Civics Chapter 1 The Indian Constitution – Notes & Study Material

(i) The long experience of authoritarian rule under the colonial state convinced the Indians that free India should be a democracy in which everyone should be treated equally and be allowed to participate in government.

(ii) This was not done by one person but, by a group of around 300 people who became members of the Constituent Assembly and met periodically for the next three years to form the Indian Constitution.

(iii) The country was made up of several different communities who spoke different languages, belonged to different religions, and had distinct culture. Also, when the Constitution was being being written, India was going through considerable turmoil.

The main features of the Indian Constitution are as follows:

(i) Preamble to our Constitution: Preamble is an opening statement or introduction to a document or speech. The Preamble states the aims and objectives of our Constitution. The Preamble points out the source from which our Constitution gets its authority.

(ii) Written and Large Constitution  : Indian Constitution is in a written form and is also large, comprising all the details.

(iii) Democratic Government: A democratic government is one of the most important features of our Constitution. All adult citizens of India have the right to vote and elect their representatives. The laws made, should be for the benefit of the people.

(iv) Socialism: It means to remove inequality of income and to improve the standard of living. Its aim is to offer equal opportunity to all.

(v) Federal System: By federal system, we mean that the Constitution distributes its powers between the state and the centre. There are three lists of subjects, namely-Union List, State List and Concurrent List.The centre is made powerful than the states.

(vi) Universal Adult Franchise: Every citizen above the age of 18 years has a right to vote and he can elect his representative.

(vii) Provision of Fundamental Rights: Indian constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights to the citizens of India. These rights are essential for the welfare and progress of the citizens.

(viii) Independent Judiciary: There is a provision for a free and independent judiciary in the Constitution. The executive does not control the judiciary.

The problems  faced by the farmers of the Indian Constitution are as follows:

(i) The partition had created dividing tendencies among the people.

(ii) A sense of hatred prevailed among people for the other religious communities.

Therefore, the constitution-makers were faced with the task of creating a constitution that would incorporate the interests of all religions and social groups in India and promote an atmosphere of peace and harmony.

Fundamental rights are important because of the following reasons :

(i) They provide to the Indian citizens a safe-guard against the misuse of power by the state.

(ii) These rights aim to ensure the dignity of every individual.

(iii) These rights have been made judiciable, ie., the citizens can approach the courts in case of the violation of any of their Fundamental Rights.

The three organs of the Indian government are as follows:

(i) Legislature: It is a law-making body.

(ii) Executive: It looks after the implementation or laws.

(iii) Judiciary : It adjudicates the disputes.

(i) Federalism: It ensures national unity, and at the same time, allows individual progress. A federal government allows the Centre to hold supreme power, but its constituent states have some power as well.

Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country. Usually, a federation has two levels of government. One is the government for the entire country that is usually responsible for a few subjects of common national interest. The others are governments at the level of provinces or states that look after much of the day-to-day administering of their state. Both these levels of governments enjoy their power, independent of each other.

(ii) Separation of Powers: This serves two purposes firstly, tyrannical use of power is avoided since it does not vest power in any single authority. Secondly, the three organs of power also work as oa check on each other, thereby maintaining a good balance.

(iii) Fundamental Rights: These are important because they conform to a humane society. They also Protect the citizens against arbitrary and absolute use of power by the State Fundamental Rights are various privileges granted to the citizens of a country by its Constitution. Its aim is to restrict arbitrary power of state and create an ideal condition for the development of an individual and of his/her potential.

(iv) Parliamentary Form of Government: It upholds universal adult franchise. This entails the fact that the people of a country play a direct role in electing their representatives to run the state as well as the nation.

According to the Indian constitution, Right to Equality means:

(i) Equality before law : Equality before law’ is the treatment status for a citizen through law given by the Constitution, as no individual should be seen with biased attitude in the eyes of law. All men are equal regardless of their caste, religion, race, gender birth. e.g. if a charge is over a common man or a big industrialist, they get same treatment in the matter of justice.

(ii) Equal protection of law : Equal protection of law is the preserving status for a citizen through law given by the Constitution, as all men have ‘right to live’ and ‘right to get proper livelihood’. According to his/her potential, all the people have equal opportunity to develop his/her potential, without any bias of caste, religion, race, gender or birth.

(iii) Prohibition on discrimination on ground of religion, caste, race, gender or birth.

(iv) Equal access to shops, public restaurants, bathing ghats, etc.

(v) Equality of opportunity for all citizens of India n matters related to employment.

(vi) Untouchability has been abolished and practice of it will be an offence, punishable in accordance with law.

(vii) The state shall not confer any title, except military and academic distinctions.

(viii) No citizen of India will accept any title from any foreign state. So, ‘right to equality includes every aspect of human life. We can say, it is right to prohibit discrimination on ground of caste, religion, birth, gender or race. It contains a theme of egalitarian society, in which all men are equal as per law and have equal opportunity to develop their personality and potential.