Vol. 13 · pages 116–120

83CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES his unique performance in delivering the speech he did while introducing his motion for the consideration of this House……… ***** *Mr. Z. H. Lari : …….In order to assess the value of the provisions, we have to bear in mind two things : firstly, certain admissions made by the Honourable Mover of the Resolution, I mean the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar, and secondly our experience of the working of democracy in the last fifteen months after the attainment of independence. When the House adopted resolutions which are the basis of the Draft Constitution, we had no such experience before us ; but now we have. The first admission that the Honourable Mover made was, and I will use his own words : “Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic”……….“It is wiser not trust the legislatures to prescribe forms of administration. “With respect, I say he is mainly right. ***** †Mr. Hussain Imam : …….I must say that I find the position of the President of the Drafting Committee unenviable. He has been attacked from the left for not having copied the Soviet Constitution, and from the right for not having gone back to the village panchayat as his unit. May I say that there is an element of confusion in some of our friends minds, when they want that the Constitution should provide for all the ills to which Indians are subject. It is not part of the Constitution that it should provide for cloth and food. A very revered Member of this Constituent Assembly regretted that this Constitution does not contain any provision for that purpose. My submission, Sir, is that the Constitution is based on the needs of a country to which it is applied. We have to see whether this Constitution does supply those essentials which are peculiar to our own circumstances…… ***** ‡Begum Aizaz Rasul (United Provinces: Muslim): Sir, I congratulate the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar for his lucid and illuminating exposition of the draft Constitution. He and the Drafting Committee had no ordinary task to perform and they deserve our thanks. Sir, I feel it a great privilege to be associated with the framing of the Constitution. I am aware of the solemnity of the occasion. After *CAD, Vol. VII, 8th November 1948. p. 298. †Ibid., p. 302. ‡Ibid., p. 305.

84 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES two centuries of slavery India has emerged from the darkness of bondage into the light of freedom, and today, on this historic occasion we are gathered here to draw up a Constitution for Free India which will give shape to our future destiny and carve out the social, political and economic status of the three hundred million people living in this vast sub-continent. We should therefore be fully aware of our responsibilities and set to this task with the point of view of how best to evolve a system best suited to the needs, requirements, culture and genius of the people living here…… *………A lot of criticism has been made about Dr. Ambedkar’s remark regarding village polity. Sir, I entirely agree with him. Modern tendency is towards the right of the citizen as against any corporate body and village panchayats can be very autocratic…… Sir, as a woman, I have very great satisfaction in the fact that no discrimination will be made on account of sex. It is in the fitness of things that such a provision should have been made in the Draft Constitution, and I am sure women can look forward to equality of opportunity under the new Court. ***** *Dr. Monomohan Das (West Bengal : General) : Mr. VicePresident, Sir, a few days have passed since the Draft Constitution was introduced on the floor of this house by our able Law Minister and Chairman of the Drafting Committee, Dr. Ambedkar. During these few days, the Draft Constitution has met with scorching criticism at the hands of different members of this House. With the exception of a very few members who questioned the very competency and authenticity of this House to pass the Draft Constitution, all the other members have been unanimous in their verdict. They have accepted the Draft Constitution with some alterations, additions and omissions, in some clauses and articles, as a fairly workable one to begin with. One very re-assuring feature that we find in the Constitution is the single citizenship. As the Chairman of the Drafting Committee has said, unlike the American Constitution, the Draft Constitution has given us a single citizenship, the citizenship of India. In these days of provincialism, when every province likes to thrive at the cost of its neighbouring ones, *CAD, Vol. VII, 8th November 1948, p. 305. †Ibid., p. 307.

85CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES when we have forfeited the sympathy and goodwill of our neighbouring provinces, it is indeed a great re-assuring feature. I, as a member from “West Bengal, especially find myself elated to think that henceforth when this Constitution is passed, when this clause of single citizenship, with its equal rights and privileges all over India, is passed, the door of our neighbouring provinces will be open to us, so that our unfortunate brethern from the Eastern Pakistan, will find a breathing space in our neighbouring provinces……. ***** *Shri V. I. Muniswamy Pillai (Madras : General) : Mr. VicePresident, Sir, nobody in this august Assembly or outside can belittle the efforts and the services rendered by the Drafting Committee that has presented the Draft Constitution for the approval of this House. The future generation will feel great pride that this Drafting Coommittee has been able to digest the various constitutions that are obtaining in the world today and to cull from them such of the provisions as are needed for the elevation of this great subcontinent……. With these few observation, I congratulate the President and members of the Drafting Committee for their great service in presenting the Draft Constitution to this Assembly and I commend the motion to this House for its acceptance. †Shrimati Dakshayani Velayudhan (Madras : General): Mr. VicePresident, Sir, now that the draft is before us for general discussion, I request you to permit me to express my views on the same. The able and eloquent Chairman of the Drafting Committee has done his duty creditably within the scope of the general set-up of the new State of India. I feel that even if he wanted he could not have gone beyond the broad principles under which transfer of power took place and I therefore think that any criticism that is levelled against him is totally uncharitable and undeserved. Even if there is any blame—and I think there is—it should go only to those of us who are present here and who were sent for the purpose of framing a Constitution and on whom responsibilities were conferred by the dumb millions of this land who by virtue of their suffering for independence had great hopes when they sent us to this Assembly. But this does not mean that I have not got any criticism about the Draft……. *CAD, Vol. VII, 8th November 1948, p. 308. †Ibid., 310.

86 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES *Shri Deshbandhu Gupta (Delhi) : Mr. President, I am sorry I cannot congratulate Dr. Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee who has received congratulations from different members of the House……. ……This is what I wanted to say. As far as Delhi and other places are concerned. I would like to urge that we should take into consideration the fact that Delhi is the Capital and that as such it must be given a distinct status. I am one with Lata Deshbandhu Gupta on this question. But the small regions like Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg. Pantipiploda etc. should be merged in the provinces. It is no use making them centrally administered areas. This much I would like to submit to Doctor Sahib. He is a great scholar, and as such he should treat this country also as a land of wisdom. It is my appeal to him that he should give a place to the soul of India in this constitution……. ***** †Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir (East Punjab : Sikh) : Mr. President, like my Honourable friend Shri Deshbandhu Gupta. I cannot say that Dr. Ambedkar. President of the Drafting Committee does not deserve any congratulation. On several matters he deserves congratulation for several reasons and the Committee’s labour in framing this first Constitution is certainly praiseworthy. In spite of that, if anybody discovers any error, he mentions it, according to the measure of his understanding ‡The Honourable Rev., J. J. M. Nichols-Roy (Assam : General): Mr. Vice-President, Sir. it is indeed a great privilege to associate myself in rendering tribute to Dr. Ambedkar and the other members of the Drafting Committee for the stupendous task they have undertaken to bring out this Draft Constitution. They all deserve our best thanks…….. #I must especially thank the Drafting Committee for accepting the draft for the creation of District Councils with autonomy in the hill districts in Assam which in the Sixth Schedule are called autonomous districts. ***** $Mr. Mohammed Ismail Sahib (Madras : Muslim) : Mr. VicePresident…….. Sir, it is indeed a great speech in which the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar has commended the consideration of the Draft Constitution *CAD, Vol. VII. 8th November 1948. pp. 312-17. †Ibid., p. 324. ‡Ibid., p. 327. #Ibid., p. 327. $Ibid., p. 330.

87CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES to the House. For lucidity, for persuasiveness, impressiveness and logic. I do not think that it could be beaten. All congratulations to him but this does not mean that one is agreeing with everything that is said by him in the speech……. ***** *Shri Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar (Madras : General) : Sir, Before making a few remarks on the Draft Constitution, I should like lo join in the tribute of praise to the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar for the lucid and able manner in which lie has explained the principles of the Draft Constitution, though I owe it lo myself to say that I do not share the views of my Honourable Friend in his general condemnation of village communities in India. I must also express my emphatic dissent from his observation that Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on Indian soil…… Before I proceed to make my remarks on the Draft Constitution, in view of certain observations of my honourable Friend Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari on the work of the Drafting Committee and the part taken by its members. I owe it to myself and to the House to explain my position. As a member of the Committee, in spite of my indifferent health, I look a fairly active part in several of its meetings prior to the publication of the Draft Constitution and sent up notes and suggestion for the consideration of my colleagues even when I was unable to attend its meetings. Subsequent to the publication of the draft for reasons of health, I could not take part in any of its deliberations and I can claim no credit for the suggestions as lo the modifications of the draft….. †…….A brief survey of the draft Constitution must convince the Members that it is based upon sound principles of democratic government and contains within itself elements necessary for growth and expansion and is in line with the most advanced democratic Constitution of the world. It is well to remember that a Constitution is after all what we make of it. The best illustration of this is found in the Constitution of the United States which was received with the least enthusiasm when it was finally adopted by the different States but has stood the test of time and is regarded as a model Constitution by the rest of the democratic world. *CAD, Vol. VII. 8th November 1984, p. 334. †Ibid., p. 338.