Indian Polity Quiz: Sources and Salient Features of the Constitution

The correct answer is A, the Government of India Act, 1935. About two-thirds of the provisions of the Constitution follow that Act, which supplied the federal scheme with its lists of subjects, the office of the Governor, the structure and powers of the judiciary, the public service commissions, the emergency provisions and most of the administrative detail. The Act was already in force, so its machinery could be carried forward without disturbing a freshly partitioned administration. B introduced separate electorates and a limited elective element and contributed almost nothing to the final text. C gave the Fundamental Rights and judicial review, and D the Directive Principles, but each of those is one chapter rather than the bulk of the document. Note also that the Act of 1935 provided for a federation of provinces and princely states which never actually came into being.

The correct answer is B, Ireland. The Irish constitution of 1937 carried a chapter of directive principles of social policy, non-justiciable goals addressed to the legislature, and the Constituent Assembly adopted that device as Part IV of our Constitution, along with the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha and the method of electing the President. A supplied the justiciable Fundamental Rights and judicial review, and it is the commonest wrong answer here because candidates group all rights and principles together. C supplied a federation with a strong Centre and residuary powers with the Centre. D supplied the Concurrent List, the freedom of trade and commerce, and the joint sitting of the two Houses. Article 37 states that the principles are not enforceable by any court but are fundamental in the governance of the country.

The correct answer is A, the Soviet Union, whose constitution listed the duties of citizens alongside their rights. India had no such chapter at first; ten Fundamental Duties were added in 1976 by the Forty-second Amendment on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, and an eleventh, the duty of a parent to provide education to a child, was added later. Like the Directive Principles, the duties are not enforceable by a court. B contributed the expression procedure established by law in Article 21. C contributed the republic and the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. D contributed the amendment procedure and the election of members of the Rajya Sabha. An easy way to hold the pair is that the rights came from the West and the duties from the socialist bloc.

The correct answer is C, South Africa. Two features are traced to the South African constitution: the procedure for amending the Constitution, which combines a special majority with the consent of States for some provisions, and the election of members of the Rajya Sabha by the elected members of the State legislative assemblies through proportional representation by a single transferable vote. A gave the parliamentary system, the rule of law, single citizenship and the writs. B gave a strong Centre, Centre-appointed Governors and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. D gave only one feature, the suspension of Fundamental Rights during an emergency, and that is the pairing most often asked about the Weimar constitution. When an option mentions the single transferable vote, it almost always points to the election of the Rajya Sabha.

The correct answer is A, Australia. The Australian constitution has a list of subjects on which both the federal and the state legislatures may make law, and India adopted the device as the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule, with central law prevailing in case of conflict. The guarantee of free trade, commerce and intercourse throughout the territory, now in Article 301, and the joint sitting of the two Houses to resolve a deadlock over an ordinary bill, now in Article 108, come from the same source. B gave the Directive Principles. C gave the Fundamental Rights and judicial review. D gave the phrase procedure established by law used in Article 21. A useful hook is that in both Australia and India central law prevails over state law on a concurrent subject.

The correct answer is B, the Weimar Republic of Germany. The Weimar constitution allowed the President to suspend civil liberties in an emergency, and the Indian provisions under which the operation of certain Fundamental Rights may be restricted during a proclamation of emergency follow that model. The experience of Weimar is also the reason the provision is treated with suspicion: the same clause was used to dismantle the German republic. A contributed the republican form and the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. C contributed the shape of a federation with a strong Centre. D contributed the Fundamental Duties and the ideal of social, economic and political justice in the Preamble. Articles 358 and 359 are the provisions in which this borrowing appears in the Indian text today.

The correct answer is A, Canada. Canada is the federation that keeps residuary powers with the centre instead of leaving them with the units, appoints the head of each province from the centre and allows its supreme court an advisory jurisdiction, and all three features were adopted in India. The very phrase union of states in Article 1 reflects the Canadian idea that the federation is not the result of an agreement among states and that no state may leave it. B gave the Concurrent List and the joint sitting. C gave the parliamentary system and single citizenship. D gave the Directive Principles and the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha. In the United States, by contrast, the residuary powers rest with the states, and that is the comparison examiners expect.

The correct answer is B, two years, eleven months and eighteen days, counted from the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1946 to the adoption of the Constitution on 26 November 1949. In that period the assembly held eleven sessions and sat for one hundred and sixty-five days, and the draft was debated clause by clause. The Constitution then came into force on 26 January 1950, the date chosen because the Congress had observed it as Independence Day since 1930. A, C and D are offered because candidates remember the figure loosely; the useful way to hold it is as almost three years, the two dates fixing the ends. The same assembly went on to work as the provisional Parliament of India until the first general election.

The correct answer is B, the Forty-second Amendment of 1976, the only amendment of the Preamble so far. It changed the description of the country from a sovereign democratic republic to a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic, and changed the unity of the nation to the unity and integrity of the nation. The same amendment, passed during the emergency and often called a mini constitution, also added the Fundamental Duties. A made amendment of Fundamental Rights explicit after the Golaknath case. C undid several of the emergency changes and replaced the right to property with a legal right. D is the Anti-Defection Amendment, which added the Tenth Schedule. Much of that amendment was reversed in 1978, but the three words added to the Preamble were left untouched.

The correct answer is D, single citizenship, which comes from Britain. The United States gives every person two citizenships, of the union and of the state of residence, while India deliberately gives one citizenship for the whole country, so that no state may treat the people of another state as outsiders. A, judicial review, by which a court may declare a law void for violating the Constitution, is the American contribution most often asked. B, the impeachment of the President for violation of the Constitution, follows the American model closely. C, the office of the Vice-President who presides over the upper House, is also taken from the American Vice-President. In exam options, single citizenship and the parliamentary system are the two features that belong to Britain.