Making of the Indian Constitution: Notes, Key Dates and PYQs

The correct answer is 1946. The Cabinet Mission came to India in 1946 to work out how power would be handed over, and its plan laid down how a Constituent Assembly would be formed: 389 seats in all, 296 for British India and 93 for the princely states, with the members from the provinces elected indirectly by the provincial legislative assemblies. Elections to the British Indian seats followed in July and August 1946, and the Assembly held its first meeting on 9 December 1946.

The other years cannot be right. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950, so an Assembly formed in 1952, 1959 or 1962 would have had nothing left to write. A good way to fix this date is to tie it to two others from the same year: the elections of July and August 1946, and the first sitting in December 1946.

The correct answer is December 1946. The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946. The Muslim League boycotted the sitting and pressed its demand for a separate Pakistan, and Dr Sachchidananda Sinha, the oldest member, presided as temporary President. Two days later, on 11 December 1946, Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected the permanent President of the Assembly.

The other options are dates from before or after the Assembly's work. August 1945 is more than a year before the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 created the Assembly. July 1948 falls in the middle of its work, after the Draft Constitution had been published in February 1948. January 1950 is the very end: the last session was held on 24 January 1950 and the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950. Remember the pair that is asked most often: first meeting on 9 December 1946, and Rajendra Prasad elected on 11 December 1946.

The correct answer is Dr Sachchidananda Sinha. When the Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946, Sinha, its oldest member, was made the temporary President, following the French practice of letting the senior-most member preside until a regular head is chosen.

Dr Rajendra Prasad is the classic trap: he was elected the permanent President of the Assembly on 11 December 1946, two days after the first sitting, so he did not preside over the first meeting. Jawaharlal Nehru's best-known role in the Assembly was moving the Objectives Resolution on 13 December 1946 and chairing committees such as the Union Powers Committee. G.V. Mavalankar presided when the Assembly sat as the Dominion Legislature, the country's first Parliament, not when it met to frame the Constitution. Keep the three offices apart: temporary President Sinha, President Prasad, and Mavalankar for the legislative sittings.

The correct answer is Dr Rajendra Prasad. Dr Sachchidananda Sinha presided over the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1946 only as its temporary President. On 11 December 1946 the Assembly elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as its permanent President, and he held that office until the Assembly finished its work. On 24 January 1950, at its last session, the Assembly also elected him the first President of India.

The other names played different parts. Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution and chaired the Union Powers, Union Constitution and States Committees. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel chaired the Provincial Constitution Committee and the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities. Mahatma Gandhi was not a member of the Constituent Assembly at all. Exams like to pair the words "temporary" and "permanent", so fix the sequence: Sinha first, then Prasad two days later.

The correct answer is Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly on 13 December 1946, and the Assembly adopted it on 22 January 1947. The resolution set out what the Constitution was meant to achieve: an independent, sovereign republic in which all people would have justice, equality and freedom, with safeguards for minorities and backward classes. Those ideas were later shaped into the Preamble.

Dr Rajendra Prasad was the President of the Assembly and presided over its debates; he did not move this resolution. J.B. Kripalani chaired the Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee. Dr B.R. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee, which was set up only on 29 August 1947, months after the resolution had been adopted. A tidy way to remember the order: Nehru stated the objectives first, and Ambedkar's committee turned them into a draft later.

The correct answer is B.R. Ambedkar. The Drafting Committee was set up on 29 August 1947 with seven members, and Dr B.R. Ambedkar was its chairman. The committee published the Draft Constitution in February 1948, and Ambedkar piloted it through the Assembly's clause-by-clause debate, which is why he is remembered as the chief architect of the Constitution.

K.M. Munshi and Mohammad Saadullah were members of the same committee, not its chairman, which makes them the most tempting wrong answers. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was not on the Drafting Committee; he chaired the Provincial Constitution Committee and the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas. Learn the full list of seven members too, because a common variant asks which name was not a member: Ambedkar, N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, K.M. Munshi, Syed Mohammad Saadullah, N. Madhava Rau and T.T. Krishnamachari.

The correct answer is B.N. Rau. Sir Benegal Narsing Rau was appointed the constitutional (legal) adviser to the Constituent Assembly. He studied the constitutions of other countries and prepared the initial draft of the Constitution, which the Drafting Committee then worked on before publishing its own draft in February 1948.

B.R. Ambedkar is the most likely wrong pick: he chaired the Drafting Committee and steered the Constitution through the Assembly, but he was not the Assembly's adviser. H.V.R. Iyengar served as the Secretary of the Constituent Assembly, an administrative office, and S.N. Mukherjee was its chief draftsman. The distinction the question tests is between the adviser who prepared the first draft (Rau) and the committee chairman who guided the final text (Ambedkar). Questions sometimes use the words "legal adviser" and sometimes "constitutional adviser"; both point to B.N. Rau.

The correct answer is 26 November 1949. On that day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution, and the date is now observed every year as Constitution Day. Some provisions, such as those on citizenship, elections, the provisional Parliament and temporary and transitional matters, took effect on 26 November 1949 itself.

26 January 1950 is the trap in this question: it is the date the Constitution came into force, now celebrated as Republic Day, not the date it was adopted. The day was chosen because the Congress had observed 26 January as Purna Swaraj Day in 1930. The other two options, 26 November 1950 and 26 January 1949, simply swap the years and match no event in the making of the Constitution. When you revise, keep the pair together in the right order: adopted on 26 November 1949, in force from 26 January 1950.

The correct answer is 2 years, 11 months and 18 days. The Assembly first met on 9 December 1946 and completed its work when the Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949. In that time it held 11 sessions spread over 165 days, of which 114 days were spent considering the Draft Constitution. The total cost came to about ₹64 lakh.

The other options are built to look close. 1 year, 11 months and 18 days copies the months and days but drops a whole year. 3 years, 2 months and 10 days would carry the work past January 1950, when the Constitution had already come into force. 2 years, 6 months and 20 days is simply too short. A quick check that works in the exam hall: from December 1946 to late November 1949 is just under three years, which leaves only the first option standing.

The correct answer is Ireland. The Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV of the Constitution were modelled on the Irish Constitution. India also took two other features from Ireland: the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha and the method of electing the President.

The other countries gave different features. The USSR is the source of the Fundamental Duties and of the ideal of social, economic and political justice in the Preamble. The United States gave the Fundamental Rights, judicial review, the independence of the judiciary and the impeachment of the President. China is not counted among the sources of the Indian Constitution at all. The pair most often confused is Rights and Principles: Fundamental Rights come from the USA, while the Directive Principles come from Ireland. A simple memory hook is "Rights from America, Directions from Ireland".

The correct answer is Germany. The provision for suspending Fundamental Rights during an Emergency was taken from the Weimar Constitution of Germany. It is the only feature of the Indian Constitution usually traced to that source.

The other options are sources of different features. France gave the idea of a republic and the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble. Russia, as the former USSR, gave the Fundamental Duties and the ideal of social, economic and political justice. Australia gave the Concurrent List, freedom of trade and commerce, and the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. The emergency provisions as a whole are drawn largely from the Government of India Act, 1935, so a question on "emergency provisions" in general points there, while one on "suspension of Fundamental Rights during an Emergency" points to Germany. Read the wording carefully before choosing.

The correct answer is M.N. Roy. Manabendra Nath Roy, a pioneer of the communist movement in India, was the first to put forward the idea of a Constituent Assembly, in 1934. The Indian National Congress took up the idea and made it an official demand in 1935, and the British government accepted the demand in principle in the August Offer of 1940. The Assembly itself was finally formed in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan.

Jawaharlal Nehru is the most tempting wrong answer, because he became closely identified with the demand and later moved the Objectives Resolution in the Assembly on 13 December 1946; but the idea was first put forward by Roy. Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose are not credited with first proposing it. When a question uses the words "first" or "originally", it is usually testing exactly this: the difference between who proposed an idea and who carried it forward.

The correct answer is 389. The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 fixed the total strength of the Constituent Assembly at 389 seats: 296 for British India and 93 for the princely states. Of the 296 British Indian seats, 292 were for the eleven governors' provinces and 4 for the chief commissioners' provinces.

Every other option is a real number from the same chapter, placed to catch a hurried reader. 299 is the strength of the Assembly after Partition, when the members from the areas that went to Pakistan left. 296 is only the share of British India, without the princely states. 395 is not a count of members at all: it is the number of Articles in the Constitution as originally adopted. Questions on this topic often place these numbers side by side, so link each one to what it counts: 389 members at the start, 299 after Partition, 296 seats for British India and 395 original Articles.