Indian Constitution: Bag of Borrowings

Following someone’s philosophy is good as long as we do not follow him blindly.  The framers of Indian constitution were well aware of this fact and hence, they borr borrow owed ed featu feature res s but but neve neverr copi copied ed them. them. They They took took car care to modi modify fy the the provisions as per the requirements and conditions of our nation. For example !" #ominal #ominal $ead from from %& but our nominal nominal head is elected elected unlike unlike that that of %&’s , also she has some discretionary powers. '" (ritten (ritten constitu constitution tion from from %) but our *onstitution *onstitution is the lengthies lengthiestt one, to suit our needs, the background for this particular feature lies in our long struggle for independence. +" udici udiciary ary from from %) but unlik unlike e that of %), Indian Indian -udiciar -udiciary y is not given given the law of natural -ustice to be pronounced by it. part from this, many features have roots in our own history, e.g. !" )ecularism )ecularism we adopted adopted this after after learning learning lessons lessons from our struggle struggle.. '" b bol olit itio ion n of titl titles es this this is comp comple lete tely ly indi indigen genou ous s and and excl exclus usiv ive e to our our society +" b bol olit itio ion n of unto untouc ucha habi bilit lity y an excl exclus usiv ive e and and age age old old featu feature re of India Indian n society that was dealt with extreme care and strictness  Thus, our constitution is a perfect blend of features, both originating from our experiences and borrowed from other constitutions, that will aptly suit to the aspirations and demands of a free India.

The founding fathers of the Indian constitution had a daunting task ahead while deciding upon the features to be framed. They had a relative young nation with a less experienced  polity. Although Although majority of the constitution is derived from GOI Act !"#$they also incorporated several features from other popular constitutions. This was mostly a logical decision as these features w er e already time tested and popular. %ome of the borrowed features are mentioned below&' ( )ritish &' *arliamentary form of govt$ rule of law$ single citi+enship ,( -%&' udiciary$/undamental rights. "( 0ussia&' /undamental duties 1(Germany&' 2mergency powers #(Irish&' 3*%* 4( 5anadian&' /ederal structure with strong centre. 6(%outh Africa&' Amendments Amendments of the constitution etc Although the critics have termed the Indian constitution as a bag of of borrowed material$ it should be noted that our founding fathers had not blindly copy pasted features. They had modified the features according to the indian conditions. 2g. Our parliamentary system is not the exact parliamentary system used by the british. The founde founders rs had also also incorp incorporat orated ed origin original al ideas ideas in the constit constituti ution on namely namely$g $gand andhia hian n  philosophy in dpsp$ universal adult suffrage right from the start$ etc. %o although the constitution is inspired by other constitutions$ the soul and heart of the constitution is entirely Indian.