Nelson Mandela and 7 other leaders were sentenced to life
imprisonment. They were tried for treason for going against
apartheid and were put in the most dangerous jail of south
Africa, the Robben Island. He spent the next 27 years there.
Apartheid was the name of a racial discrimination system
unique to South Africa. The Europeans that came for trade
slowly captured South Africa with weapons and became the
local rulers. The discrimination was based on skin colour, and
people in south Africa are black in colour. They were not
allowed to live or work in the white areas unless they had a
permit. The native people made about ¾ of the population, but
they were all ruled by the Europeans. People that were brown or
migrated from India were also discriminated since the Whites
saw all the non-whites as “lower” people.
Trains, buses, swimming pools, theatres, shops, public areas,
these were all separate for the whites and blacks. This is called
segregation. The blacks could not even worship in the same
churches as the ones in which the whites worshipped.
Since 1950s, the blacks, the coloured and Indians, all went
against apartheid and would form protests to disregard the racist
system. The African National Congress was the leading party to
do so. Even some sensitive whites joined this struggle and
played a major rule in demolishing it. Several countries
denounced the apartheid system as unfair, racist and unjust. But
the whites in South Africa did not care and killed thousands of
black people during this period.
As the protests and disregards grew, the whites realised they
could no longer keep the blacks under their control through
repression, so they lifted media restrictions and lifted bans.
In the midnight of 26 April 1994, Nelson Mandela finally
walked out of prison as a free man. The flag of South Africa was
unfurled, apartheid was slowly demolished, and South Africa
was finally free.
South Africa was denounced as the most democratic country till
1994, and now it has one of the finest democracies in the world.
The set of simple rules laid down for the citizens of country,
making everyone equal and allowing them equal freedom, is
known as the constitution. A country requires a constitution to
prevent discrimination among the people and live in harmony &
peace. If a country does not consist of a constitution, the
majority could dominate the minority, leading to conflicts.
A constitution does the following things:
1. Firstly, it helps the citizens of country to coordinate with
each other and trust each other.
2. It tells who has power, and what they can do to manage
the country.
3. It limits the government of their power so that they do
not misuse it.
4. It tells citizens what a good country should be like.
Making of the constitution of India:
Making India’s constitution was not an easy task. Since the
country was born through a traumatic experience of partition,
it was not easy to make a constitution for such a country. Over
this, the British left it to the princely states to decide whether
they wanted to merge with India or Pakistan or stay
independent. The country’s situation wasn’t good, and the
makers of the constitution were anxious about the country’s
present and future. Despite these hardships, India had a great
advantage. It did not have to start from the beginning on how
a democratic India should be, it evolved from the freedom
struggles. Going back to 1928, Motilal Nehru and eight other
congress leaders drafted a constitution for India. In 1931, at
the Karachi resolution session, the National Congress dwelt
on how India’s constitution should look like. These 2
circumstances lead to a mutual agreement on Universal adult
franchise, right to equality and freedom, and the protection of
minorities even before the constituent assembly. During the
British rule, some provincial elections were held too, though
the electoral system was pretty weak, Indians felt like it was
useful, leading to the democracy in India right now. This is
why India adopted many institutional details from the colonial
rule like the Government act of India, 1935. Soon our leaders
gained confidence and started making the constitution.
Our leaders were inspired by the French Revolution, the
practice of parliamentary form of government in the Britain
and the bill of rights in US. The socialist revolution in Russia
lead to the forming of social and economic equality in India.
The constituent assembly:
The drafting of the document called constitution is done by a
constituent assembly. Many people sit together to build the
compatible constitution for a country. In India, the elections
for the constituent assembly were held in July 1946. The first
meeting was held in December 1946. Soon after this, the
partition occurred. The constituent assembly was also divided
into 2 parts, one for the Indian Constitution and one for
Pakistan. The Indian constituent assembly consisted of 299
members. The constitution was adopted on 26 November
1949 and was put in action on 26 January 1950. This day is
known as the republic day now.
We should accept the constitution made over 7 decades ago
because the constitution consists of the broad consensus of its
time and not just the perspective of the makers. Though the
constitution of other countries were ignored or had to be
rewritten, India’s constitution stayed legitimate and respected,
which is a great achievement for any country. Though the
members were not elected through universal adult franchise,
the members were from various regions, and they were all
diverse. This way many opinions were collected. Even if there
was Universal Adult Franchise, the result wouldn’t be much
different from what we have now. The constitution was
prepared to be detailed, transparent and fair, with numerous
debates, around 2000 amendments over the period 114 days.
First, some basic principles were agreed on and later B.R.
Ambedkar prepared a draft constitution for discussion. Every
debate was recorded and if it is piled up together, it forms 12
bulky volumes.
Young India is a magazine by Mahatma Gandhi, made in
1931.
