The Constitution We Adopted (With Artworks)

The Constitution of India was adopted after extensive, erudite and thoughtful deliberation by the founding fathers spread over 167 days from 9th December 1946 to 26th November 1949. Debates in the Constituent Assembly show the immense effort and dedication by each of the members in crafting a document in the nature of grundnorm, ensuring good governance and guaranteeing basic human rights to every citizen of the country. Excerpts from the speeches of some of the legends of the Constituent Assembly, namely, Dr. Sachidanand Sinha, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar have been included in the book. The speeches made by the members of the Constituent Assembly are a must read for each one of us, which is available on the web portal of both the Houses of Parliament and only a glimpse is given in this book. Dr. Ambedkar said “if things go wrong under the Constitution, the reason will not be that we have a bad Constitution, what we will have to say is, that the man was vile.”

The Constitution after being adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November, 1949 was calligraphed in English by Prem Behari Narain Raizada (Saxena) and in Hindi by Vasant Krishna Vaidya. The calligraphic sheets were decorated with 22 artworks by Nandlal Bose and his team from Shantiniketan, Visva-Bharati depicting 5000 years of Indian civilization. They are classified in 12 historical period, namely, Mohenjodaro period, Vedic period, Epic period, Mahanjanapada and Nanda period, Mauryan period, Gupta period, Medieval period, Muslim period, British period, India’s Freedom Movement, Revolutionary movement for freedom and Natural features. The description of the artwork is based on the publication of Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

The thought that the book must include artistic work came to my mind when the issue was raised recently in the Rajya Sabha that any copy of the Constitution of India would be complete, only if it contains the beautifully decorated artworks. The readers would find the artwork in the beginning of each Part of the 22 parts of the Constitution as engraved in the calligraphic copies.