Known is not enough: "they must also be enforceable", because enforceability "gives an assurance to everybody that others will follow these, for if they do not do so, they will be punished." NCERT's classroom activity (decide how class representatives are chosen, what they may decide alone, how to revise the rules, and post the result on the notice board) is a miniature of this function.

Specification of decision-making powers. "You may want rule X, but others may want rule Y." Before deciding what the rules are, a society must decide who gets to decide. The constitution "specifies the basic allocation of power in a society". Even "the people decide" leaves open how: unanimity, direct voting "as the ancient Greeks did", or representatives, and then how many and how elected. In India, NCERT notes, Parliament decides most laws and policies, "and that Parliament itself be organised in a particular manner."

Limitations on the powers of government. A duly constituted authority could still pass laws "that you thought were patently unfair": a ban on your religion, a ban on clothes of a certain colour or certain songs, a rule that one caste or religion "would always have to serve others and would not be allowed to retain any property", arbitrary arrest, or wells reserved for one skin colour. So the third function "is to set some limits on what a government can impose on its citizens", limits that are fundamental "in the sense that government may never trespass them". The usual method is a list of fundamental rights: no arbitrary arrest; freedom of speech, conscience, association, trade. NCERT adds that "these rights can be limited during times of national emergency and the constitution specifies the circumstances under which these rights may be withdrawn" (chapter 4 and Articles 358 and 359).

Aspirations and goals of a society. Older constitutions mostly allocated and limited power; "many twentieth century constitutions, of which the Indian Constitution is the finest example, also provide an enabling framework for the government to do certain positive things". A society "with deep entrenched inequalities" must empower government to overcome them: India's aspiration to be free of caste discrimination; South Africa's to end racial discrimination. NCERT's box on enabling provisions cites South Africa (conservation, protection against unfair discrimination, progressive provision of housing and health care) and Indonesia (a national education system; care of poor and destitute children). In India the enabling provisions "have the support of the Preamble", sit in the Fundamental Rights, and the Directive Principles "also enjoin government to fulfil certain aspirations of the people".

Fundamental identity of a people. "Finally, and perhaps even most importantly, a constitution expresses the fundamental identity of a people." Three senses: the people "as a collective entity come into being only through the basic constitution"; constitutional norms give a moral identity by defining "the fundamental values that we may not trespass"; and constitutions differ in how they embody national identity. NCERT's contrast: "German identity was constituted by being ethnically German", while the Indian Constitution "does not make ethnic identity a criterion for citizenship"; and the relation between regions and the centre "constitutes the national identity of a country."

The Authority of a Constitution

NCERT asks three further questions: what is a constitution, how effective is it, and is it just.

What it is. In most countries "a compact document that comprises a number of articles about the state"; the United Kingdom instead has "a series of documents and decisions that, taken collectively, are referred to as the constitution". So a constitution is "the document or set of documents that seeks to perform the functions that we mentioned above."

How effective it is. Many constitutions "exist only on paper". Effectiveness depends on three things.

• Mode of promulgation. Constitutions crafted by military leaders or unpopular leaders "remain defunct". The successful ones, India, South Africa and the United States, "were created in the aftermath of popular national movements". India's drew "enormous legitimacy from the fact that it was drawn up by people who enjoyed immense public credibility, who had the capacity to negotiate and command the respect of a wide cross-section of society, and who were able to convince the people that the constitution was not an instrument for the aggrandisement of their personal power." It was never put to a referendum, "but the people adopted it as their own by abiding by its provisions."
• Substantive provisions. A constitution must give "everyone in society some reason to go along with its provisions". One "that allowed permanent majorities to oppress minority groups", or "systematically entrenched the power of small groups", would cease to command allegiance. "No constitution by itself achieves perfect justice. But it has to convince people that it provides the framework for pursuing basic justice."
• Balanced institutional design. Constitutions "are often subverted, not by the people, but by small groups, who wish to enhance their own power." Well-crafted ones fragment power so that no single institution has a monopoly: India "horizontally fragments power across different institutions like the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary and even independent statutory bodies like the Election Commission." They also balance authoritative core values with flexibility: "Too rigid a constitution is likely to break under the weight of change; a constitution that is, on the other hand, too flexible, will give no security, predictability or identity to a people." Chapter 9 calls the result "a living document".

How Was the Indian Constitution Made?

Formation. The Constituent Assembly "had been elected for undivided India", held its first sitting on 9 December 1946 and "reassembled as Constituent Assembly for divided India on 14 August 1947". Its members were chosen by indirect election by the Provincial Legislative Assemblies established under the Government of India Act, 1935, "roughly along the lines" of the Cabinet Mission plan:

• seats allotted to each Province and Princely State in proportion to population, "roughly in the ratio of 1:10,00,000", so that the Provinces "were to elect 292 members while the Princely States were allotted a minimum of 93 seats";
• seats in each Province distributed among "the three main communities, Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their respective populations";
• each community's members in the Provincial Assembly electing their representatives "by the method of proportional representation with single transferable vote";
• Princely State representatives chosen by a method "to be determined by consultation".

The first sitting met "in Constitution Hall, New Delhi, on Monday, the 9th December 1946, at Eleven of the Clock", and J.B. Kripalani requested Dr Sachchidananda Sinha to take the chair as temporary Chairman (CAD, Vol. I).

Composition after Partition. Under the plan of 3 June 1947, members elected from territories that fell in Pakistan ceased to be members; the number "was reduced to 299". The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949; "284 members were actually present on 24 January 1950 and appended their signature"; it came into force on 26 January 1950. NCERT stresses the setting: the Constitution "was thus framed against the backdrop of the horrendous violence that the Partition unleashed", and the framers "learnt the right lessons" by committing to "a new conception of citizenship, where not only would minorities be secure, but religious identity would have no bearing on citizenship rights."

Was it representative? NCERT's own answer, in its own terms: members "were not elected by universal suffrage", but "there was a serious attempt to make the Assembly a representative body". All religions were represented under the scheme above; "the Assembly had twenty-eight members from the Scheduled Castes"; the Congress held "as many as eighty-two per cent of the seats" after Partition, yet "was such a diverse party that it managed to accommodate almost all shades of opinion within it."

The principle of deliberation. The Assembly's authority "does not come only from the fact that it was broadly, though not perfectly, representative. It comes from the procedures it adopted... and the values its members brought". Members deliberated "with the interests of the whole nation in mind"; disagreements were "legitimate differences of principle": centralised or decentralised government, Centre-State relations, the powers of the judiciary, property rights. "Only one provision of the Constitution was passed without virtually any debate: the introduction of universal suffrage." NCERT's term for the method is public reason: members "gave principled reasons to other members for their positions", and "the very act of giving reasons to others makes you move away from simply a narrow consideration of your own interest." The debates "deserved to be memorialised as one of the most significant chapters in the history of constitution making, equal in importance to the French and American revolutions."

Procedures. The Assembly "had eight major Committees on different subjects", usually chaired by Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Patel or Ambedkar, "not men who agreed with each other on many things" (Ambedkar "had been a bitter critic of the Congress and Gandhi"; Patel and Nehru "disagreed on many issues"). Each Committee drafted provisions that the whole Assembly then debated, usually seeking consensus; some provisions went to a vote; "every single argument, query or concern was responded to with great care and in writing." The Assembly "met for one hundred and sixty six days, spread over two years and eleven months", with sessions "open to the press and the public alike."

Inheritance of the nationalist movement. "No constitution is simply a product of the Assembly that produces it." An Assembly so diverse could not have worked "if there was no background consensus on the main principles", and those principles "were forged during the long struggle for freedom". The best summary of them is the Objectives Resolution, "moved by Nehru in 1946": on it "our Constitution gave institutional expression to these fundamental commitments: equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan identity." The Constitution "is not merely a maze of rules and procedures, but a moral commitment".

The Objectives Resolution (NCERT's eight main points)

1. India is an independent, sovereign, republic.
2. India shall be a Union of the erstwhile British Indian territories, Indian States, and other parts outside them willing to join.
3. The territories forming the Union shall be autonomous units exercising all powers and functions except those assigned to or vested in the Union.
4. All powers and authority of sovereign and independent India and its constitution shall flow from the people.
5. All people shall be guaranteed social, economic and political justice; equality of status and opportunity and equality before law; and fundamental freedoms of speech, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action, "subject to law and public morality".
6. Minorities, backward and tribal areas, depressed and other backward classes shall be provided adequate safeguards.
7. The territorial integrity of the Republic and its sovereign rights on land, sea and air shall be maintained "according to justice and law of civilized nations".
8. The land would make "full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and welfare of mankind".

Moving it on 13 December 1946, Nehru said: "It is a Resolution and yet, it is something much more than a resolution. It is a Declaration. It is a firm resolve. It is a pledge and an undertaking and it is for all of us I hope a dedication." Its first clause declared "its firm and solemn resolve to proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign Republic". On 22 January 1947 the Chairman asked members "to stand in their places and vote in favour of this Resolution. (The Resolution was adopted, all members standing.)" The Preamble took over the Resolution's vocabulary (justice, liberty, equality, fraternity) but the words "Socialist" and "Secular", and "integrity" in the fraternity clause, came only with section 2 of the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, which substituted "SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC" for "SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC" and "unity and integrity of the Nation" for "unity of the Nation", with effect from 3 January 1977. The first general election that the universal franchise produced had an electorate of 17,32,13,635 (about 173 million), excluding Jammu and Kashmir (Election Commission, Report on the First General Elections in India 1951-52, vol. I); the 1951 Census put literacy at 18.33 per cent.

Institutional Arrangements and the Question of Borrowing

The third test of effectiveness, "a balanced arrangement of the institutions of government", occupied much of the Assembly's time and "led to the adoption of the parliamentary form and the federal arrangement". The framers "did not hesitate to learn from experiments and experiences of other countries", but "borrowing these ideas was not slavish imitation. Far from it. Each provision of the Constitution had to be defended on grounds that it was suited to Indian problems and aspirations."

NCERT's box quotes Ambedkar on 4 November 1948: "One likes to ask whether there can be anything new in a Constitution framed at this hour in the history of the world... The only new things, if there can be any, in a Constitution framed so late in the day are the variations made to remove the faults and to accommodate it to the needs of the country." In the same speech he answered the charge that the Draft reproduced the Government of India Act, 1935: "There is nothing to be ashamed of in borrowing. It involves no plagiarism. Nobody holds any patent rights in the fundamental ideas of a Constitution." On the federal question he said the Draft "can be both unitary as well as federal according to the requirements of time and circumstances. In normal times, it is framed to work as a federal system. But in times of war it is so designed as to make it work as though it was a unitary system." (The site earlier printed this as "federal in normal times but unitary in emergencies" in quotation marks; that is a paraphrase, and he said war.)

Ambedkar's Closing Speech, 25 November 1949

NCERT's margin reproduces its best-known passage: "We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy... These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy." The speech makes three further points that Mains answers use:

• Hold fast to constitutional methods. Where constitutional methods are open, "there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods" (civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha); "These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us." Note the condition: he was speaking of a time when constitutional methods exist.
• Beware hero-worship. Following Mill's caution not to lay liberties "at the feet of even a great man", Ambedkar warned that in India "Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship."
• A life of contradictions. "On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality... How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?... If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril."

The next day Dr Rajendra Prasad paid the tribute NCERT quotes: "We could never make a decision which was or could be ever so right as when we put him on the Drafting Committee and made him its Chairman" (CAD, 26 November 1949).

Conclusion

NCERT closes on survival: "It is a tribute to the wisdom and foresight of the makers of the Constitution that they presented to the nation a document that enshrined fundamental values and highest aspirations shared by the people. This is one of the reasons why this most intricately crafted document has not only survived but become a living reality, when so many other constitutions have perished with the paper they were first written on." It "became an exemplar for many other constitutions, most notably South Africa", and the purpose of "the long search that went on for almost three years was to strike the right balance" so that the institutions "would be able to accommodate the aspirations of the people of India for a long time to come."

PART 3 — UPSC Integration

Applying the Chapter

1. "Was the Constituent Assembly representative?" Use NCERT's own evidence and no more: indirect election under a restricted franchise (concede it), then the serious attempt at representation (all religions; 28 Scheduled Caste members; a Congress that held 82 per cent of seats but "accommodated almost all shades of opinion"), then the deliberative authority (public reason; universal suffrage passed without debate; sessions open to press and public). Chapter 10 adds the voice/opinion distinction.
2. "Why has the Constitution survived?" NCERT's three tests of effectiveness are the structure: mode of promulgation (a popular movement, credible makers), substantive provisions (everyone has a reason to go along), balanced institutional design (fragmented power; a living document).
3. "Is it a borrowed constitution?" NCERT's chart plus Ambedkar's two sentences of 4 November 1948 ("nothing to be ashamed of in borrowing"; variations "to accommodate it to the needs of the country"). Avoid the "bag of borrowings" cliché; the chart shows adaptation, and chapter 10 calls it "selective adaptation".
4. Dates and numbers. Give the source when two differ: NCERT's 166 days vs Ambedkar's 165; "seventeen days" to 25 November vs eighteen to adoption. Examiners reward the precise form.

Exam Strategy

• Prelims: memorise the Dates and Numbers table and the Art 394 list; know that "Socialist" and "Secular" date from 3 January 1977; know the Cabinet Mission split (292 + 93) and the post-Partition 299.
• Mains: open with NCERT's functions or tests rather than a quotation; quote Ambedkar with the date (4 November 1948 for constitutional morality and borrowing; 25 November 1949 for social democracy, the Grammar of Anarchy, hero-worship and the life of contradictions).
• Confused pairs: adopted (26 November 1949) vs in force (26 January 1950); Sinha (temporary Chairman) vs Prasad (President) vs Ambedkar (Drafting Committee Chairman); moved (13 December 1946) vs adopted (22 January 1947); Drafting Committee elected (29 August) vs first meeting (30 August 1947); the Objectives Resolution's "Independent Sovereign Republic" vs the 1949 Preamble vs the 1977 Preamble.
• Cross-reading: chapter 9 (living document: the flexibility test) and chapter 10 (is the Constitution just: the third of NCERT's three questions).

Practice Questions

NCERT's exercises, worked

1. Which is not a function of the constitution? (c) "It ensures that good people come to power": a constitution allocates and limits power and expresses values; it cannot guarantee the character of office-holders.
2. Why is the constitution's authority higher than Parliament's? (c) "The constitution specifies how parliament is to be formed and what are its powers": NCERT's second function, the authority that constitutes government.
3. True or false: (a) True in the usual sense, though the UK shows a constitution can be a set of documents. (b) False: monarchical and one-party constitutions exist too. (c) False: a constitution expresses values and aspirations (functions 4 and 5). (d) True: it constitutes a political and moral identity.
4. Inferences: (a) Incorrect: not elected by all citizens, but a serious attempt at representation and authority from public reason. (b) Incorrect: "almost every issue that lies at the foundation of a modern state was discussed with great sophistication"; only universal suffrage passed without debate. (c) Incorrect: borrowing "was not slavish imitation"; each provision had to be defended as suited to India.
5. Two examples each: (a) credible leaders: Nehru, Prasad, Patel, Ambedkar chaired the Committees; the Assembly carried the authority of the national movement. (b) power distributed: legislature, executive and judiciary, plus the Election Commission; flexibility with limits on amendment. (c) locus of hopes: enabling provisions against caste discrimination; the Preamble and Directive Principles.
6. Demarcation of powers: without it there is no answer to "who gets to decide", so no coordination and no limit on government.
7. Limits on rulers: a duly constituted government can still pass patently unfair laws; a constitution that gave citizens no power at all would fail NCERT's substantive-provisions test and command no allegiance.
8. Japan under US occupation: NCERT's own point (chapter 10 box) is that context dominates constitution-making; India's Assembly, by contrast, framed its Constitution "without external interference".
9. Rajat: answer with the three tests of authority and the first function (coordination needs rules everyone can rely on), and with the fact that the people "adopted it as their own by abiding by its provisions".
10. Harbans, Neha, Nazima: NCERT's conclusion supports Harbans; Ambedkar's "life of contradictions" gives Neha her evidence; Nazima restates Ambedkar's point that a constitution's working depends on those who work it.

Practice (UPSC-pattern, not past papers)

11. "The authority of the Indian Constitution rests less on the manner of its enactment than on the deliberation that produced it." Discuss with reference to NCERT's three tests of a constitution's effectiveness. (GS2, 15 marks)
12. Explain NCERT's five functions of a constitution with one Indian provision for each. Which function do you consider "most important", and why? (GS2, 10 marks)
13. Trace the Objectives Resolution into the Preamble. Which of its eight points survive in the text of 1949, and what did the 42nd Amendment add? (GS2, 10 marks)
14. "There is nothing to be ashamed of in borrowing." Examine Ambedkar's defence of the Draft Constitution against the charge of imitation. (GS2, 10 marks)

📦 Revision Capsule

Sources

• NCERT, Indian Constitution at Work (Class XI), ch. 1 "Constitution: Why and How?", Reprint 2026-27: ncert.nic.in PDF; whole book, Wayback copy of 27 September 2026.
• Constituent Assembly Debates (constitutionofindia.net transcripts): 9 December 1946, 13 December 1946, 22 January 1947, 4 November 1948, 25 November 1949, 26 November 1949.
• Constituent Assembly Debates, 29 August 1947 (Drafting Committee resolution), 11 December 1946 (election of the President), 25 January 1947 (election of the Vice-President), 5 November 1948 (T.T. Krishnamachari on the Committee's membership).
• The Constitution of India, as on 11 November 2025 (Preamble and its footnote; Arts. 38, 358, 359, 393-395): Legislative Department PDF; the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, s. 2: Indian Kanoon.
• Prime Minister's Office, engagements on 11 October 2015; Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Constitution Day release, 23 November 2015.
• Election Commission of India, Report on the First General Elections in India 1951-52, vol. I (1955), p. 69: PDF copy.