The Constitution of India: The Grand Experiment

Abstract

65 years since the drafting of the Constitution of India, the experiment called India has survived but how well did the grand experiment of the Constitution of India with an assembly of varied people work and how well has it performed in the past 65 years and how did it work and for whom did it work well would be explored in this paper. The workings of the constitution would be dealt around with three different perspectives of people from three diverse strata of the society, a common man (person from the lowerincome group), a person of the middle class, and the business class. The earlier criticisms of the Constitution like the view that it was not original or ‘Indian’ to the modern criticisms that the Constitution has completely failed in achieving its grand ideals and that it has been completely defiled would be addressed in a broader sense. Winston Churchill talked about how India would not survive post and independence from the British rule and stated that “If Independence is granted to India, power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low caliber and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India.” But the fact is there is a country called India still existing. So the nation has survived but it is not purely attributable to just political intellect, on the contrary, it was the judiciary that has held the country together though with some decisions the divisions in the country have become prominent….