Indian Polity and Constitution

Hello Aspirants,

Indian polity and constitution refer to the system of government and laws that govern the Republic of India. India is a federal parliamentary democratic republic, which means that it has a central government as well as state governments, and the head of state is a president elected by an electoral college.

The Indian Constitution, adopted in 1950, is one of the longest written constitutions in the world. It lays down the framework for the government and the functioning of the judiciary, legislature, and executive. The Constitution provides for a system of checks and balances between the three branches of government, and enshrines fundamental rights and duties for citizens. It also lays down the procedure for amendment of the Constitution.

The Indian polity operates under a parliamentary system of government, where the Prime Minister is the head of government and exercises executive power. The Parliament consists of two houses, the Lok Sabha (lower house) and the Rajya Sabha (upper house), and is responsible for making laws and overseeing the functioning of the government. The judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court, is independent and tasked with upholding the Constitution and interpreting laws.

India is a secular country and its Constitution provides for the freedom of religion, expression, and association. It also provides for affirmative action and reservation of seats in government jobs and educational institutions for historically marginalized communities. The Constitution recognizes the importance of gender equality and prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.

The Indian polity and Constitution have evolved over the years through amendments and judicial interpretations, reflecting the changing needs and aspirations of the people of India.

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(Features of The Constitution)

A. Lengthiest Written Constitution of the World

The constitution of India is the lengthiest of all the written constitutions of the world. Initially, it contained a Preamble, 395 Articles, 22 parts & 8 schedules. As of now, it has a Preamble, about 450 Articles, 24 parts and 12 schedules. Some of the factors leading to the elephantine nature of our constitution can be summarised as follows:

i) Since Government of India Act 1935 was adopted as a model for the Indian Constitution and it was a very voluminous document in itself. Thus it naturally made the constitution a lengthy document.

ii) The Indian constitution has elaborated provisional for Judiciary, Public Service Commissions, Election Commission, Controller and Auditor General of India etc. Which also makes it voluminous as compared to other constitutions.

iii) The Indian constitution has provisions regarding the administration of states. This is unlike the U.S. constitution where the state from their constitution separately. Since the federal constitutions is supposed to describe in details the rights and jurisdictions of the centre and the states. Thus making it more bulky in nature.

iv) The diversity and the vastness of the country with a pluralist tradition and variety of problems demanded varied solution. Thus it became the utmost priority for the constitution framers to tackle these issues with detailed solution and various provision, for example Part XVI of the constitution is related to Schedule Caste, and Schedule Tribe and Backward Classes separately, While the Fifth and Sixth Schedule are related to tackle the issues related to Scheduled Areas and Tribes separately.

v) In order to meet the growing region demand from several state such as Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradeh, Maharashtra, Sikkim etc. Some specific articles have been inserted for example article 371, 371 A to 371-I, Thus making the constitution lengthier.

B. Parliamentary form of Government

In order to represent the pluralist tradition and interest of country, the framers of the Indian constitution have adopted the British Parliamentary System of Government rather than the American Presidential System of Government. This Parliamentary form of government ensures participation of the citizens in electing their representatives who in turn are responsible for the welfare of the former (citizen). Also, Parliamentary form of government reduces the risk of dictatorship and our man monopolistic approaches in the governance.

C. Federal Polity with a Unitary Spirit

The India constitution is considered as federal during normal circumstances while during the time of emergency it has the possibilities and provisions of being converted into a unitary one.

Some of the features of Indian constitution being a blend of federal unitary can be listed as below:

FEDERAL

» One Government at the centre and other at the state level.
» Distribution of power between both the government.
» Written constitution.
» Supremacy of constitution.
» Independent judiciary and bicameralism.

UNITARY

» Presence of strong central government
» Single constitution
» Single citizenship
» Appointment of state government by the centre
» All-India services
» Emergency provisions

However, the term ‘Federal’ has not been used anywhere in the constitution. And – ‘Article – I’ describes India as a ‘Union of States’ which is not the result of an agreement by the states; and no state has the secede from the federation. Hence, our constitution is described as ‘quasi-federal’ i.e. federal in form but unitary spirit.

D. Rigid as well as Flexible Constitution

A rigid constitution is that type of constitution which requires a special procedure of its amendment, while a flexible constitution can be amended like an ordinary law.

The Indian constitution is a combination of both, for example article 2,3,4, & 169 can be amended like ordinary legislation by simple majority in the Houses of Parliament, while article 368 provides special procedure of the amendment, which are:

i) Some provision can be amended by a special majority of the Parliament, i.e. a 2/3 majority of the members of each house present and voting, and a majority (more than 50%) of the total membership of each House.

ii) Some other provision can be amended by a special majority of the Parliament and with the ratification by half of the total states.

An authentic justification of this blended characteristic of the constitution was given by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, he said – “Our constitution in to be as solid and permanent as we can make it, yet there is no permanence in a constitution, There should be a certain amount of flexibility. If you make anything rigid and permanent, you stop the nation’s growth, the growth of living vital organic people”.

E. Secular State

The India costitution stands for a Secular State, it does not promote any particular religion as the official religion of the Indian states.

Some of the provisions which reveal the secular character of the Indian states are:

i) The preamble secular to all citizens of India, likely of belief, faith and worship.

ii) Article – 4: The state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of the laws.

iii) Article -15: The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the ground of religion.

iv) Article – 16: Equal opportunity for all citizens in the matter of Public employment.

v) Article – 25: Freedom of practising and propagating any religion.

vi) Article – 27: No person shall be forced to pay any tax for the promotion of a particular religion.

vii) Article – 28: No religion instruction shall be provided in any educational institution by the state.

viii) Article – 29: Any section of the citizen shall have the right to conserve its distinct language, script & culture.

ix) Article – 30: All minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institution of their choice.

x) Article – 44: The state shall endeavour to secure for all the citizens a Uniform Civil Code.

While talking about the Western concept of secularism, it shows a complete isolation between the religion and the state. However being a multi religious country this type of isolated concept is not possible in India. hence, the Indian constitution gives equal respect to all the religious being practised in the country.

F. Fundamental Rights

Considered as the hallmark of the democracy fundamental rights are meant for the development of the individual as well as the society. They are justiciable in the nature and they operate as limitations of the executive and arbitrary laws of the legislature.

Broadly fundamental Rights are classified into the following groups:

1) Right to equality (Art. 14-18)
2) Right to freedom (Art. 19-22)
3) Right to against exploration (Art. 23-24)
4) Right to freedom of religion (Art. 25-30)
5) Cultured and educational rights (Art. 29-30)
6) Right to constitutional remedies (Act. 32)

(*) The right to property was deleted as a fundamental rights by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978 & is and ordinary constitutional right now (Act 300-A).

G. Directive Principle of State Policy

Defined by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as a novel feature of the Indian constitution, DPSP’s are a set of social and economic obligation imposed on the government (Union & State) to establish a welfare society. These principles are fundamental in the government of the country and are not enforceable by the courts for their violation.

DPSP’s are comprehensive in nature and they direct the activities of the state in political, economic, social, environmental, educational, cultural and international areas.

Furthermore, they can be classified into the following categories:

(i) Socialistic Category:

Under this category the government aims to prevent concentration if wealth in few heads and provides right to work as well as participates actively in socio-economic affairs for the welfare of the poor, elderly & women (Art. – 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, & 46 – discussed ahead).

(ii) Gandhian Principles:

The Gandhian ideology revolves around the concept of empowerment of the citizens by means of decentralization of power to village the Gram Panchayat and Municipal Bodies, promotion of village and cottage consumption of intoxicating substance.

(iii) Social Integration:

DPSP’s contain instruction for the Union & the State government to eradicate social disparities such as, gender biasness, casteism, exploitation of backward classes etc. (Art. – 39, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47)

(iv) International Relation:

Since Independence, the Indian foreign policies has been the promoter & supporter of non-alignment and world peace in order to diffuse global tension and seeking international peace and cooperation (Art. – 50).

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