Framing of India's constitution

This volume contains the documents relating to the stage culminating in the drafting of India's Constitution. By August 1947, the Constituent Assembly and its com mittees had completed a great deal of the work of settling the broad principles of the Constitution. The Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities, the Union Powers Com mittee, the Union Constitution Committee and the Provincial Constitution Committee had made their recommendations; and these had been discussed in the Assembly and decisions taken. The Assembly then turned its attention to the question of drafting. On August 29, 1947, it adopted a resolution appointing a Drafting Committee to scrutinize the draft of the text of the Constitution of India prepared by the Constitutional Adviser giving effect to the decisions taken already in the Assembly and including all matters which are ancillary thereto or which have to be provided in such a Constitution, and to submit to the Assembly for consideration the text of the draft Constitution as revised by the Committee.

The Constitutional Adviser prepared, by October 1947, what he called "the first draft of the Constitution of India". This draft was considered by the Drafting Committee in a series of meetings held between October 1947 and February 1948 and extensively revised. The Draft Constitution as settled by the Committee contained 315 articles and eight schedules and was submitted to the President of the Assembly on February 21, 1948.