Notes

Demand for Constituent Assembly

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Polity/Constitutional Framework /Making of the Constitution/
Demand for Constituent Assembly

Demand for Constituent Assembly

  • In 1934, M.N. Roy, a pioneer of the communist movement in India, proposed the idea of a Constituent Assembly for the first time for India.
  • In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India.
  • In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf the INC declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise’.
  • The demand was finally accepted in principle by the British Government in what is known as the ‘August Offer’ of 1940.
  • In 1942, Sir Stafford Cripps, a Member of the Cabinet, came to India with a draft proposal of the British Government on the framing of an independent Constitution to be adopted after the World War II.
  • The Cripps Proposals were rejected by the Muslim League, which wanted India to be divided into two autonomous states with two separate Constituent Assemblies.
  • Finally, a Cabinet Mission was sent to India. While it rejected the idea of two Constituent Assemblies, it put forth a scheme for the Constituent Assembly which more or less satisfied the Muslim League.
The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.

The features of the scheme were:

The Constituent Assembly had a total of 389 members, with 296 seats for British India and 93 for princely states. Of the 296 seats for British India, 292 were from governors' provinces and four from Chief Commissioners' provinces (one from each).
The Constituent Assembly was to be a partly elected and partly nominated body.
The Constituent Assembly elections (for 296 seats allotted to British Indian Provinces) were held in Jul-Aug 1946. The Indian National Congress won 208 seats, the Muslim League 73, and 15 seats went to small groups and independents. The princely states did not participate, so 93 seats remained vacant.
The Assembly included all important personalities of India at that time, with the exception of Mahatma Gandhi.