The vision of the Constitution

On 13 December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the 'Objectives Resolution' in the Constituent Assembly. It proclaimed India to be an 'Independent Sovereign Republic', guaranteeing its citizens justice, equality and freedom, and providing safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed classes.

Nehru recalled the history of earlier constitution-making: the American, French and Russian revolutions. But he said India would not simply copy them: its constitution must fit the temper of the Indian people.

Not everyone agreed that the Assembly was free. Somnath Lahiri, a Communist member, said that the Assembly was working under the shadow of British guns, since the British were still in India.

Nehru replied that, whatever the British might say, governments draw their authority from the will of the people, not from State Papers (official British documents).

The colonial Acts of 1909, 1919 and 1935 had created some representative bodies, but they allowed only 10 to 15 per cent of adults to vote, and they were made by the colonial state. Now Indians would frame their own constitution. Learn from the world, but fit the temper of the people.