The Indian Constitution borrowed institutional forms, but transformed their political purpose. How far do you agree?

P.R. Deshmukh called the Constitution "the Government of India Act 1935 with only adult franchise added." Similarly other remarks of “Mimicry”, “Blind imitation”, “Slavish Surrender” were made because there were unmistakable

Borrowing Institutional forms: resemblances of previous western law on Indian Constitution.

• GOI act 1935: Federal structure: Three-tier legislative lists (Union/State/Concurrent) mirror the Federal/Provincial/Concurrent Lists of 1935, Office of Governor, Bicameralism, Public Service Commissions, Emergency provisions.
• Borrowings from other constitutions:
  • UK — Parliamentary democracy, Cabinet responsibility, rule of law
  • USA — Judicial review, Fundamental Rights, written constitution
  • Ireland — DPSPs
  • Canada — strong Centre federal model
  • Australia — concurrent list
  • Weimar Germany — suspension of FRs during emergency These were summarised by K. Hanumanthaiya's cultural charge: "We wanted the music of Veena or Sitar, but here we have the music of an English band". But as Ambedkar himself remarked: There is nothing to be ashamed of in borrowing. Nobody holds any patent rights in the fundamental ideas of a Constitution. NOt only every borrowed provision modified to suit unique Indian requirements, their purpose was transformed.

Mind map on Political purpose of the Indian Constitution.

Transformation of Political Purpose:

• Source of authority: the most fundamental transformation: authority flows from "We, the People of India".
• Universal adult suffrage: the most radical single transformation: In 1950, when even some Western democracies restricted franchise, this was globally unprecedented
• Reinventing “Rights”: A set of justiciable claims not just against the State (as in west) but against the society. (Article 15(2)). Encoding Group rights (Article 26, 30)
• DPSP: Arts. 38-51 converted the state from a colonial administrator into an active welfare agent.
• Asymmetric federalism: that accommodates diversity through differentiation, not uniformity ( Provisions of 5th Schedule, 6th Schedule, Special provisions for different states (Arts. 370, 371)).
• Secularism: India did not simply separate state from religion, it redesigned the relationship through "Principled distance model” Hence, unlike other countries where revolutions led to the formation of Constitutions, the Indian Constitution tries to give rise to the revolution.

Same state machinery now constitutionally mandated to dismantle the very social hierarchy it previously administered.