Dastaan-e-Samvidhaan — दास्तान ए संविधान | Greatest Speeches of the Constituent Assembly
In the second episode of this series on the story of the Constitution of India, we remember the landmark speeches made by prominent members of the Constituent Assembly. These addresses signified several important decisions that shaped the Constitution.
Do you know why India celebrates Republic Day on January 26? It was on this day in 1950 that the Constitution of India came into effect, replacing the Government of India Act 1935. The Constituent Assembly chose January 26 as it was on this day in 1930 that the Indian National Congress raised a demand for Purna Swaraj — complete self-rule — through the Declaration of Indian Independence. This assertion by India’s freedom fighters emphatically rejected Britain’s offer of Dominion status to India.
The Constituent Assembly’s decisive enactment of the Constitution of India transformed the nature of the people of India — with this, we were no longer subjects of a British dominion; we were citizens of a sovereign, democratic, Republic of India.
Not only does the Constitution guarantee us many rights, it empowers us to demand these rights. In addition, it gives the citizens of India an important responsibility to shoulder — the duty of making India, that is Bharat, a better and stronger nation, and to enable fellow-citizens, irrespective of differences in religion, caste, class, or gender, to aspire to live in happiness, harmony, dignity, and contentment.
These noble ideas were born in noble thoughts, which were expressed in carefully considered and articulated words spoken by the members of the Constituent Assembly. They were debated, argued, pondered over, reconsidered, and finally accepted and inked in the draft of the Constitution.
From December 1946 to January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India met over 114 days. The initial strength of the assembly had been 389, which was reduced to 299 after the departure of some members.
The second episode of this series, Dastaan-e-Samvidhaan — the story of the Constitution — remembers the landmark speeches made by prominent members of the Constituent Assembly, including Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, among others. In some instances, where original voice recordings were unavailable, we have taken the creative liberty to reimagine these speeches with the help of artificial intelligence tools while remaining scrupulously faithful to the documented content of the original speeches. These voice enactments are for the purposes of dramatisation only, and should not in any way be considered as replacements or substitutes for the original speeches.
Dastaan-e-Samvidhaan is presented by Vineet KKN Panchhi for Radio Azim Premji University.
Credits
Akshay Ramuhalli, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Harsh Gupta, Harshit Hillol Gogoi, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Sameera Ahmed, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi, and Velu Shankar
Acknowledgement
Speeches:
- Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar presenting the Draft Constitution on November 4, 1948: https://www.constitutionofindia.net/debates/04-nov-1948/
- Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 30, 1948
https://www.constitutionofindia.net/debates/30-nov-1948/ - Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949
https://www.constitutionofindia.net/debates/25-nov-1949/ - Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949
https://www.constitutionofindia.net/debates/26-nov-1949/ - Chakravarty Rajagopalachari’s speech on January 26, 1950
https://give.do/blog/how-india-welcomed-its-first-republic-day/#:~:text=At%2018%20minutes%20past%2010,and%20read%20out%20the%20proclamation. - Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s speech on January 26, 1950
https://www.festivalsofindia.in/republicday/26-january-1950
Websites:
Articles:
- When, Where & How Did India Celebrate Its First Republic Day?
- How First Republic Day was Ushered in
- Birth of a Nation: Looking Back at India’s First Republic Day
- Revisiting the First Republic Day
Videos:
- YouTube:1950 — Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru’s Constituent Assembly Speech, Delhi
YouTube: Jawaharlal Nehru | Speech In Constituent Assembly At Delhi On 13 December 1946 (With Subtitles) - YouTube: 1947 ‑Vijay Lakshmi Pandit’s Constituent Assembly Speech on Jan 20
- YouTube: 1946 — Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s Constituent Assembly Speech | Hindi
- YouTube: Selected Originals — India In London Celebrates Republic Day (1950)
YouTube: Mahatma Gandhi in AIR Studios on 12 November 1947 - YouTube: 1,000,000 Indians On The Move (1947)
- YouTube: Second atomic bomb of World War II explodes over Nagasaki (1945)
- YouTube: Shaping The Future — U.N. Charter Becomes Reality Aka San Francisco Conference (1945)
- YouTube: India Becomes a Republic — 1950 | Today In History | 26 Jan 19
- YouTube: First Republic Day Parade of India at Rajpath in 1950
- YouTube: A beautiful rendition of ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo’ during Beating Retreat ceremony
- YouTube: Beating Retreat Ceremony — 2022
AI voices generated with Play.ht
Further Reading/ Resources
Video:
- YouTube: Samvidhan — Television series directed by Shyam Benegal | Sansad TV — Full Playlist
- YouTube: Constituent Assembly Speeches | Prasar Bharati Archives
Journal Article:
- Shani, O. (2022). The People and the Making of India’s Constitution. The Historical Journal 65, 1102 – 1123. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X21000856
- Cheluva Raju, K.H. (April — June 1991). Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Making of the Constitution: A Case Study of Indian . The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 52, No. 2, 153 – 164. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41855548
- Dhingra, A. (2022). Gender Discourses and the Making of the Indian Constitution. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 29(1), 33 – 54. https://doi.org/10.1177/09715215211056794
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