Constitution

Constitution It was a demand from the Indian National Congress, voiced formally in , that the Indian people shall draft their constitution rather than the British Parliament. The Congress thus rejected the White Paper circulated by the colonial government. The founding principle that Indians shall make their own constitution was laid down by Gandhi as early as in . Gandhi had held that rather than a gift of the British Parliament, swaraj must spring from ‘the wishes of the people of India as expressed through their freely chosen representatives’. Elections were held, based on the Act, to the Provincial Assemblies in August . These elected assemblies in turn were to elect the Central Assembly, which would also become the Constituent Assembly. The voters in the July elections to the provinces were Reconstruction of Post-colonial India even while the Constituent Assembly met and started its job of drafting independent India’s constitution. Among them was the integration of the Indian States or the Princely States. The task of integrating the Princely States into the Indian Union was achieved with such speed that by August , , except Kashmir, Junagadh and Hyderabad, all had agreed to sign an Instrument of Accession with India, acknowledging its central authority over Defence, External Affairs and Communications. The task of integrating these states, with one or the other Provinces of the Indian Union was accomplished with ease. The resolution passed at the All India States People’s Conference (December and April ) that states refusing to join the Constituent Assembly would be treated as hostile was enough to get the rulers to sign the Instrument of Accession in most cases. There was the offer of a generous privy purse to the princes. The rapid unification of India was ably handled and achieved by Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who as Home Minister in the Interim Cabinet was also entrusted with the States Ministry for this purpose. The People’s Movements exerted pressure on the princes to accede to the Indian union. The long, militant struggle