A Text without Author: Locating Constituent Assembly as Event

Author(s): Aditya Nigam

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 21 (May 22-28, 2004), pp. 2107-2113
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4415058
Accessed: 08-05-2015 11:02 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political
Weekly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Special articles

A Text without Author

Locating Constituent Assembly as Event
Constitutionsare rarely about change; they are codes that legitimise the new dispensation that
arises out of historical conflicts and struggles. Theyprovide a quasi-permanentshape to the
new regime. In this sense, constitutionsare already in existence even before they come to be
formally written. The Indian Constitutiontoo can be looked at in a similar light if it is
'disclosed'from the authorised location that brought it into existence, i e, the constituent
assembly. This paper looks at the constituentassembly as an 'event' in the hope of
understandinghow different currents and polyphonic voices came together in the forming of
the conjuncturewithin which the assembly took shape - as demanded by the imperatives of a
common territory, tradition and history.
ADITYA NIGAM

Perhapsthe fault lies with the composition of the DraftingCom- (CA). It is no doubtimportantto understandthe seriousdebates
mittee,amongthemembersof whichno one, withthe sole exception that went on in the constituentassembly which provide an
of SriyutMunshi, has taken an active partin the struggle for our importantwindowintothe nationaliststruggleitself andintothe
country'sfreedom. None of them is capable of entering into the concernsthatanimatedthe framersof the Constitution.Yet, it
spirit of our struggle, the spirit that animated us; they cannot seemsto me thatby exclusivelyfocusingon whatwenton inside
comprehendwith their hearts - I am not talking of the head, it the constituentassembly,we mightbe missing out on some of
is comparativelyeasy to understandwith the head- the turmoiled the moreinterestingandcriticaldevelopmentsthatwentintothe
birth of our nation after years of travail and tribulation constitutionof the assembly itself. Locating the constituent
- H V Kamath, ConstituentAssembly Debates, Vol 7, p 219.
assemblyas anevent,on theotherhand,affordsus thepossibility
Now Sir,we haveinheriteda tradition.Peoplealwayskeepon saying of lookingatthewaysin whichthedifferentcurrentsanddifferent
to me: oh, you are the makerof the Constitution.My answeris I voices came togetherin the formingof the conjuncturewithin
was a hack.What I was asked to do, I did much againstmy will. which the assemblytook the shape it did. By 'event', I mean
- B R Ambedkar,participatingin the Rajya Sabhadebatesin the two things:first, that it is an occurrencethatinstitutesa break
early fifties. in the logic of the situationthatexisted till then and secondly,
- Proceedings of the Council of States, September 2, 1953, that this occurrenceitself is producedby the coming together
columns 864-80 and September 3, 1953, cols 997-1003.l of differentlogics intoa kindof unitythatthengoverns,for some
time the actionsof differentplayers.In a sense, the meaningof
In a sense, all constitutions can be said to be texts without 'event' here is close to what Marc Auge, for instance says,
authors - or at any rate texts with many authors, such that drawingonFrancoisFuret's discussionof theFrenchRevolution.
no singularauthorialvoice can be attributedto them. Consti- Auge says that "the event or occurrencehas always been a
tutionsarewritten,or one may say, they write themselves, normally problemto those historianswho wished to submergeit in the
in the course of major upheavals and transformationsin the lives grandsweep of history,who saw it as a purepleonasmbetween
of societies. Be it the American Civil War or the French Revo- a before and an after conceived as the developmentof that
lution, the Russian Revolution or the Chinese, the Indian nation- before".WhatFuret'sdiscussionof therevolutionsays,he points
alist struggleorthe innumerableothernational liberationstruggles out is that,from the day the revolutionbreaksout, the revolu-
aroundthe world,constitution-makingrepresents,in some sense a tionaryevent "institutesa new modalityof historicaction,one
crystallisationandcodification of the aspirationsthathave domin- that is not inscribedin the inventoryof the situation".2Alter-
ated these movements. Yet, constitutions are rarely about change; natively,we mightreferto Bakhtin'sdiscussionsof Dostoevsky's
they are codes that are meant to legitimise the new dispensation novels wherehe counterposesthe idea of the polyphonicnovel,
that emerges from the historical conflicts and struggles that bring markedby a "pluralityof independentand unmergedvoices',
them forth. They seek to provide a quasi-permanent shape to the to the logic of the event. Whatunfoldsin Dostoevsky'sworks,
new regime ushered in by these struggles. Against the old power saysBakhtin,is "nota multitudeof characters andfatesin a single
they establish and institute the power of the new. They are andobjectiveworld,illuminatedby a single authorialconscious-
therefore, already there in a sense, even before they are formally ness;rathera pluralityof consciousnesseswith equalrightsand
written - and we know that they need not ever be written. each with its own world"which "combinebut are not merged
However, the Indian Constitution can be said to be a text in the unity of the event".3In otherwords,whatI readin this
without authorin a more profound sense. This can be understood descriptionof thepolyphonicnovel andits dissimilaritywiththe
by dislocating the document from the authorised location within idea of an 'event' is thatthe latter,in Bakhtin'sview, requires
which it is supposedly produced,namely the constituent assembly a certain merging of the different worlds, of the "different

Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 22, 2004 2107

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
consciousnesses with equal rights", such that they inaugurate a were in alliance, and the situationwas fast moving into a different
new, unitarylogic. And such a mergerdoes not leave the 'different plane where it would be governed by the logic of state and nation-
consciousnesses' untouched, for they must now become part of building. The imperativesof state and nation-buildingwere lodged
a common, larger logic that is not their own. I see a resonance in a very differenttemporality,markedby an urgency of the here-
here with the phenomenon of nationalism. In one sense, ever and-now, and were to determine the course of all future events:
since the advent of nationalism, these different consciousnesses therewas no time here for the Gandhianprojectof communalamity
were subject to conditions not entirely within their control. Often, or for his periodic withdrawals into the realm of social reforms,
they were forced to act in specific ways because of such con- marked by the temporality of the everyday.
ditions. We might, for example, see the activities of Ambedkar One might, in fact, argue against the grain of much accepted
or the Muslim League (ML), aroundthe Round Table Conference, Marxistcommon sense, thatthis Gandhiantendency of withdrawal
as in some way dictated by such extraneous logic. However, it was itself lodged within a deeper understandingof the processes
is still possible to see in the period preceding the formation of of intercommunityrelations. It has often been argued that these
the CA, a certain 'polyphony' insofar as these different voices/ withdrawalswere attemptsat reigningin mass movement whenever
consciousnesses have not yet been forced to merge their being they seemed to transgressthe limits of the permissible, from the
within a larger entity. That begins to happen around the time standpointof the bourgeoisie. It seems to me that this completely
of the formation of the constituent assembly. Thereafter, all of misses the point of the Gandhian logic. Gandhi, in my opinion,
them had to become a part of a common national territory, worked with an understandingthat was fundamentallyat variance
tradition and history.4 The political logic that this inaugurates, with the dominant understandingof his colleagues and comrades
as we will see, is such that it forces all the actors in the drama in the Indian National Congress (INC), that saw the nation state
to make their choices in particularways - and those who cannot as the precondition of the forging of a homogeneous national
must decide to part ways. culture.This was an understandingthatwas most clearlyarticulated,
with some variations,by NehruandPatel,but moregenerallyshared
The Backdrop by the other leaders of the INC. Gandhi, on the other hand, simply
reversedthis logic. To him amiablerelationsbetween different com-
It is tempting to read a liberal intent in the Indian Constitution, munities, particularlyHindus and Muslims, were the precondition
given the fact that so much of the phraseology and the terms of India's freedom. And this bond could only be forged outside
used, are manifestly liberal in appearance. However, if we read the domain of the state and its nation-building project. Reading
the text of the Constitution and the CA debates, in the context Gandhi's life itself as a text, one might suggest that his wariness
of their specific historicity, we can see a very different set of of rushingheadlong towardsthe goal of 'complete independence',
meanings emerge. was born out of his fear thatthe logic of the nation state would tear
It may be useful to begin by underlining the three great absences the differentcommunitiesoff from theirtemporalityof the everyday
that hauntedthe constituent assembly, as it began its first session and insert them into time of the political - one where the slow
amidst tremendous uncertainty: the Muslim League, the repre- work of forging amiable intercommunityrelations would have to
sentatives of the so-called Indian states and the 'Father of the be given up. To Gandhi,it seemed quite clear that 'truthlay outside
Nation', Mahatma Gandhi. The absence of the Muslim League the nation state' and more, outside history. Drawing on Tolstoy's
members was of course, an absence that was commented upon adage that 'happy families have no history', Gandhi on occasion
by the first speaker S Radhakrishnanwho spoke to greet the new argued that history only recorded conflicts and struggles.6 Truth,
chairman,RajendraPrasad. Rajendra Prasad himself referred to on the otherhand, lay in universallove and non-violence: love that
the abstention with considerable sense of responsibility: "Our lies unspoken and unspectacular, in the everyday practices of
brethrenof the Muslim League are not with us and their absence popular existence. It is to this realm that one had to periodically
increases our responsibility". He went on to observe that "(w)e come back to nurturethe love that was being lost in the mutual
shall have to think at each step what they would have done if injuriesthatcommunities inflicted on each other once they entered
they were here' and that "if unfortunately their seats were to the realm of the political. There is no doubt that there is a utopic
remain unoccupied, it will be our duty to frame a constitution quality to the way in which Gandhi saw the future of India and
which will leave no room for complaint from anybody". But the I will suggest that it is this utopic vision that was responsible for
Muslim League was not the only absence. The prime minister- his rapidmarginalisation.For, once the 'kingdom of freedom' was
in-waiting, JawaharlalNehru began his speech, moving the 'Aims at hand and the logic of the nation state completely colonised the
and Objectives' resolution, haunted by the absence of the ML domains of the everyday, therewas no room left for Gandhi.Nehru
and the states' representativesand, above all, of MahatmaGandhi writes in his autobiographythatthey often joked that 'afterswaraj'
who was away on his trek for communal amity in Bengal.5 As 'Gandhi's fads' 'must not be encouraged'.7 1946 and the logic
the preparations for transfer of power began, the new nation- of the nation state saw to it that Gandhi- and his fads - was taken
to-be appearedat the very moment of its birth, a threatenedentity. care of. Towards the end of July 1946 (July 21), Gandhi wrote to
It was in such a precarioussituation that the constituent assembly Patel in despair "a great many things seem to slipping out of the
began its work and needless to say, it marked the direction and hands of the Congress".8 He was referring to the postal strike in
substance of its proceedings throughout. Bombay,thecommunalriotsin Ahmedabad,andthegeneral distrust
Also worth registeringat the outset, is the logic of the process of the Congress, among the "Harijansand Muslims". However,
that saw, in the penultimate year of the nationalist struggle, the more than anything else, I think, this despair reflected Gandhi's
ironic reversalof fate between Gandhi, the acknowledged 'Father own sense of marginality, rather than that of the Congress as a
of the Nation', now outcaste and Ambedkar,the representativeof whole, which was preparingto take power in the near future.
the nation's outcastes, now in his final hour of glory as one of
the key arcbhtectsof the Constitution.There is, as a matterof fact, Road to Power
a double irony, here in this reversal of fate. For Ambedkar was
elected to the assembly with the support of the Muslim League, Writing of the difficulties faced in the business of taking power,
as a member from the Bengal legislative assembly, which had an Nehru wrote to his Congress colleagues:
ML ministry in office in these fateful years. This was the period The Indianstatesoffered some difficulties...It has been suggested
when the ML andAmbedkar'sScheduled Castes Federation(SCF) thatthe door should be left open for them to enterthe Constituent

2108 Economic and Political Weekly May 22, 2004

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Assembly...We should rely on the compulsion of events which ever - at least to the two biggest minorities. From late August
is bound to be considerable,and...a large numberwould join, if onwards, this alliance took the shape of ML leaders addressing
the Britishgovernment'sattitudewas clear and they could get no SCF protest meetings against the Cabinet Mission decision to
help from it...I felt sure that the creation of the Constituent deprive them of separate representation.l4 On July 29, the ML
Assemblywouldgive rise to suchpower in India thatno one would Council unanimously voted to empower Jinnahto "resortto direct
be able to withstand it.9 action to achieve Pakistan".
In writing of this 'compulsion of events' and the irresistible But for the Congress and the nationalists, the problem was the
power thatthe very constitution of the CA would generate, Nehru ML-SCF alliance. If the Muslim League and the Muslims were
was actually pointing to the unfolding logic of the new tempo- to be singled out as the anti-national forces that were bent upon
rality of power, which would force people to choose. It is partition,then this alliance had to be broken. More than anything
noteworthy that what he says of the Indian states, applies equally else, it was a question of the legitimacy of nationalism's claims
to the ML and the Muslims more generally; it applies also to to represent the nation that were at the root of their discomfort.
Ambedkarandhis SCF. Equally importantly,it applies to Gandhi It is therefore, around this time that leaders like Sardar Patel
too. He too, would have to choose and history would show that proposed to "negotiate with Ambedkarout of fear of the League"
he chose wrongly from the standpoint of the new dispensation (these words are Gandhi's).15 Patel had in fact, been requesting
of power. It had to therefore lead to his rapid marginalisation Gandhito meet Ambedkarin orderto negotiate with him. Gandhi's
in these penultimate years of colonial subjugation. Gandhi, it answer was matter of fact: "I have said that I will see Bhimrao
needs to be remembered, had scripted one important chapter of if he comes to Poona or Sewagram". Clearly, unlike Patel, he did
the constitution-to-be through his moral blackmail - his fast- not see the need to make any move on this count on his own. When
unto-death - after the announcement of the Communal Award. Patel pressed on the need to win over Ambedkar, Gandhi wrote:
The Poona Pact arrivedat, at the end of his fast, took away forever I see a risk in coming to any sort of understandingwith him, for
the possibility of separate electorates from the dalits and thus he has told me in so manywordsthatfor him thereis no distinction
laid the foundationsof the 'liberal constitution'. A joint electorate between truthand untruth,or between violence and nonviolence.
would thenceforth become an article of faith for the writers and He follows one single principle, viz, to adopt any means which
commentators of the Indian Constitution. As a matter of fact, will serve his purpose. One has to be very careful indeed when
when LordWavell called the Simla conference in June-July 1946, dealing with a man who can become Christian,Muslims or Sikh
this was the basis of his discussions. Scheduled caste leaders and then be reconvertedaccording to his convenience...To my
were not invited to the conference; nor were they grantedseparate mind it is all a snare.16
representation.And none but Gandhi could have accomplished Gandhi's refusal of the logic of power had now taken another
this feat, for no one had the moral statureto do so. Yet, we might perverse turn.Probably, he still had the confidence that he would
do well to remember that Gandhi's move in 1932 was dictated win over the dalits, despite Ambedkar,by returningto his favoured
by his own, utterlymisplaced, logic of communitarianwell-being site of everyday existence. He simply refused to bow before the
that was then, fourteen years later, incorporated into the logic urgency of the situation. But for the likes of Patel, it was crucial
of the nation state. His decision in 1932 was governed less by that the SCF alliance with the ML be broken. To do that he was
the logic of electoral politics and the nation-state-to-be and more prepared to give Ambedkar a place of honour in the new dis-
by the desire to maintain the 'unity of Hindu society' which he pensation. In the event, he would even forsake Gandhi, his teacher
saw as the basis of Hindu-Muslim unity and a future India that and leader. He would do this, and Nehru would later, in April
would representhis cherished 'unity-in-diversity'. However, the 1948, appoint Ambedkar his law minister, not for the sake of
Gandhi of 1946 was consistent with the Gandhi of 1932, when the untouchables, but in keeping with the logic of power. In
he made the 'wrong choice' of opting out of the logic of power between, as events rapidly played themselves out, Ambedkar lost
- for in both situations, his actions were governed by the logic his seat in the CA due to partition, and the Congress made the
of community being and not those of state. importantgesture of nominating him as Congress candidate from
In this context, it might be useful, to recall the actual deve- the Bombay legislative council. While the Congress was under
lopment of events preceding the formation of the constituent some compulsions in making these overtures to Ambedkar, the
assembly and the transfer of power. As the Cabinet Mission latter too had to choose his moves in a rapidly changing and
announced its May 16 plan for a three-tiered federation, Gandhi uncertainsituation.There were clearly pressures on him too. Once
reacted with a fair degree of resignation. He told Louis Fischer it became clear that the partition was now inevitable, he had to
that "my instinct rebels against my reason" and therefore he choose to make the best of a bad deal. Ambedkar's statement
had advised his colleagues to "follow their own reason"-10His given in the epigraph to this essay should be read in that light.
resignation was alarmingly inward looking: "If India is destined This then was the context in which the CA began drafting the
to go through a blood-bath, it will do so".1 In the meanwhile, new Constitution.This was the situation in which the programme
Nehru's will to power was playing itself out to the fullest. Two of forging the new Indian nation was undertaken. But the CA
days after his election as Congress president, on July 10, he made did not begin writing on a clean slate. If Gandhi had already
the fateful statement to the press that "the Congress had made written one crucial chapter for it, so had the last three and a half
no commitment to the Cabinet Mission or the viceroy concerning decades of intense struggle within the incipient nation/s since
the constituent assembly".12 While the overt thrust of this state- the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.These reforms, implemented
ment was directed at British power, Nehru was clearly targeting through the Indian Councils Act 1909, that had for the first time
the ML and Jinnah, whom he was now forcing to choose under provided separate representation to the Muslims, have been
the 'compulsion of events'. And sure enough, this move was read routinely represented in nationalist historiography as having
as a "signal of the possibility that there would be 'no grouping', "sowed the seeds of separatism".17
since the majority of the elected members in the CA would be Right from Nehru - undoubtedly the most secular of the
Congress members".13 Nine days later, Ambedkar was elected nationalists - to people like KM Munshi and Patel, all nationalist
to the constituent assembly as an independent candidate sup- leaders have shared this reading of 'Muslim separatism'.18 This
ported by the ML, from Bengal. An alliance between the ML is an issue that I shall returnto later. For the present, it is relevant
and the SCF was being forged. The threatof a Hindu upper caste to note that though the complex processes of the quest for
rule being instituted in the name of swaraj was now as real as selfhood in the late colonial period were irrevocably shaped by

Economic and Political Weekly May 22, 2004 2109

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
the activities of the colonial state and its census operations, it representation,and calling for a term of the ministry that would
is only by denying any agency to the other subordinate social be coterminus with that of the assembly. This amendment was
groups and communities that nationalism could represent other opposed by practically all non-Muslim members.22 A similar
assertions of selfhood as 'creations of colonial divide and rule scene was enacted in relation to the amendment moved by
policies'. Nationalism's reading in this respect is relatively Mahboob Ali Baig Sahib Bahadur, regarding the constitution of
straightforwardand unaware of the extent to which its own self- the council of ministers at the centre. His amendment too, called
understandingswere shaped by colonial knowledge. Whatever for a council of ministers, elected by both houses of parliament
be the case, once certain notions of selfhood were in place, acute and on the basis of proportionalrepresentation,based on a single
contestations among them, particularly for political representa- transferablevote. This innocuous, and one might say democratic
tion, mark the entire course of the anticolonial struggle. In fact, amendment, was moved by Mahboob Ali Baig amidst heckling
I would argue that the whole history of the anticolonial struggle from nationalists like Algu Rai Shastri, Mahavir Tyagi, and
can be read as an intricate process of the writing of the Con- Pandit Thakur Dass Bhargava. While Shastri accused him of
stitution.The various landmarksof the freedom struggle, starting propounding a "narrow minded party-politics view",23 Tyagi
with struggle against the initiatives of the colonial government, went on to remind the house that the country had had to face
like the Morley-Minto reforms, the Montague-Chelmsford report partitionbecause of a mixed bag cabinet and thatBaig's insistence
and the Government of India Act 1919, to the proceedings of on a proportionatelyrepresented cabinet was in effect a demand
the Simon Commission and the Round Table Conferences are to revive the portent of partition.24Baig had to in fact state
episodes in the writing of the text hat emerged, with significant repeatedly that he should not be misunderstood because he is
embellishments of course, from the constituent assembly. It has a Muslim.25This kind of heckling occurs repeatedly in the course
been widely acknowledged, even in the CA debates, that the final of the proceedings of the constituent assembly and we might see
draft of the Constitution, owed not a little to the Government from the ways in which questions are formulated by respective
of India Act of 1935. Nationalism, represented 6y the Congress, members, that often the words themselves appearquite innocent.
did not always find itself at ease with the way in which these I will returnto this question later in the paper. For the time being
developments took shape. Nationalist initiatives were thus marked I am concerned with something quite different.
from their founding moment itself with a deep split within, There appears to be, in the dominant majority of the CA
represented by various assertions of selfhood by various sub- members, a desire for a centralised state. This appears both in
ordinate social groups and communities. It is through a continu- relation to the question of residuary powers for the provinces/
ous play and tension between these different impulses that we states, as well as in relation to the composition of cabinets - in
see the different positions of the Constitution formulated. the provinces as well as in the centre. In the case of the provinces,
this is expressed in the attempts to keep the council of ministers
of the Postcolonial Elite under the governor's thumb, and therefore under central control.
Modernising Agenda It is also significant that Nehru, while moving the Aims and
By the time the CA assembled for its fourth session on July 14, Objects Resolution, spends some time explaining the absence
1947, Pakistanhadbeen, in principle,formed.Twenty-two Muslim of the word 'democratic' in the resolution. "It is possible", he
League members signed the register to take their place in the says, "that a republic may not be democratic, but the whole of
Assembly. K M Munshi, while moving the motion on the Report our past is witness to the fact that we stand for democratic
of Order of Business Committee, declared that now that the institutions".He went on to add that 'we' were aiming at nothing
Britishparliamentwas about to adopt the resolution "settingIndia less than a democracy but that the shape that it would take was
free", 'we' could go ahead with the agenda of Constitution- uncertain.26 This roundabout way of explaining the absence of
making in absolute freedom. "The plan of May 16", he said, "had the word 'democracy',revealsclearly, thatit was not an inadvertent
one motive - to maintain the unity of the country at all costs. error but a well thought out decision. Why we may ask?
A strong central government was sacrificed by the May 16 plan One of the fears was of course, expressed in Tyagi's speech
at the altar of preserving unity which many of us, after close abutthepossible consequences of a "mixed-bagcabinet".However,
examination, found to be an attenuatedunity...".19 Munshi went another great fear of the nationalist mind becomes evident here.
on to thank god that now, "we have no sections and groups to With 570 states out of the purview of the emergent nation state's
go into, no elaborate procedure...no double majority clause, nor jurisdiction, with the 'unresolved' Musilm question hanging fire,
more provinces with residuarypowers, no opting out, no revision and with the host of other issues that they might have had to
after ten years...We have now a homogeneous country, though deal with, the Constitution had to be framed in such a way that
our frontiers have shrunk...".20 Munshi's relief of course, was kept all options open for the future. It seems that the impulse
not sharedby everyone. M AnanthasayanamAyyangar expressed towards centralisation here was not simply born out of a drive
surprise that "my friend Mr Munshi, who stood for Akhand towards an authoritarianstate. On the contrary, it seems to me
Hindustan"is now 'supporting this solution'. He went on to add that Nehru was being quite truthful in suggesting that the new
that he personally thought that the May i6 solution was the best ruling elite wanted some form of democracy. Granville Austin,
and was "sorry that solution has been given up".21 However, one of the most serious scholars of the Indian Constitution also
on a close reading of the CA debates, it seems that Munshi's concurs when he argues that "the belief in parliamentary gov-
representedthe dominantsentiment. There was a feeling thatnow ernment seemed in fact to be nearly universal". In support of
that all the constraints are out of the way, federalism can also this contention, Austin says that the draftconstitutions published
be given the go-bye and a centralised state can now go about by groups of the left, centre and the right - those of the Marxist
its modernising agenda in real earnest. M N Roy, of the Socialist Party and of the communal Hindu
One can get a sense of this from the major conflict around Mahasabha - were also all parliamentary, centralised constitu-
clause 12 of the Principles of a Model Provincial Constitution. tions.27 In fact, Austin goes further to suggest that "nearly
This clause said: "The governor's ministers shall be chosen and everyone in the assembly was Fabian and Laski-ite enough to
summoned by him and shall hold office during his pleasure". believe that 'socialism is everyday politics for social regenera-
Amendments were moved to this clause by Aziz Ahmed Khan, tion' and that 'democratic constitutions are...inseparably asso-
Begum Aijaz Rasul and others and supported by practically all ciated with the drive towards economic equality' "28 I would
ML members, defending the elective principle, proportional argue,therefore,thatthe desirefor a centralisedstateexpressed

2110 Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 22, 2004

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
by majority of the nationalists, was not so much a 'communal He went on to add that the 'boys' are taughtin their mother
one to keep the ML out of power, as the glimpse into the debate tonguesin primaryschoolsandthat"themothertongueof Hindus
above might suggest; that on the contrary, it was a desire for andMuslimsand all boys (sic) is moreor less the same. There
a modem and homogeneous nation state that moved them into is no differencewhatsoever."And then, once again, amidst
taking such a position. This is also evident in the nationalism's cheers,he went on to add:"Thosewho in the olden (sic) days,
representation of itself as the modernising force, continuously were obsessedby the idea of separatismhave not been able to
at odds with the 'backward' and 'separatist' minorities, acting shed it off even now and the ghost of 'two nations' seems to
at the behest of the colonial rulers. K M Munshi's relief at the be lingeringsomewhere,even withinthe precinctsof this very
formation of Pakistan is in fact, symptomatic of a wider feeling augustchamber".34 In nationalistdiscourse,theemphasison the
shared by the nationalist elite that now, with all obstructions - individual,then was not really a straightforward expressionof
notably the ML - out of the way, the task of building a homo- the liberalethos, we mightbe compelledto acknowledge.The
geneous nation could be seriously addressed. The theme of demandfor the erasureof communitymarkers,the placing of
building a modem India, where no differences on account of the individualcitizen at the centre, in Pant's mind - as in
religion and caste would be recognised, is a recurrentone in the nationalistdiscoursemoregenerally- representsthen,thedesire
debates in the CA. for a homogeneousnationalculture.In assertingthis, however,
Yet, it needs to be underlined, that this desire for a homoge- I am not assertingthat Pant's or the nationalists'advocacyof
neous, modem nation state, was not always democratic. Its liberal the liberalcreedwas hypocritical.WhatI am suggestingis that
language and justifications very often performed another func- to them the only way the liberaldreamof the abstractcitizen
tion in nationalist discourse. I have argued elsewhere that the could be achievedwas througherasureof differenceand the
resortto certainliberal notions of abstract,unmarkedcitizenship, productionof a homogeneousnationalculture.To be sure,this
for instance,worked against the interests of the minorities because discoursewas not averseto acknowledgingthe contributionof
they drove the community to the realm of the unspeakable. Any Islam to compositeIndianculture- but it did require,in the
articulation of community based discrimination was deemed mannerof the only modelsof nationalismit soughtto emulate,
illegitimate in this framework.29 It might be worthwhile to return theerasureof separateexistenceof 'religious'communities.The
briefly here to the problem of the innocence of the words, in new nation state would be the agent that would, throughits
the language in which matters are articulated in the CA - but networkof educationalinstitutions,producethat culture.
more generally in nationalist discourse. Scholars have often ParthaChatterjeehas arguedthat throughthe anticolonial
referred to Govind Ballabh Pant's celebrated diatribe against struggle,the nationalistelite had been resistingthe reformist-
'community'-upholding the sovereignty of the individualcitizen, modernistintervention of thecolonialstatein the 'inner'spiritual/
as an indication of the liberal impulses behind constitution- culturalaffairs of the nation, not because it was opposed to
making in India.30 In this oft-quoted passage, Pant says: reformsbut becauseit consideredthatrealmits own sovereign
I cannothoweverrefrainfromreferringto a morbidtendencywhich realm.He has persuasivelysuggestedthatfor this reason,while
has grippedthis country for the last many years. The individual it continuedto opposeall such colonialinitiatives,its desirefor
citizen who is really the backboneof the state, the cardinalcentre internalreform accumulatedover time and exploded in the
of all social activity, and whose happinessand satisfactionshould immediatepostcolonialperiod,througha hostof legislationsthat
be the goal of every social mechanism,has been lost here in that soughtto introducemajorchangeswithintheHinducommunity.
indiscriminatebody known as the community.We have forgotten He alsosuggeststhatmuchof thisintervention of theindependent
that a citizen exists as such. There is the unwholesome, and to nation state in the affairs of the communitybecame possible
some extent degrading habit of thinking always in terms of preciselybecauseof theformationof Pakistanandthemigration
communities and never in terms of citizens.31 of large sectionsof the Muslimelite there.With regardto the
Impeccably liberal in its advocacy of the individual citizen's Muslimcommunitythatremainedhere, the situationwas now
direct relationship to the state - unmediated by any community prettymuchthe sameas it hadbeen with the Hinducommunity
markers, we might say. Yet, this passage would make a very in the colonialperiod- even thoughduringthe periodsof ML
different kind of sense within the structure of nationalist dis- ministries,therehadbeensimilarinterventionsof reformwithin
course. How such an advocacy of the erasure of community them.35Ourreadingof theCAdebatesseemsto affirmChatterjee's
markers functions within that discourse is evident from the understandingabout internalreform,at least in the majority
following episode in the CA. Z H Lari, Muslim member from community.Muchof the resistanceof the nationalistelite to the
the United Provinces, moved an amendment to the draft con- ideaof minorityor communityrightsseemsto be directlyrelated
stitution, proposing the inclusion of an additional clause to the to this desire for a new homogeneous,moder nation.Yet, it
effect that any section of the citizens of India, residing in any was the verylogic of eventsthatconstitutedthe CA, the manner
part of the country and having a distinct language and script, in whichallianceswereshapedandreshapedduringthis period,
shall be entitled to education in the mother tongue. Lari invoked that made it impossiblefor the new Constitutionto avoid the
the Motilal Nehru committee report and a recent resolution of questionof minorityrights altogether.
the GoI, published in the Gazette to support his contention. Lari It is also interestinghere to note thatthe debateon minority
then went on to argue that students from Urdu speaking families rightsgenerateda lot of heatin the CA, even beforethe Muslim
should be impartededucation in Urdu. As it happens, Lari's six- membersjoinedthe proceedings.The debateherewas primarily
year old son had been told by his teacher that he should use Hindi with the Christianmembersof the assembly.In the courseof
and Hindi alone to do his mathematics. Lari claimed that on the debate, K M Munshi moved that one part of that clause
making inquiries he found that a similar situation prevailed in (clause 18) be referredback to the advisorycommittee,while
most schools.32 The same Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, in his MohanlalSaksenaandMahavirTyagiwantedtheentireclauseto
response to Lari stated: "(T)here is no particular language at- be referredbackto it. No reasonswere however,given for this
tached to the followers of any particularreligion, [therefore] the proposal.An inklingto the machinationsgoing on behindthe
question of language with reference to or vis-a-vis any minority, scenesis of course,providedbyanastuteobservation byAmbedkar.
does not arise at alL No language is the language of the Hindus He pointedout that the only reasonone can sense, is thatthe
and no language is the language of the Muslims", he went on righls of minoritieswould be decided after seeing what the
to add amidst cheers from like-minded members in the house.33 Pakistanassemblydecided.He arguedforcefullyagainstsuch

Economic and Political Weekly May 22, 2004 2111

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
relativity of rights. Minority rights, he held, should be absolute.36 Lari and Pant so graphically illustrates - and given that they have
So far as the dominant leadership of the new nation state was lost the possibility of separate political representation, they will
concerned, it was perfectly possible for them to enact legislations need separate safeguards. The best that is possible in that case,
for the abolition of untouchability and leave the matter at that. is a federal structure where all powers are not concentrated in
They - andhereI include the more right-wing HinduMahasabhaite one centre. It is also interesting that Ambedkar, who generally
leaders - undoubtedly considered the practice of untouchability sharedthe nationalistposition on the need for a strong, centralised
to be the bane of Hindu society. The entire logic of nationalism state, did so for entirely different reasons. To him such a state
was predicated upon the decades of introspection about the was necessary in order to be able to ensure compliance of society
internaldivisions and weaknesses of Hindu society thathad made with regardto the rights of dalits. Nevertheless, he is not prepared
itprey to repeatedexternal invasions. It had therefore, internalised to go along with the nationalists on the question of minority rights
the idea that at least the worst features of caste society must go. and takes a fairly uncompromising position on the issue. In other
Whatthey did not consider was thatfor somebody like Ambedkar, words, what we see here is that there is no transcendentalethical
the mere abolition of untouchability was not enough. What was ground on which justifications of specific measures in the
requiredwas the political recognition of the demands of the dalits, constitution can be based, such that they will be acceptable to
their demands for separate representation. In the case of the all. What is important, it seems to me, is that both the specific
Muslims, however, the case was different. Speech after speech in provisions as well as the ethical justifications for them become
the CA emphasised thatnow that we are making a new beginning, meaningful within the specific life-contexts and from the loca-
now that the new nation is about to be born, the idea of separate tions of different players. It is from these locations that justi-
recognition of communities in politics must be given up. And this fications are either advanced or contested. In other words, the
repeated assertion was often backed up by not-so-subtle threats. ethical visions involved are themselves situated visions.
The reason I narratethis drama inside the CA in some detail
is precisely to highlight that the CA was actually functioning The Nation and Its Fragments?
within a certain code, the language of which was forged largely
outside the precincts of the assembly itself. Within this code,
In concluding this discussion, I would like to suggest thatmuch
words changed their meanings and performed very different of the scholarship that seeks to concentrate its sight on the inside
functions. The narrationalso shows that the CA was not exactly
of the CA, as a window to the philosophy of the Indian Con-
a Habermasianterrainof rational-criticaldiscourse and members
stitution, proceeds with a kind of unstated assumption of a nation
of the minorities, particularlythe Muslims, were under tremen-
already in existence whose representatives, after deliberations
dous pressure to act according to these codes. Their repeated
wrote the Constitution. Even when we take note of the diverse
heckling and booing, accompanied by the continuous insinuation
currentsand the diverse sections and groups, there is somewhere
that they were still nursing their separatist desires and that every
an underlying assumption of the prior existence of the nation.
thing that they suggested was to be attributedto their continued
Such for instance, is also the assumption underlying the intro-
allegiance to the two nation theory, is evidence enough of this
ductory note by Rajeev Bhargava outlining the conference's
attitude. Reading the CA debates therefore, in their very literal
(Seminar on 'Political Philosophy of the Indian Constitution',
meanings can be quite misleading. There is certainlyno doubt that
Goa, August 2001) concerns. So when it talks of uncovering the
therearestrongliberalelements in the provisionsof the Constitution
"structure of ideals embedded in the Indian Constitution", it
and the debates themselves reveal much of these concerns. What
assumes a kind of unitary structurethat is arrangedaccording to
is not so evident is the way in which what was speakableand what
some particularlogic. Thatis why it is possible for it to ask: "When
not, was shaped in an altogether different arena. the framers of the constitution chose to guide Indian society and
A question that one might then legitimately ask here is whether
polity by a particularset of values ratherthan others, they could
this means that the leaders of the Indian republic were being
not have done without a set of reasons, many of which remain
dishonest? Was there no ethical ground on which they based their
implicit, unarticulated".My submission here will be that even a
positions? Did they act merely out of considerations of the logic
cursoryreadingof the CA debates suggests that there was no such
of power? Did they act purely out of self-interest? I think this
thing as "a particularset of values" that was given preferenceover
will be a misleading conclusion to draw from the above discus-
others, precisely because their was no single authorialvoice there
sion. In the first place, such a poser assumes a certain dichotomy
as assumed in the expression "the framers of the constitution
or antagonism between ethical action and self-interest which
chose...". There is in the statement an assumption of a singular
does not always hold. In fact, it is possible to argue that even
will which "chose"one, ratherthan another,set of values and with
the most anti-democratic, fascistic political programmes are
a kind of coherent justificatory framework.
usually grounded in some ethical vision of the future, like the
My general problem with this way of posing the problem of
'regeneration of the German nation', which are seen as thethe political theory of the Indian Constitution can thus be stated
precondition for the attainment of yet larger goals. What the
in the following manner: First, the assumption of a single will
discussion above shows, in my view, is that there are conflicting
underlying the Constitution, can be understood in either of the
ethical visions in continuous tension and contestation, throughout
two ways. One way would be to posit a prior community of
the nationalist movement and in the CA. When mainstream interests upon which a 'general will' as it were, arises. This is
nationalism advocates a strong centralised state along with an
a problematic assumption to make as we have seen, given that
insistence on the value of individual citizenship, it does so out
there were such vastly different interests at play here. Another
of a vision of a particular kind of moder nation state where,
way of understandingit is to argue, for instance that even though
eventually, individual citizenship will be the sole relevant
there were fundamental differences of opinion between different
criterion regulating the state's dealings with its people. It possibly
players, they were all basically reasonable people operating
genuinely believes that markersof community need to be erased
within a generally Habermasian terrain of rational-critical dis-
for a truly democratic future to be realised. On the other hand,
course, coming up in the end, with a consensual 'single will'.
when representatives of the Muslim minority strike a different
This means that their disagreements were fundamentally intel-
posture, they do so out of the belief that, being discriminated
lectual in nature and, as such, they were prepared to convince
against as a community, all its problems cannot be articulated
andbe convinced by the others. In other words, thereis an implicit
in the languageof individualrights- as the exchangebetween positing here of a kind of 'disengaged subject' - freed of all

2112 Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 22, 2004

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
existentialandcommunityattachments. Onlyon suchanassump- Supermodernity,Verso, London and New York, p 27.
tion can we really posit an ethical subject that is devoid of 3 Mikhail Bakhtin(1984) Problems of Dosteovsky's Poetics, Manchester
interests,passionandpower.A notionof an embeddedsubject, University Press, UK, p 6.
4 I will discuss this point at greater length in the last section.
on the otherhand,will requireus to considerthe fundamental 5 See ConstituentAssembly Debates (henceforth, CAD) Official Report,
relationshipbetween thought/consciousness/ethical vision, on Reprintedby the Lok Sabha Secretariat,New Delhi, Vols 1-13. For this
the one handand social being on the other.It will requireus part see, Vol 1.
to recognisethatfor such an embeddedsubject,existentialand 6 In Hind Swaraj, Gandhirecordshis critiqueof history:"History,as we
communityattachmentsare constitutiveof ethicalbeing - and know it, is a recordof the wars of the world, and so there is a proverb
thereforeof all intellectualpositionsthat such a subjectmight among Englishmenthat a nation which has no history, that is, no wars,
is a happy nation." [M K Gandhi (1997), Hind Swaraj and Other
hold. It is fromthis standpointthat the self-understandings of
differentcommunitiesbecome crucialto our discussionof the Writings,AnthonyJParel(ed),CambridgeUniversityPressandFoundation
Books, New Delhi, p 89.] And again:"Historyis really a recordof every
constitution-making process for they reveal such embedded interruptionof the workingof the force of love or of the soul" (Ibid:90).
subjects,broadlyspeaking.Theirarticulations of theirownnotions He of course, continues to speak in the name of 'the nation', which he
of the futureare inextricablylinked to their positionin terms does not directly critique. For instance: "Hundredsof nations live in
of power and subordination,and voiced in terms of cultural peace. Historydoes not and cannottake note of this fact."But to Gandhi,
this 'nation' has a kind of universal existence outside of the state and
autonomyand difference. statehood.This is not the place for a detailed discussion of this issue
Therefore, if we considerthefactthatthedifferentcommunities but it can be shown that to him the idea of a nation is quite distinct
that asserttheirselfhoodthroughoutthe anti-colonialstruggle from that of the state and of nation as generally understood.
in ways thatsignificantlydivergefrom the nationalists',do so 7 JawaharlalNehru (1998), An Autobiography,JLN MemorialFund and
oftenin directliaisonwithcolonialrule;if we considerthateven Oxford University Press, p 73.
at thetimeof Independence,570 Indianstates,comprisingone- 8 Mahatma Gandhi, Collected Works (1982, henceforth, CWMG),Vol
fourthof the populationof the nation-to-beare almosttotally LXXXV, The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and
outsidethe processof nationformation,then we mightneed to Broadcasting,Governmentof India, p 35.
9 StanleyWolpert(1996), Nehru-A TrystWithDestiny,OxfordUniversity
understand theprocessof the formationof theConstitutionitself Press, New York, p 240, emphasis added.
verydifferently.It mightbe morerealisticandproductiveto see 10 CWMr, Vol LXXXV, p 17.
theconstituent assemblyitself as the site wheredifferentcurrents 11 Ibid.
anddiversegroupscome together,underthe compulsionof the 12 Wolpert, op cit, p 370.
logic of power, to hammerout a negotiatedsettlement- a 13 Ibid, p 370.
settlement thataspiresto nationhoodno doubt,butwhichremains 14 See RamnarayanSingh Rawat (2001) 'Partition Politics and Achhut
nevertheless,an articulatedtotalitywhose very being is always Identity: A Study of the Scheduled Castes Federation and Dalit
Politics in UP, 1946-48' in Suvir Kaul (ed 2001), The Partitions of
threatened by theveryfragilityof the settlement.In otherwords, Memory- TheAfterlifeof the Division of India,PermanentBlack, Delhi,
I amsuggestingthatwe see 'Indiansociety' not as a given pre- pp 119-23.
existingtotality,thatis evolvingaccordingto someevolutionary 15 CWMG,Vol LXXXV, p 102.
logic, into a nation,but ratheras differententities,havingdif- 16 Ibid, p 102.
ferenthistories,come togetherinto an articulatedwhole. The 17 D D Basu (1998), Introductionto the Constitutionof India, Prentice-
terrainon which these differenthistories, thereforedifferent Hall of India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, p 5.
18 ConstituentAssemblyDebates, Vol 3, See especially, the interventions
temporalities of the everyday,come togetheris the accelerated of RajendraPrasad and PurushottamdasTandon.
temporality of theIndianstate.Itis herethat,in theharmonisation 19 CAD, Vol 4, p 546
of differenttemporalities,throughwhat Althusserdescribesas 20 Ibid, p 546.
torsion,displacementandfusion of differenttimes,emergesthe 21 Ibid, p 551.
nationstate.As Poulantzashas suggested,it is on the terrainof 22 Ibid, pp 628-48.
the statethatthe differentpasts of differentsocial groupsare 23 CAD, Vol 7, p 1142.
fusedintoa wholeandthe nationacquiresits past- movingthen 24 Ibid, p 1150.
25 Ibid.
to a commonfuture,a common destiny. It is the state that 26 CAD, Vol 1, p 62.
constitutesthe 'nationaltradition'"bymakingit the momentof 27 Granville Austin (1966), The Indian Constitution- Cornerstone of a
a becomingdesignatedby itself..."for the modernnationstate, Nation, ClarendonPress, Oxford, p 40.
he argues,"alsoinvolves eradicationof the traditions,histories 28 Ibid, p 41.
andmemoriesof dominatednations".He suggeststhat"thestate 29 AdityaNigam (2000), 'Secularism,Modernity,Nation:An Epistemology
establishesthemodernnationby eliminatingothernationalpasts of the Dalit Critique', Economic and Political Weekly,Vol 35, No 48,
and turningthem into variationsof their own history".37My November 25.
30 GurpreetMahajan(1998), Identities and Rights - Aspects of Liberal
readingof the constituentassembly as event and the Indian Democracy in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, p 82.
Constitutionas an outcome of negotiationsthat broughtforth 31 CAD, Vol 2, p 332, emphasis added.
the 'Indiannation'seems to affirmthis relationship- the CA 32 CAD, Vol 7, pp 901-02.
being the intellectualcore of the emergingstate. i 33 Ibid, p 914.
34 Ibid, p 915.
Address for correspondence: 35 This renderingof Chatterjee'ssummariseshis argumentsin the following
three texts: Chatterjee(1994 a) 'Secularismand Toleration', Economic
[email protected] and Political Weekly,Vol XXIX, No 28, July 9; (1994 b) Nation and
its Fragments, Oxford University Press, Delhi; Partha Chatterjee
Notes (ed 1998a), Wages of Freedom - Fifty Years of the Nation-State,
'Introduction',Oxford Press, Delhi.
[This paperwas presentedat a seminaron "The Political Philosophy of the 36 CAD, Vol 3, 507. University
Indian Constitution",held in Goa in August 2001 and organised by the 37 See Nicos Poulantzas p
AdvancedProgrammein Social and Political Theory, Centrefor the Study (1978), State, Power, Socialism, New Left Books,
of Developing Societies, Delhi. I thank all the participantsof the seminar, London, especially pages 112-13. Of course, Poulantzas' discussion of
and particularlyRajeev Bhargava,for their comments on the presentation.] nations suffers from some of the residues of orthodoxMarxismthat see
nationsandnationalismsas 'objectiveentities' embodiedin certainkinds
1 I thankAjay Dandekarfor bringing this reference to my notice. of culturalcommunities.However that is a separatematterand does not
2 Marc Auge (1995) Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of concern us here.

Economicand PoliticalWeekly May 22, 2004 2113

This content downloaded from 130.60.206.75 on Fri, 08 May 2015 11:02:35 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions