Source of Indian Constitution- Indian Polity Notes

Many call the Indian constitution a copy-paste work and a glaring example of plagiarism. Most parts of it have been copied from the Govt of India Act 1935. Indian Constitution came into existence on 26th Nov 1949. The constituent assembly of India drafted the constitution considering features of constitutions of other countries as well from the Govt of India Act 1935. There the various sources of the Indian constitution some features are borrowed. There is no hesitation to learn from the experience of other nations, hence the experience of other nations, hence, the Indian constitution has various features that are borrowed from other nations.

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Source of India constitutions – Features Borrowed

Indian constitution absorbed those features from other nations' constitutions that suited Indian problems and aspirations.
Our constitution has features taken from the Govt of India Act; of 1935 these features are:

• Federal Scheme
• Office of Governor
• Judiciary
• Public Service Commission
• Emergency provisions
• Administrative details

The other borrowed provisions from different countries and details of those are given in the table below:

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British Constitution

• Parliamentary form of government
• The idea of single citizenship
• The idea of the rule of law
• Institution of the speaker and his role
• Lawmaking procedure
• The procedure established by Law

United States Constitution

• Preamble
• Fundamental Rights
• Federal Structure of government
• Electoral college
• Independence of the judiciary and separation of powers among the three branches of the government
• Judicial review
• President as supreme commander of armed forces.
• Equal protection under the law

Irish Constitution

• Directive principle of state policy (Ireland itself borrowed it from Spain)

Australian Constitution

• Freedom of trade and commerce within the country and between the states.
• Power of the national legislature to make laws for implementing treaties, even on matters outside normal federal jurisdiction.
• Concurrent list

French Constitution

• Ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

Canadian Constitution

• A quasi-federal form of government- a federal system with a strong central govt.
• Distribution of powers between the central government and state governments.
• Residual powers are retained by the central govt.

Constitution of the Soviet Union

• Fundamental Duties

Other Constitutions

• Emergency provision under Article 356 Weimar Constitution (Germany)
• Amendment of Constitution, South Africa
• Due Procedure of Law, Japan

Is the Indian Constitution a Borrowed Bag?
Indian Constitution is a unique document drafted after the hard work of three years of the constituent assembly. Though some features of the Indian constitution are borrowed from other nations, it is still wrong to say that it is a bag of borrowing.
Reasons to not call the Indian constitutions a bag of borrowing are given below:

• There are various provisions borrowed from other nations, but they are absorbed into the Indian constitution to suit its polity and governance. They are not exactly copied.
• The Indian constitution is the most detailed in the world. The American constitution has only seven articles, the Australian constitution has 128 articles, Indian constitution originally consisted of 395 articles which have now increased to 448 articles.
• The Indian constitution is unique in its content and spirit.
• It is drafted considering the historical perspective of Indian Nationalist struggles, the geographical diversity of India, and its traditions and characteristics which are different from any other nation.

Notable Facts: Ideal of the Republic

Here, we should make it clear that the constitution Declares the Indian state to be sovereign, democratic, republic, and from 1977 secular and socialist. Each of these concepts is intertwined with the social and political history of civilization, battle of ideas, and system of Governance. The American Revolution, The French Revolution, The Russian Revolution, and India’s freedom struggle contributed to these concepts. The ideal of the Republic cannot be said to be borrowed from the French constitution alone. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen from which the ideal of “Liberte, egalite, fraternity” has been taken as the motto inspired by the French Revolution and following the Liberation, the provisional govt of the French Republic (GPRF) re-established the Republican motto Liberte, egalite, fraternity which is incorporated into both the 1946 and the 1958 French constitutions. French slogan of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” as an ideal has been borrowed from the French Revolution to the Indian Constitution.
Immediately before the Indian Constitution, amendments to the 1936 constitution established separate branches of the Red Army for each Soviet Republic. The decision to become a republic was taken in May 1949.
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