The Fortnight That Constituted India
For decades, the demand had been abstract: self-rule, independence, swaraj. The Indian National Congress had passed resolutions, led movements, filled British jails. The Muslim League had articulated its own vision of the subcontinent's future. The British had offered proposals, rejected demands, and offered proposals again. But until December 1946, no body of Indians had ever gathered with the explicit mandate to write the fundamental law of the land.
The Constituent Assembly was the product of the Cabinet Mission Plan of May 1946—a British attempt to transfer power while preserving some semblance of unity. The Plan envisioned an Assembly elected indirectly through provincial legislatures, with seats allocated by community and population. It was a compromise riddled with ambiguities, particularly regarding the "grouping" of provinces and the powers of the center. But it was also the first legal framework that permitted Indians to draft their own constitution.
The proceedings began at 11:00 AM on December 9, 1946, in Constitution Hall, New Delhi. Only 207 members attended. The Muslim League had boycotted. The Princes were largely absent. Yet this diminished gathering would, over the next two weeks, accomplish something no assembly in Indian history had attempted: it would constitute itself as a sovereign body, define its philosophical foundations, and construct the procedural machinery to draft a constitution.
