The World’s Biggest Democracy: India and it's Republic Day

Ladies and gentlemen,wish you all a very Happy Republic Day. Today on this historical date of 26^th January, I feel proud and honored to present this article with all of my heart, honesty and pride with the subject a little about “The World’s Biggest Democracy: India” . Today, on 26^th January, 2020 India is celebrating its 71^st Republic day. We all know back in 1950 on the same date, our country’s Constitution came into effect, we all know India has the world’s biggest constitution, we all know it has so many parts, so many articles, so many sections but what we don’t know is, there is much actually so much that we as Indians should understand and know about this important day. We need not to by mug up anything but yes, there is need to understand the purpose, soul, motivation and all the struggle that actually required while making the biggest constitution ever.

The motive behind writing this article:
I’m sure so many of us might already know the things that I’m going to write but I know there are so many and by so many I mean a huge number who doesn’t. So yes, let’s start. I promise this is going to be interesting and informative. 

With the motive to let us understand and know more about our country and its constitution, I present this article with all the information, facts, figures and truth taken from various sources*. 

Few terms to understand before moving forward:

A very basic yet extremely important question – What does constitution mean?

What does it mean by democracy?

What it all took to draft the constitution of world’s biggest democracy:

Let’s start from the start. India became Independent on 15^th August, 1947 after years of British rule but at that point of time there was no written permanent constitution in the country. Thus, few days’ later of independence, a drafting committee of about three hundred people was appointed with honorable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as the chairman to do this extremely important and sensitive task of drafting the constitution. But no doubt it wasn’t easy considering what India has been through in the past years. I hope we understand how much attention, focus and time is needed to read even a short chapter of our books and considering that what if I say Dr. B. R. Ambedkar studied constitutions of about 60 countries before contributing to drafting ours. Eleven Meetings happened in a 165 day period for three years. Finally, it was completed and signed by 284 members of committee on 26^th December, 1949; this day is known as National Law Day.

Later on, on 24^th January, 1950 each member signed the two copies of constitution, one in Hindi and other in English. Have a look at this picture creating history itself.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru signing the constitution of India on 24^th January, 1950.

Ladies and gentlemen finally the day came. After all the hard work, studies, meetings, discussions and debates that took exactly 2 years, 11 months, 18 days at the total expenditure of 6.4millions of Indian rupee, Indian constitution came into effect on 26^th January, 1950 in all the parts of India making the country an Independent Republic.

 What Indian constitution actually has in it?

The constitution declares India a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, assuring its each and every citizen justice, equality and liberty. All the terms that you just read create wide subjects themselves. Basically, the hierarchy is such that the constitution has a preamble, schedules then comes parts which further contain the articles then the sections and laws. Initially Indian constitution had a preamble, 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules but after the latest 103^rd amendment, it now has 448 articles in 25 parts and 12 schedules.

Here is an image of preamble of Indian Constitution. Take some time to read and appreciate the detailing of the below image beautifully designed and decorated by the renowned artist Beohar Rammanohar Sinha. Trust me you will see the form of art that you might not have seen before. Besides from the text, you will see cow, elephant, horse, tiger, peacocks, lotus and much more.

Preamble of Indian constitution originally designed by artist Beohar Rammanohar Sinha.

Preamble is basically a introductory document which serves as a guideline before starting the actually constitution itself. The highly artistic picture that you just saw is hand made; nothing to do with printing or typing. Now, what if I say, each and every page of the longest constitution ever has been written and designed by hands only. I hope we can imagine the amount of time that it would've taken to come up with such perfection.

What constitution offers all of us?

The constitution clearly states everything that you need to know about citizenship, fundamental rights, directive principles, fundamental duties and much more. All of it mentions how you can live a life of your choice following laws and your constitution. As a citizen of this country, it is our duty and responsibility to follow it with all the dignity, respect and honor because at last all the hard work behind making it, is done to make sure every individual of this country lives a life of his/her  choice with all the pride and liberty.

Why I need to know all of this?

For all of you, who are thinking why I need to know all of this, I don’t have any exam asking all of it, or what would I do after knowing all this, then I just want to say one thing this is not even an abstract of what actually happened because nobody or nothing can explain it better than the constitution itself. But it’s important to know about your country and importance of the day which you have been celebrating since your childhood so that when next time if anybody asks you; what do you mean by constitution? Or what is Indian constitution? Or what do you know about it? Or what it actually took to draft the constitution of world’s biggest democracy? You can answer it all.

Few Interesting facts before concluding:

•       The original copies of the Indian Constitution are kept in a special helium filled case in the library of the Parliament of India.
•        Indian is a religious country with millions of god and goddess still our preamble doesn’t start with the word God.
•       The constitution has been amended one hundred and three times till now.

Okay, don’t worry I understand it’s too much of numbers and dates now and I will not go into depth because the motive was never to make you all a constitution master and being honest neither I’m one. I just wanted to share all of this as I believe as an informed citizen of India when anyone asks me what this day really mean, what is celebrated for, what makes my country’s constitution biggest in world; I should be informed and able to answer all of it.

With this note, I wish all of you a very Happy Republic Day. Jai Hind! Be a proud Indian and make your country proud.

I have tried to write everything with full of responsibility and care but in case if you find any information wrong do let me know on blogswithritu@gmail.com.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India

               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Day_(India)