Click to play videoNew Delhi: IBNLive readers have selected the story of how the Constitution came among the 10 defining moments of India in the last 60 years.
The Constitution of the largest democracy in the world goes against the accepted wisdom. In a social order marked by caste hierarchy and in an economic system where rich and poor are sharply separated, the Constitution enshrines a concept that has never been popularly accepted in this part of the world.
The Dalit chairman of the drafting committee of the Indian constituion was BR Ambedkar, for whom political democracy was meaningless without social democracy. The Constitution was passed on November 26, 1949 and came into force in January 1950.
Its final form had 395 Articles and was the longest written Constitution in the world. It drew material from the British Constitution, the United States Bill of Rights and even from the Irish, French Austrialian and Japanese statute books.
One of the most highly amended consitutions in the world, it contains a fine balance between fundamental rights and fundamental duties.
Directive principles of state policy provide guidelines on how the state must be an agent of change. At the heart of India beats its consitution: radical, forward looking and which promises equality before the law and equality above all.
(The 10 defining moments are based votes of IBNLive readers and selection by historian Ramachandra Guha)
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