This was my project. In my Project I had tried to to express the event and situation at the time of Independence and how our constitution got framed. It include challenges of our newly independent India like Partition, integration of princely states, and so on. The matter is taken from different sources and complied by me with some of my opinion and somewhat present my view.

1. dsUnzh;fo|ky; , 39 thVhlh
okjk.klh dSUV-
221002(उ.प्र)
¼ek 0l a0 fo 0 ea=ky;] Ldwy f'k{kk
vkSj lk{kjrk foHkkx )
KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA, 39 GTC
VARANASI CANTT-221002(UP)
(Ministry ofHRD, Deptt. ofSchool Education & Literacy)
Website: www. kvgtcvaranasi.org E-Mail : kvgtcvaranasi@gmail.com Phone: 0542 – 2503320, 2503347(Fax)
CBSE School No: 08629 KV
Code: 1852 CBSE
Affiliation No: 2100041
Supervisor’s Certificate
Certified that the following students of Class- XIID (Humanity) of this
Vidyalaya have completed their project on title :- Independent India
& its constitution , under my supervision and guidance.
Name Roll No.
1. Trishant 32
2. Govind Sonkar
3. Sarvesh Rawat
4. Jairam Rai
The project is genuinely their own piece of work and is
ready and fit for submission in partial fulfillment of the requirement
‘History Project Work’ in Session 2015-16.

2. Declaration
We are the student of Class XII D, under Department of
Humanities of Kendriya Vidyalaya 39 GTC, Varanasi, hereby
declare that all the information furnished in this project
report is based on my own intensive research and are
genuine.
This project report does not contain all the best of my
knowledge; it contains part of my work which has been
submitted for Session 2014-15.
Name Roll No. Signature
Trishant 35
Govind Sonkar
Sarvesh Rwat
Jairam Rai

3. We Trishant, Govind, Sarvesh, Jairam the student of class XII
D with our immense pleasure want to do a project on the topic
“Independent India & its Constitution”. Under the guidance of
Mr. Ravi Ranjan (PGT History) & with special help of Shri A.K
Singh, Vice Principal & Shri Sanjay Kumar, Principal of the
vidyalaya .
We would be dealing with the situation and circumstances
in which India got its Independence and how its democratic
government will run for good of all. On the basis of text ,
documents of libraries and internet we shall look the
organization of India and its constitution , forces , strategies
that shaped its destiny , division of social groups , the crisis it
suffered from , economic activities & several other points/topic
too. After analyzing the matter we would create the project.
So, kindly allow us to do the project on the above mention
topic.
Name Roll No. Signature
Trishant 32
Govind Sonkar
Sarvesh Rawat
Jairam Rai
Sign of supervisor

4. Acknowledgment
We place on record and warmly acknowledge the
continuous, in valuable supervision timely suggestion
and inspired guidance offered by our guide history
teacher “Mr. Ravi Ranjan “ Department of Humanities,
Kendriya Vidyalaya, in bringing this report to a
successful completion.
We are grateful to Vice Principal sir, Principal sir , for
permitting us to make use of the facilities available in
the department to carry out the project successfully. At
last but not the least we express our sincere thanks to all
our friends who have patiently extended all sorts of help
for accomplishing this undertaking.

5. Contents :-
1 Introduction
2 Challenges of newly Independent India
2.1 Partition & Integration of Princely States
2.2 Establishing Democracy
3 Reorganization of states
4 The Constituent Assembly
4.1 Election and its Assembling
4.2 Session and Principal committee
5 Draft Committee
6 Fundamental Right

6. Introduction
At the hour of midnight on 14-15 August 1947, India
attained independence. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first
prime minister of free India, addressed a special session
of the Constituent Assembly that night. This was the
famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech. India was born in
very difficult circumstances. Perhaps no other country
by then was born in a situation more difficult than that
of India in 1947. Freedomcame with the partition of the
country. The year 1947 was a year of unprecedented
violence and trauma of displacement.
On Independence Day, 15 August 1947, there was an
outburst of joy and hope time. But innumerable
Muslims in India, and Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan,
were now faced
with a cruel
choice – the
threat of sudden
death or the
squeezing of
opportunities on
the one side, and
a forcible tearing
away from their
age-old roots on
the other. Problem
faced by the new
nation was that of the princely states. During the period
Jawaharlal Nehru speaking in Constituent Assembly at midnight on
14 August 1947.

7. of the Raj, approximately one-third of the area of the
subcontinent was under the control of nawabs and
maharajas who owed allegiance to the British Crown,
but were otherwise left mostly free to rule – or misrule
– their territory as they wished It was in this situation
that independent India started on its journey to achieve
several objectives. Yet the turmoil that accompanied
independencedid not make our leaders lose sight of the
multiple challenges that faced the new nation.
Challenges of newly Independent India
The first and the immediate challenge of our newly
independent nation “India” was to shape a nation that
was united, yet accommodative of the diversity in our
society. India was a land of continental size and
diversity. Its people spoke different languages and
followed different cultures and religions. At that time it
was widely believed that a country full of such kinds of
diversity could not remain together for long. The
partition of the country appeared to prove everyone’s
worst fears.
Partition
On 14-15 August 1947, not one but two nation-states
came into existence – India and Pakistan. This was a
result of ‘partition’, the division of British India into
India and Pakistan. The joy of our country’s

8. independence from colonial rule in 1947 was tarnished
by the violence and brutality of Partition. Several
hundred thousand people were killed and innumerable
women raped and abducted. Millions were uprooted,
transformed into refugees in alien lands. Some 15
million had to move across hastily constructed frontiers
separating India and Pakistan. The boundaries between
the two new states were not officially known until two
days after formal independence – they were rendered
homeless, having suddenly lost all their immovable
property and most of their movable assets, separated
from many of their relatives and friends as well, torn
asunder from their moorings, from their houses, fields
and fortunes, from their childhood memories. Thus
Violence and massacre during partition

9. stripped of their local or regional cultures, they were
forced to begin picking up their life from scratch.
The bloodbath continued for about a year from
March 1947 onwards. One main reason for this was the
collapse of the institutions of governance. Amritsar
district became the scene of bloodshed. British officials
did not know how to handle the situation: they were
unwilling to take decisions, and hesitant to intervene.
When panic-stricken people appealed for help, British
officials asked them to contact Mahatma Gandhi,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel or M.A. Jinnah.
The top leaders of our India were involved in
negotiations regarding independencewhile many Indian
civil servants in the affected provinces feared for their
own lives and property. The British were busy
preparing to quit India. Problems were compounded
because Indian soldiers and policemen came to act as
Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs. In many places not only did
policemen help their co-religionists but they also
attacked members of other communities. The Partition
was most bloody and destructive in the Punjab. The
near-total displacement of Hindus and Sikhs eastwards
into India from West Punjab and of almost all Punjabi-
speaking Muslims to Pakistan happened in a relatively
short period of two years between 1946 and 1948.
Process of Partition
It was decided that ‘the British India’ would be divided
into two countries, ‘India’ and ‘Pakistan’. Such a

10. division was very painful & also very difficult to decide
and to implement. It was decided to follow the
principle of religious majorities. This basically means
that areas where the Muslims were in majority would
make up the territory of Pakistan. The rest was to stay
with India.
There was no single belt of Muslim majority areas
in British India. There were two areas of concentration,
one in the west and another in the east. There was no
way these two parts could be joined. So it was decided
that the new country, Pakistan, will comprise two
territories, West and East Pakistan separated by a long
expanse of Indian territory. Not all Muslim majority
areas wanted to be in Pakistan. Khan Abdul Gaffar
Khan, the undisputed leader of the North Western
Frontier Province and known as ‘Frontier Gandhi’, was
staunchly opposed to the two-nation theory. The
another problem was that two of the Muslim majority
provinces of British India, Punjab and Bengal, had very
large areas where the non-Muslims were in majority.
Eventually it was decided that these two provinces
would be bifurcated according to the religious majority
at the district or even lower level. The partition of these
two provinces caused the deepest trauma of Partition.
Minorities on both sides of the border which were
Lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs in the areas that were now
in Pakistan and an equally large number of Muslims on
the Indian side of Punjab and Bengal (and to some
extent Delhi and surrounding areas) found themselves
trapped. They were to discover that they were

11. undesirablealiens in their own home, in the land where
they and their ancestors had lived for centuries. As soon
as it became clear that the country was going to be
partitioned, the minorities on both sides became easy
targets of attack. The minorities on both sides of the
border were left with no option except to leave their
homes, often at a few hours’ notice.
Consequences of Partition
There were killings and atrocities on both sides of the
border. In the name of religion people of one
Migration on a huge scale and refugees.

12. community ruthlessly killed and maimed people of the
other community. Cities like Lahore, Amritsar and
Kolkata became divided into ‘communal zones’.
Muslims would avoid going into an area where mainly
Hindus or Sikhs lived; similarly the Hindus and Sikhs
stayed away from areas of Muslim predominance.
Forced to abandon their homes and move across
borders, people went through immense sufferings.
Minorities on both sides of the border fled their home
and often secured temporary shelter in ‘refugee camps’.
Thousands of women were abducted on both sides of
the border. They were made to convert to the religion of
the abductor and were forced into marriage. In many
cases women were killed by their own family members
to preserve the ‘family honour’. Many children were
separated from their parents. Those who did manage to
cross the border found that they had no home.
It is estimated that the Partition forced about 80 lakh
people to migrate across the new border. Between five
to ten lakh people were killed in partition related
violence. Even after large scale migration of Muslims to
the newly created Pakistan, the Muslim population in
India accounted for 12 per cent of the total population
in 1951.

13. Integration of Princely State
British India was divided into what were called the
British Indian Provinces and the Princely States. The
British Indian Provinces were directly underthe control
of the British government. On the other hand, several
large and small states ruled by princes, called the
Princely States, enjoyed some form of control over their
internal affairs as long as they accepted British
supremacy. This was called paramountcy or suzerainty
of the British crown. Princely States covered one-third
of the land area of the British Indian Empire and one
out of four Indians lived underprincely rule. Just before
Independenceit was announced by the British that with
the end of their rule over India, paramountcy of the
British crown over Princely States would also lapse.
This meant that all these states, as many as 565 in all,
would become legally independent. The British
government took the view that all these states were free
to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent if
they so wished.
The ruler of Travancore announced that the state had
decided on Independence. The Nizam of Hyderabad
made a similar announcement the next day. Rulers like
the Nawab of Bhopal were averse to joining the
ConstituentAssembly. This response of the rulers of the
Princely States meant that after Independence there was

14. a very real possibility that India would get further
divided into a number of small countries.
Hyderabad, the largest of the Princely States was
surrounded entirely by Indian territory. Some parts of
the old Hyderabad state are today parts of Maharashtra,
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Its ruler carried the
title, ‘Nizam’, and he was one of the world’s richest
men. The Nizam wanted an independent status for
Hyderabad. He entered into what was called the
Standstill Agreement with India in November 1947 for
a year while negotiations with the Indian government
were going on. In the meantime, a movement of the
people of Hyderabad State against the Nizam’s rule
gathered force. The peasantry in the Telangana region
in particular, was the victim of Nizam’s oppressive rule
and rose against him. Women who had seen the worst
of this oppression joined the movement in large
numbers. Hyderabad town was the nerve centre of this
movement. The Communists and the Hyderabad
Congress were in the forefront of the movement.
The Nizam responded by unleashing a para-military
force known as the Razakars on the people. The
atrocities and communal nature of the Razakars knew
no bounds. They murdered, maimed, raped and looted,
targeting particularly the non-Muslims. The central
government had to order the army to tackle the
situation. In September 1948, Indian army moved in to
control the Nizam’s forces. After a few days of

15. intermittent fighting, the Nizam surrendered. This led to
Hyderabad’s accession to India.
A few days before Independence, the Maharaja of
Manipur, BodhachandraSingh, signed the Instrument of
Accession with the Indian government on the assurance
that the internal autonomy of Manipur would be
maintained. Under the pressure of public opinion, the
Maharaja held elections in Manipur in June 1948 and
the state became a constitutional monarchy. Thus
Manipur was the first part of India to hold an election
based on universal adult franchise. In the Legislative
Assembly of Manipur there were sharp differences over
the question of merger of Manipur with India. While the
state Congress wanted the merger, other political parties
were opposed to this. The Government of India
succeeded in pressurising the Maharaja into signing a
Merger Agreement in September 1949, without
consulting the popularly elected Legislative Assembly
of Manipur.
Sardar Patel was India’s Deputy Prime Minister
and the Home Minister during the crucial period
immediately following Independence. He played a
historic role in negotiating with the rulers of princely
states firmly but diplomatically and bringing most of
them into the Indian Union. The government’s approach
was guided by three considerations. Firstly, the people
of most of the princely states clearly wanted to become
part of the Indian union. Secondly, the government was
prepared to be flexible in giving autonomy to some

16. regions. The idea was to accommodate plurality and
adopt a flexible approach in dealing with the demands
of the regions. Thirdly, in the
backdrop of partition which
brought into focus the contest
over demarcation of territory,
the integration and
consolidation of the territorial
boundaries of the nation had
assumed supreme importance.
Before 15 August 1947,
peaceful negotiations had
brought almost all states whose
territories were contiguous to
the new boundaries of India,
into the Indian Union. The
rulers of most of the states
signed a document called the
‘Instrument of Accession’ which meant that their state
agreed to become a part of the Union of India.
Accession of the Princely States of Junagadh,
Hyderabad, Kashmir and Manipur proved more difficult
than the rest. The issue of Junagarh was resolved after a
plebiscite confirmed people’s desire to join India.
Reorganisation of state
The creation of internal boundaries of the Indian state
was not just a matter of administrative divisions. The

17. boundaries had to be drawn in a way so that the
linguistic and cultural plurality of the country could be
reflected without affecting the unity of the nation. Our
national movement had promised the linguistic
principle as the basis of formation of states. But things
changed after Independence and partition. Our leaders
felt that carving out states on the basis of language
might lead to disruption and disintegration. It was also
felt that this would draw attention away from other
social and economic challenges that the country faced.
The central leadership decided to postpone matters. The
need for postponement was also felt because the fate of
the Princely States had not been decided. Also, the
memory of partition was still fresh. This decision of the
national leadership was challenged by the local leaders
and the people. Protests began in the Telugu speaking
areas of the old Madras province, which included
present day Tamil Nadu, parts of Andhra Pradesh,
Kerala and Karnataka. The Vishalandhra movement (as
the movement for a separate Andhra was called)
demanded that the Telugu speaking areas should be
separated from the Madras province of which they were
a part and be made into a separate Andhra province.
Nearly all the political forces in the Andhra region were
in favour of linguistic reorganisation of the then Madras
province.
The formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred the
struggle for making of other states on linguistic lines in
other parts of the country. These struggles forced the
Central Government into appointing a States

18. reorganisation Commission in December 22, 1953,
Jawaharlal Nehru announced the appointment of a
commission under Fazl Ali . The other two members of
the commission were K M Panikkar and HN Kunzru.
The commission submitted its report after taking into
account the wishes and claims of people in different
regions. The Commission in its report accepted that the
boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of
different languages. On the basis of its report the States
Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956. This led to the
creation of 14 states and six union territories. One of the
most important concerns in the early years was that
demands for separate states would endanger the unity of
the country. It was felt that linguistic states may foster
separatism and create pressures on the newly founded
nation. But the leadership, under popular pressure,
finally made a choice in favour of linguistic states. It
was hoped that if we accept the regional and linguistic
claims of all regions, the threat of division and
separatism would be reduced. Besides, the
accommodation of regional demands and the formation
of linguistic states were also seen as more democratic.
Linguistic reorganisation also gave some uniform basis
to the drawing of state boundaries. It did not lead to
disintegration of the countryas many had feared earlier.
On the contrary it strengthened national unity.
Another major reorganisation of states took place
in the north-east in 1972. Meghalaya was carved out of
Assam in 1972. Manipur and Tripura too emerged as
separate states in the same year. The states of Mizoram

19. and Arunachal Pradesh came into being in 1987.
Nagaland had become a state much earlier in 1963.
The Constituent Assembly
An idea for a Constituent Assembly of India was
proposed in 1934 by M. N. Roy, a pioneer of the
Communist movement in India and an advocate of
radical democracy. It became an official demand of the
Indian National Congress in 1935, and was accepted by
the British in August 1940. On 8 August 1940, a
statement was made by Viceroy Lord Linlithgow about
the expansion of the Governor-General's Executive
Council and the establishment of a War Advisory
Council. This offer, known as the August Offer,
included giving full weight to minority opinions and
allowing Indians to draft their own constitution. Under
the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946, elections were held
for the first time for the Constituent Assembly. The
Constitution of India was drafted by the Constituent
Assembly, and it was implemented under the Cabinet
Mission Plan on 16 May 1946. The members of the
Constituent Assembly were elected by the provincial
assemblies by a single, transferable-vote system of
proportional representation. The total membership of
the Constituent Assembly was 389: 292 were
representatives of the states, 93 represented the

20. princely states and four were from the chief
commissioner provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Mewar, Coorg
and British Baluchistan. The Constituent Assembly
(elected for an undivided India) met for the first time
on 9 June 1946, reassembling on 14 August 1947 as a
sovereign body and successor to the British
parliament's authority in India. The representatives of
the areas incorporated into Pakistan ceased to be
members of the Constituent Assembly of India. New
elections were held for West Punjab and East Bengal
(now in Pakistan); the membership of the Constituent
Assembly was 299 after the reorganization, and it met
on 31 December 1947.

21. Election and its Assembling
The Constituent Assembly was established while India
was under British rule, following negotiations between
Indian leaders and members of the 1946 Cabinet
Mission to India from the United Kingdom. Provincial
assembly elections were held early in 1946.
Constituent Assembly members were elected indirectly
by members of the newly elected provincial
assemblies, and initially included representatives for
those provinces which formed part of Pakistan (some
of which are now in Bangladesh). The Constituent
Assembly had 299 representatives, including nine
women. The Congress held a large majority in the
Assembly (69 percent of the seats), and the Muslim
League held nearly all the seats reserved in the
Assembly for Muslims. There were also members of
smaller parties, such as the Scheduled Caste
Federation, the Communist Party of India and the
Unionist Party.. Twenty-eight members of the Muslim
League joined the Indian Assembly, and 93 members
were later nominated from the princely states; the
Congress Party secured a majority of 82 percent.
Sachchidananda Sinha was the first president
(temporary chairman) of the Constituent Assembly
when it met on 9 December 1946, followed by
Rajendra Prasad (who would become the first

22. President of India). Its vice-president was Harendra
Coomar Mookerjee, a Christian from Bengal and
former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. Also
chairing the assembly's Minorities Committee,
Mookerjee was appointed governor of West Bengal
after India became a republic. Jurist Benegal Narsing
Rau was appointed constitutional adviser to the
assembly; Rau prepared the original draft of the
constitution, and was later appointed a judge in the
Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague.
Sessions
The assembly met for 11 sessions:
1. 9–23 December 1946
2.20–25 January 1947
3.28 April – 2 May 1947
4.14–31 July 1947
5. 14–30 August 1947
6. 27 January 1948
7. 4 November 1948 – 8 January 1949
8. 16 May – 16 June 1949
9. 30 July – 18 September 1949
10. 6–17 October 1949
11. 14–26 November 1949

23. Principal Committee
Committee on the Rules of Procedure:Rajendra
Prasad
Drafting Committee: B.R. Ambedkar
Steering Committee: Rajendra Prasad
Finance and Staff Committee: Rajendra Prasad
Credential Committee: Alladi Krishnaswami
Aiyyar
House Committee: B. PattabhiSitaramayya
Order of Business Committee: K. M. Munshi
Ad Hoc Committee on National Flag: Rajendra
Prasad
Committee on Functionsof ConstituentAssembly:
G.V. Mavlankar
States Committee: Jawaharlal Nehru
Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights,
Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas:
VallabhbhaiPatel
Minorities Sub-Committee: H. C. Mookherjee
FundamentalRights Sub-Committee: J. B. Kriplani
North-East FrontierTribal Areas and Assam
Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-
Committee: Gopinath Bardoloi
Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (Other than
Those in Assam) Sub-Committee: A. V. Thakkar
Union Powers Committee: Jawaharlal Nehru
Union ConstitutionCommittee: Jawaharlal Nehru

24. Draft Comittee
On 29 August 1947, the Drafting Committee was
appointed, with Dr B. R. Ambedkar as the Chairman
along with six other members assisted by a
constitutional advisor. These members were Pandit
Govind Ballabh Pant, Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (K
M Munshi, Ex- Home Minister, Bombay), Alladi
Krishnaswamy Iyer (Ex- Advocate General, Madras
State), N Gopalaswami Ayengar (Ex-Prime Minister,
J&K and later member of Nehru Cabinet), B L Mitter
(Ex-Advocate General, India), Md. Saadullah (Ex-
Chief Minister of Assam, Muslim League member) and
D P Khaitan (Scion of Khaitan Business family and a
renowned lawyer). The constitutional advisor was Sir
Benegal Narsing Rau (First Indian Judge in
International Court of Justice, 1950–54). Later B L
Mitter resigned and was replaced by Madhav Rao
(Legal Advisor of Maharaja of Vadodara). Owing to
death of D P Khaitan, T T Krishnamachari was chosen
to be included in the drafting committee. A Draft
Constitution was prepared by the committee and
submitted to the Assembly on 4 November 1947. Draft
constitution was debated and over 2000 amendments
were moved over a period of two years. Finally on 26
Nov. 1949, the process was completed and Constituent
assembly adoptedthe constitution. 284 members signed
the document and the process of constitution making
was complete.

25. The Assembly met in sessions open to the public, for
166 days, spread over a period of 2 years, 11 months
and 18 days before adopting the Constitution, the 308
members of the Assembly signed two copies of the
document (one each in Hindi and English) on 24
January 1950. The original Constitution of India is
hand-written with beautiful calligraphy, each page
beautified and decorated by artists from Shantiniketan
including Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and Nandalal
Bose. Two days later, on 26 January 1950, the
Constitution of India became the law of all the States
and territories of India. Rs.1,00,00,000 was official
estimate of expenditure on constituent assembly. The
Constitutionhas undergone many amendments since its
enactment.
The Constitution, in its current form till September
2012, consists of a preamble, 25 parts containing 448
articles, 12 schedules, 5 appendicesand 98 amendments
to date.
Objective Resolution
On 13 December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru introduced
the “Objectives Resolution” in the Constituent
Assembly. It was a momentous resolution that outlined
the defining ideals of the Constitution of Independent
India, and provided the framework within which the
work of constitution-making was to proceed. It

26. proclaimed India to be an “Independent Sovereign
Republic”, guaranteed its citizens justice, equality and
freedom, and assured that “adequate safeguards shall be
provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and
Depressed and
Other Backward
Classes. The
objective of the
Indian Constitution
would be to fuse
the liberal ideas of
democracy with
the socialist idea of
economic justice,
and re-adapt and
re-work all these
ideas within the
Indian context.
Nehru’s plea was
for creative
thinking about
what was
appropriate for India.

27. Fundamental Right

28. (Part iii of Constitution of India)
Right to Equality
• Equality before law.
• Abolition of
Untouchability.
• Prohibition of
discrimination on
ground of religion,
caste, race, sex or
place of birth.
• Abolition of titles.
Right to freeom
of Religion
• Freedom to
manage relgious
freedom.
• Feedom to attend
religious
instruction or
worship in certain
educational
institutions.

29. Cultural & Educatonl
Right
• Protection of
culture,language of
minorities.
• Right of Minoritis to
establish educational
institution.
Right to
Constitutional
Remedies
• Right to move the
courts to issue
directions/orders/writs
for enforcement of
rights.

30. Reference
Themes in Indian History Part 3
Politics in India since Independence
Indian Constitution at work
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_Assembly_of_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India#Drafting
http://www.historydiscussion.net/