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India : Commonwealth Republic INDIA: Common-wealth Republic Sir Francis Low NDIA took her place in the British formulated the national demand and I Commonwealth on 26 January, 1950, fought for it on the basis of Mahatma as a "sovereign democratic republic". Pre- Gandhi's creed of non-violence, had for vious to that date she had been, since years proclaimed as its objective an Indian 15 August, 1947, a Dominion- a status republic completely severed from Britian. conferred upon her when India and Pakis- So deeply engrained was this principle tan were granted full self-government on in the Congress organisation that even the partition of the British Indian Empire. today many Congress members have Both the new countries automatically doubts about the change. But the wise inherited all the privileges of Dominion- statesmanship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hood, including the right to decide their and the other Congress leaders- as dis- own future either inside or outside the tinct from the political immaturity of Commonwealth. India acquired her pre- Burma's national leaders-sought to main- sent status of her own free will, and by tain ·close relationship with the country the willing consent of the other members which had granted them their freedom of the Commonwealth, whose Premiers without at the same time compromising decided the issue at a conference in London their political testament. Pandit Nehru in the spring of 1950. Thereby the Com- put India's attitude in a nutshell when monwealth Premiers changed the wLole he said that his country had to be a Commonwealth concept in order to meet republic, but it desired "some sort of India's wishes, but on balance it was link" with the Commonwealth which would agreed-and rightly agreed- that the not restrict its freedom. Commonwealth gained more than it would This was the problem which Pandit have lost if this great democratic country Nehru placed before the Commonwealth of over 300 million people had been com- Premiers; the answer was their acceptance pelled to cut itself adrift from an associa- of India as a sovereign independent republic tion dating back to the days of the East which recognised the King as "the symbol India Company. of the free association of its independent No one who knows the background of members". Broadcasting on his return the Indian struggle for complete self- to Delhi, Pandit Nehru undoubtedly voiced government can fail to sympathise with the feelings of the great mass of his country- India's attitude towards the British Com- men when he declared it was a good monwealth as it existed before 1949. augury for the future that the old conflict The Indian National Congress, which between Britian and India should be / COMMONWEALTH REPUBLIC 33 resolved in a friendly way. By an over- tunity; and to promote among them all whelming majority the Indian Constituent ]'RATERNITY, assuring the dignity of Assembly, to which the London agTee- the individual and the unity of the nation." ment was submitted, took the same view. Enshrined in the Constitution is an ex- The factor which made India's voluntary haustive declaration of human rights. membership of the Commonwealth pos- This was considered essential in view of sible was Indian graditude to the Parlia- the need ·to safeguard the interests of ment and people of Great Britain for the India's many minorities, whose communal willing transfer of power. Britons were representation of British days has given never so popular in India as they are way to a common electorate, based on today. adult suffrage, enfranchising 170 million people. How this colossal electorate, most NDIA'S first task on receiving her of which is illiterate, will discharge its I freedom was to devise a Constitution. electoral duties is one of the problems To that end there was set up a Constit- facing the new democracy. It represents uent Assembly based on the popularly in truth, a very great experiment. elected members of the existing legis- In structure, the Union of India is a latures and taking the place of the former federal republic comprised of States, with Central Legislature. Nearly three years a popularly elected legislature at the passed before the Constitution was finally Centre and in each State. The States adopted ''amid scenes of solemnity and are the former British India provinces joy"; at the end of that time the Assembly and Indian Princes' States, or amalgama- produced what is probably the most tions of former Indian States. At the elaborate Constitution framed by any head of the Republic is the President, _ country in the ' world. It consists of a elected by the members of the Federal preamble, 395 articles and eight schedules, and State legislatures; at the head of each owing their inspiration (in the words of State is a Governor (or Rajpramukh in THE 'l'IMES) mainly to western political the case of former Indian Princes' terri- philosophy and more especially to British tory) nominated by the President. From liberal thought which, from the birth of there downwards the machinery of govern- Indian nationalism in the latter part of the ment closely follows the British model. last century down to date, has powerfully The Federal and State executives are influenced Indian leaders. While the fed- Cabinets responsible to the legislatures, eral character of the new Union of India with a Prime Minister in cha:i.·1·e. Unlike made borrowing from the United States the President of the United States, the and Canadian Constitutions inevitable, President of the Indian Republic acts underlying the Indian Constitution are on the advice of his ministers except in the principles of the British parliamentary a national emergency, when he has special system, recalling Mahatma Gandhi's powers. Residuary powers, as in the famous remark on an earlier occasion Canadian Constitution, vest in the Centre. that "parliamentary mentality has comti The Canadian model is also followed in to stay." (This was said at a time when that the Constitution contains provisions he would have preferred a more revolu- for the units as well as for the Centre. tionary mentality!) · Of special interest to the other members The preamble to the Constitution re- of the Commonwealth is the decision that, flects the general tenor of the document, while Hindi is to be the official language and is worth quoting. It runs as follows: of the Union, English should for fifteen ''We, the people of India, solemnly years be used for all official purposes. resolve to constitute India into a sove- reign democratic republic, and to secure to all its citizens: JusTICE, social, eco- II nomic and political; LIBERTY of T is one thing to formulate a written thought, expression, belief, faith and wor- I Constitution; it is another to have a ship; EQUALITY of status and oppor- unified territory to which it can success- 34 PUBLIC AFFAIRS fully apply. British India consisted of selves. Two States, Hyderabad and My- British administered provinces and a patch- sore, retain their original frontiers; 216 work of Indian states- self-governing but States were merged into neighbouring owning the suzerainty of the Paramount provinces; 275 States were fashioned into Power- which grew up on the ruins of six unions which have become new federal the Moghul Empire and at different times States; 61 States are administered by the entered into treaty relationship with the Centre; while the future of one State British Crown. With the departure of which acceded to India, Kashmir, is still British authority, these States were left in dispute. There has thus been brought to make their own arrangements with into the Union of India nearly 400,000 the succession Governments of India and square miles of former Indian State terri- Pakistan. There were no fewer than 565 tory with a population of over sixty States, ranging from large and populous millions. The transfer of political power territories like Hyderabad to petty estates from the rulers to the Central Govern- of a few square miles. '11 hey varied tre- ment is complete, and this power is now mendously in administration and develop- exercised by the people through legisla- ment. All were in greater or less degree tures. One difficulty has been the dearth autocratic; several of the larger States of skilled administrators in areas formerly were well governed, with popular repre- ruled by the Princes and their dewans; sentation in the legislatures, while others this deficiency is being made good by the were very backward and very poorly temporary appointment of Regional Com- administered. In some States, as in Hyder- missioners and Advisers. Some of the abad and Bhopal, a Muslim dynasty former rulers have become Rajpramukhs ruled over a predominantly Hindu popula- (or Governors) of the new federal States; tion, while in Kashmir, on the other hand, others are employed in Government ser- a Hindu Maharajah held_ sway over a vice, but all are in receipt of privy purses population mainly Muslim. from a Consolidated Fund guaranteed Clearly this heterogeneous collection of by the Constitution. The complete in- autonomous principalities, with widely tegration of these princely units is a differing standards of public administra- remarkable achievement, reinforcing in tion, had no place in a modern State. no small degree the essential unity of the Under the strong hand of Sardar Vallabh- country. bhai Patel, the deputy Prime Minister, the Indian States within India's orbit- III 552 in number-were rapidly brought into the general scheme of things, some VER since the Dominions of Ind1a and willingly, some unwillingly, but all eventu- E Pakistan were constituted, their atti- ally realising that integration in the India tude towards one another has unfor- Union was inevitable.
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