Question

describe the compostion of costituency assembly

Answer 1

The Constituent Assembly was indirectly elected by the Provincial Assemblies which themselves were elected in the basis of a limited franchise established by "the Government of India Act of 1,935. The 1935 Act imposed qualification on the basis of tax property and education. This kept' out more than 70% of the adult population from the voting.

Their Constituent Assembly then reflected the composition of the: Provincial Assemblies in which the Congress had a comfortable majority, indeed, some members of the Constituent Assembly were not satisfied that the Assembly had a truly representative character and wanted a new Constituent Assembly to be convene on the basis of universal adult franchise.

The Congress however was not in favor of this procedure which it felt would prove slow-and difficult to follow in the conditions- existing in the country at that time. The Congress in its own way had tried to broaden the representation in the Assembly to include different sections of the population, going beyond the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim grouping stipulated by the Cabinet Mission, the Congress Party sent; directions to the Provincial Legislatures to include representatives of Anglo Indians, Christian passes backward classes and Women. Thus all these sections found representation in the Constituent Assembly. Finally, when the elections were over the Constituent Assembly consisted of leading figures of the Congress party like Nehru, Patel, Pant, Rajendra Prasad, K.M. Munshi, C. Rajagopalachari and T.T. Krishnamachari etc.

After the partition representatives of Bengal, Punjab, Sind, North Western Frontier Province, Baluchistan and the Sylhet district of Assam were no longer to be members of the Constituent Assembly of India. There was a fresh election in the new provinces of West Bengal and East Punjab. So when the Constituent Assembly resembled on October 31, 1947 there were 299 members. 229 from the provinces and 70 from the states.

The composition of the Assembly reflected the different ideological views present in the country at that time. There were socialists, the" Marxian as well as the democratic variety. Both groups were opposed to private ownership of important means of production and wanted an equalitarian society, while the Marxian society wanted a revolutionary reconstruction, it was the more moderate group preferring peaceful parliamentary methods that held sway. Sardar Patel may be considered a leader of Rights views supporting private enterprise.