Evaluation of the Assembly for India

The assembly, set up under the Cabinet Mission Plan, was a result of compromises made by the Congress on its ideological and philosophical sphere. The assembly was not fully sovereign despite the efforts of the Congress, whereas the Congress’ demand was for a fully sovereign assembly. Nor was it elected on the basis of universal adult franchise as the Congress had demanded. The Congress caved in to accept communal representation too, and the grouping plan for the provinces. It also went along with the limits imposed on the powers of the central government. So the Constituent Assembly set up was quite far from what the Congress had demanded in the later years of the freedom struggle.

The Constituent Assembly was indirectly elected by the provincial assemblies which themselves were elected on the basis of a limited franchise established by the Government of India Act of 1935. The 1935 Act imposed qualifications on the basis of tax, property and education. This kept out more than 70 per cent of the adult population from the voting. The Constituent Assembly thus reflected the composition of the provincial assemblies in which the Congress had a comfortable majority (which rose to more than 80 per cent after partition).

The composition of the Assembly reflected the different ideological views present in the country at the 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 egalitarian society; while the Marxian variety wanted a revolutionary reconstruction. It was the more moderate group (of which Nehru was a member) preferring peaceful parliamentary

methods that held sway. Sardar Patel may be considered a leader of the Rightist views supporting private enterprise. The rightist point of view was also represented by Purushottam Das Tandon and S.P. Mukherjee. There were also the Gandhians proposing decentralised village government through panchayats. All these viewpoints influenced the Constitution, to an extent, but the dominant influence was that of the liberals and the democratic socialists.