Exam-useful questions from this chapter, grouped by marks, each with a full model answer. Try writing the answer yourself first, then check it against this one.
1 1-Mark Questions
Q. What is the first function of a constitution, according to the chapter?
Answer: To provide a set of basic rules that allow for minimal coordination amongst members of a society, rules that are publicly known and legally enforceable.
Q. On what date did the Constituent Assembly hold its first sitting?
Answer: 9 December 1946.
Q. Who was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly?
Answer: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
Q. Who was the President of the Constituent Assembly?
Answer: Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
Q. Which single provision passed in the Constituent Assembly without virtually any debate?
Answer: Universal adult suffrage, the right of every citizen reaching a certain age to vote, irrespective of religion, caste, education, gender or income.
Q. How many members were the Provinces to elect under the Cabinet Mission plan?
Answer: 292 members.
Q. On what date did the Indian Constitution come into force?
Answer: 26 January 1950.
Q. What is a referendum?
Answer: A process in which the whole people of a country vote directly on whether a constitution or law is desirable.
2 2-Mark Questions
Q. State the second function of a constitution, briefly.
Answer: The second function of a constitution is to specify who has the power to make decisions in a society. It decides how the government will be constituted, it is the authority that constitutes government in the first place.
Q. What is meant by saying the Indian Constitution is a ‘living document’?
Answer: It means the Constitution preserves its core values while still allowing itself to be amended to suit changing circumstances. This balance between rigidity and flexibility is what has let it survive as a document respected by the people.
Q. Name two countries, besides India, whose constitutions the chapter says succeeded because they were born of popular national movements.
Answer: South Africa and the United States.
Q. What did the Cabinet Mission plan specify about seats for the Princely States?
Answer: The Princely States were together allotted a minimum of 93 seats, each Princely State or group of States getting seats roughly in proportion to its population (about 1:10,00,000), and the method of selecting their representatives was to be determined by consultation.
Q. State the three dates connected with the finalising of the Indian Constitution, and what each one marks.
Answer: 26 November 1949: the Constitution was adopted. 24 January 1950: 284 members were present and signed the Constitution as finally passed. 26 January 1950: the Constitution came into force.
Q. What is ‘public reason’, as used in the chapter?
Answer: Public reason is the practice of giving other people principled reasons for one’s position, rather than simply asserting one’s own interest, so that others can be persuaded to agree. Members of the Constituent Assembly engaged in public reason throughout their debates.
Q. Name the countries from which India borrowed the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, respectively.
Answer: The Charter of Fundamental Rights was borrowed from the United States Constitution, and the Directive Principles of State Policy were borrowed from the Irish Constitution.
Q. Briefly state what the Objective Resolution was.
Answer: The Objective Resolution was the resolution moved by Nehru in the Constituent Assembly in 1946, defining the Assembly’s aims. It is considered the best summary of the principles the nationalist movement brought to constitution-making, and it gave rise to the Constitution’s commitments to equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan identity.
3 4-Mark Questions
Q. Explain any two examples the chapter gives of unjust laws that a constitution’s third function is meant to prevent.
Answer: 1. A law that prohibits a person from practising their religion, or bans clothes of a certain colour or certain songs, an unjust restriction on personal freedom.
2. A law that forces one caste or religious group to always serve others, without the right to hold property, an unjust denial of dignity and equality.
Even if such laws were passed by a government that came to power through the correct procedure, they would remain unjust. This is exactly why constitutions place limits, most commonly through Fundamental Rights, that no government may ever cross.
Q. Explain the enabling provisions found in the constitutions of South Africa and Indonesia.
Answer: 1. South Africa’s constitution assigns the government several responsibilities: to promote conservation of nature, to protect people from unfair discrimination, and to progressively ensure adequate housing and health care for all.
2. Indonesia’s constitution enjoins the government to establish and conduct a national education system, and ensures that poor and destitute children are looked after by the state.
Both are examples of the fourth function of a constitution, enabling government to take positive action for social good, not merely limiting its power.
Q. Why does the chapter say India’s Constitution was never subjected to a referendum, yet still carries great public authority?
Answer: 1. Some countries subject their constitution to a full referendum, where the whole people vote directly on its desirability.
2. India’s Constitution was never put to such a referendum.
3. Yet it drew enormous legitimacy from being made by framers who had immense public credibility and the ability to negotiate and command respect across society.
4. Above all, the Constitution’s authority came from the people themselves adopting it as their own, by abiding by its provisions ever since, an ongoing form of consent rather than a one-time vote.
Q. Explain the ‘Principle of Deliberation’ as described in the chapter.
Answer: 1. The Constituent Assembly’s authority did not come only from being broadly representative, it came equally from the procedures it adopted and the values members brought to their debates.
2. Each member deliberated with the interests of the whole nation in mind, not their own community’s or their own personal interest.
3. Real disagreements of principle were common, on questions like centralisation versus decentralisation, Centre-State relations, and property rights, but very few disagreements were about members protecting their own narrow interests.
4. This practice of giving reasoned arguments to others, called public reason, is why the debates are regarded as being of equal importance to the French and American revolutions.
Q. Describe the composition of the Constituent Assembly as laid out by the Cabinet Mission plan.
Answer: 1. Each Province and each Princely State (or group of States) was allotted seats roughly in proportion to population, at about 1 seat per 10,00,000 people.
2. Provinces under direct British rule were to elect 292 members; Princely States were allotted a minimum of 93 seats.
3. Seats in each Province were further distributed among three main communities, Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their populations.
4. Members of each community elected their own representatives by proportional representation with a single transferable vote, while Princely State representatives were to be selected by consultation.
Q. Explain how the Indian Constitution horizontally fragments power, and why this matters.
Answer: 1. The Indian Constitution divides power across the Legislature, which makes laws, the Executive, which implements them, and the Judiciary, which has the power of judicial review.
2. It also creates independent statutory bodies, such as the Election Commission, that stand apart from all three.
3. This matters because well-crafted constitutions are subverted not by the people but by small groups seeking to enhance their own power, and fragmenting power intelligently ensures no single institution can acquire a monopoly of power.
4. As a result, if any one institution tries to subvert the Constitution, the others can check its transgressions, a working system of checks and balances.
Q. Explain the difference between rigidity and flexibility in constitutional design, and why India’s Constitution is called a ‘living document’.
Answer: 1. A constitution must strike a balance between treating certain values, norms and procedures as authoritative, and allowing enough flexibility to adapt to changing needs and circumstances.
2. A constitution that is too rigid is likely to break under the weight of change; one that is too flexible gives people no security, predictability or identity.
3. The Indian Constitution strikes this balance by allowing itself to be amended while keeping certain basic values intact, which is exactly why it is called a ‘living document’.
4. This balance ensures the Constitution survives as a document respected by the people, and also ensures no single group can, on its own, subvert it.
4 6-Mark Questions
Q. Explain, with examples, all five functions of a constitution as described in the chapter.
Answer: 1. Coordination and assurance: basic rules that are publicly known and legally enforceable, so members of a society can live together with a minimal degree of coordination.
2. Specifying decision-making power: deciding who gets to decide the laws, and how government itself is to be constituted, in India this power lies mainly with Parliament.
3. Limitations on government: setting limits, most commonly through Fundamental Rights, that government may never trespass, such as protection from arbitrary arrest and freedom of speech.
4. Aspirations and goals of society: enabling government to take positive action, India’s own aspiration being a society free of caste discrimination, supported by the Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles.
5. Fundamental identity of a people: giving a people a political identity, formed by agreeing to a basic constitution, and a moral identity, by defining values that may never be trespassed; the Indian Constitution notably does not make ethnic identity a criterion for citizenship.
Q. Describe how the Indian Constitution was made, from the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly to it coming into force.
Answer: 1. The Constituent Assembly, elected for undivided India, held its first sitting on 9 December 1946, and reassembled for divided India on 14 August 1947.
2. Its composition followed the Cabinet Mission plan: about 1 seat per 10,00,000 population, 292 seats for the Provinces, a minimum of 93 for the Princely States, with seats split among Muslims, Sikhs and general by population.
3. After the Partition plan of 3 June 1947, members from Pakistan’s territory ceased to be members, reducing the Assembly to 299.
4. The Assembly had eight major Committees, usually chaired by Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Patel or Ambedkar, and met for 166 days over two years and eleven months, with every argument answered in writing.
5. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949, 284 members signed it on 24 January 1950, and it came into force on 26 January 1950.
Q. Explain the three factors that make a constitution effective, according to the chapter.
Answer: 1. Mode of promulgation: who crafted the constitution and how much authority they had; constitutions born of popular national movements, like India’s, South Africa’s and America’s, succeed, while those crafted by unpopular or military leaders often stay defunct.
2. The substantive provisions: a successful constitution must give everyone in society some reason to go along with it, it cannot let a permanent majority oppress minorities or systematically privilege some members over others.
3. Balanced institutional design: power must be fragmented intelligently, as in India’s horizontal division across the Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and independent bodies like the Election Commission, so no single institution or group can subvert the constitution; it must also balance rigidity and flexibility, which is why India’s Constitution is a ‘living document’.
Q. “The Indian Constitution was not simply borrowed from other countries.” Explain this statement with reference to the provisions borrowed and how they were adapted.
Answer: 1. The makers of the Constitution did not hesitate to learn from other countries’ experience: they borrowed the Parliamentary form of government, the rule of law, the Speaker’s role, law-making procedure and First Past the Post from Britain; the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Judicial Review from the United States; the Directive Principles of State Policy from Ireland; the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity from France; and a quasi-federal form with Residual Powers from Canada.
2. But this was not slavish imitation, every single provision had to be defended on the ground that it was suited to India’s own problems and aspirations, not merely copied because another country had it.
3. As Ambedkar himself noted, in a constitution framed so late in the history of the world, the only genuinely new thing possible is the variation made to remove faults and fit the needs of one’s own country.
4. India was fortunate to have an Assembly that, instead of being parochial, could take the best idea available anywhere in the world and make it authentically its own, which is why the finished Constitution is an original synthesis, not a copy.
5 Case Studies
(A) 1 mark According to the passage, what kind of group is being imagined?
Answer: A large, diverse group whose members differ in religion, profession, ability and wealth.
(B) 2 marks According to the passage, give two examples of disputes this group is likely to have.
Answer: How much property one person should be allowed to own; and whether schooling should be compulsory or left to parents to decide.
(C) 3 marks Based on the passage, explain how a constitution helps such a diverse group live together peacefully.
Answer: A constitution provides a set of basic rules that are publicly known to all members and legally enforceable. Because everyone knows the rules and knows they will be enforced, with punishment for breaking them, each member gets the assurance that others will also follow them. This removes the insecurity that comes from not knowing what other members might do, and gives the whole group the minimal degree of coordination it needs to live together despite its diversity.
(A) 1 mark Name any two leaders who usually chaired the Constituent Assembly’s Committees.
Answer: Any two of: Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, B.R. Ambedkar.
(B) 2 marks According to the passage, give one example that shows these leaders did not always agree with each other.
Answer: Ambedkar had been a bitter critic of the Congress and Gandhi, accusing them of not doing enough for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes; or, Patel and Nehru disagreed on many issues.
(C) 3 marks What does the passage show about how the Constituent Assembly’s authority was built, despite these disagreements?
Answer: It shows that the Assembly’s authority did not depend on everyone agreeing on everything. Each Committee drafted provisions which were then debated by the whole Assembly, with an attempt made to reach consensus. This is the ‘principle of deliberation’ in action: members engaged in public reason, giving principled arguments rather than simply pushing personal or factional interests, which is precisely what let such a diverse, often disagreeing group produce one unified Constitution that the whole country could accept.