Jonah Patel
The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document of India and the longest written national constitution in the world. The Indian Constitution is a social document that lays down the framework for the fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. The original constitution is hand-written, with each page decorated by artists from Shantiniketan and calligraphed by Prem Behari Narain Raizada. The constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by elected members of the provincial assemblies. It was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Length | The longest written national constitution in the world |
| Content | Comprehensive, detailed, and specific |
| Sources | The Government of India Act 1935, the Indian Nationalist struggle, the Irish Constitution, the US Constitution, and others |
| Rigidity/Flexibility | A blend of both; rigid constitutions require a special procedure for amendments, while flexible constitutions can be amended like ordinary laws |
| Governance | Defines the powers and responsibilities of government institutions, including the council of ministers with the Prime Minister as its head, and the President as the constitutional head of the Executive of the Union |
| Rights | Safeguards fundamental rights, including the right to life, and outlines the principles of governance |
| Amendments | Requires a supermajority for amendments to pass, but is the world's most frequently amended national governing document |
| Structure | Contains 448 articles and 12 schedules; structured into various parts, each dealing with a specific aspect of the country's legal, administrative, or governmental framework |
| Interpretation | Must be interpreted in the existing social and political context |
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What You'll Learn
The Constituent Assembly
The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document of India and the world's longest written national constitution. It lays down the framework that demarcates the fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions. It also sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. The Constitution of India espouses constitutional supremacy, rather than parliamentary supremacy found in the United Kingdom.
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Amendments
The Indian Constitution is the world's longest written national constitution and, as of February 2025, it is also the world's most frequently amended national constitution, with 106 amendments since its enactment in 1950. The Constitution is so detailed in outlining governmental powers that many amendments address issues that, in other democracies, would be dealt with by statute. As a result, the Indian Constitution is amended roughly twice a year.
There are three types of amendments. The first type of amendment must be passed by a "simple majority" in each house of the Parliament of India. The second type of amendment must be passed by a prescribed "special majority" of each house of Parliament. The third type of amendment must be passed by a "special majority" in each house of Parliament and ratified by at least half of the state legislatures.
The procedure for constitutional amendments is dictated by Article 368. The 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts, for example, introduced the system of panchayati raj in rural areas and Nagar Palikas in urban areas. The 122nd Amendment introduced a Goods and Services Tax, and the 86th Amendment provided for the Right to Education for six to fourteen-year-olds and Early Childhood Care until the age of six.
Despite the supermajority requirement for amendments to pass, the Indian Constitution has been amended more than any other national constitution. In Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, the Supreme Court ruled that an amendment cannot destroy what it seeks to modify and cannot tinker with the Constitution's basic structure or framework.
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Fundamental rights
The Constitution of India is the country's supreme legal document and the world's longest written national constitution. It was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by members of the provincial assemblies. The Assembly took almost three years to draft the constitution, holding eleven sessions over a 165-day period.
The Constitution lays out the fundamental rights of Indian citizens in Part III (Articles 12 to 35). These rights are guaranteed to all citizens, individually and collectively, and are divided into six categories:
- Right to equality, including equality before the law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and equality of opportunity in employment.
- Right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association or union, movement, residence, and the right to practice any profession or occupation (subject to limitations related to national security, foreign relations, public order, decency, and morality).
- Right against exploitation, prohibiting all forms of forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking.
- Right to freedom of religion, including the freedom to profess, practise, and propagate any religion, or not to do so.
- Cultural and educational rights, including the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- Right to constitutional remedies, which guarantees that the Supreme Court will protect the fundamental rights of citizens and provides for the enforcement of these rights.
The Constitution also outlines the framework for the country's political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, as well as directive principles and the duties of citizens.
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Official languages
The Indian Constitution, adopted in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union. The Constitution gave Parliament the power to decide otherwise, but it envisaged that English would be phased out in favour of Hindi over a fifteen-year period.
However, plans to make Hindi the sole official language were met with resistance, especially in Tamil Nadu, which had a history of opposing the imposition of the Hindi language. This resistance led to the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963, which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes alongside Hindi.
The Official Languages Act, 1963, came into effect on 26 January 1965, and it made provisions for the continued use of English alongside Hindi in official communications. The Official Language Resolution of 1968 further mandated the development and promotion of all the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, which lists the languages officially recognised by the Government of India.
As of 2024-2025, 22 languages have been classified under the Eighth Schedule, with 14 of them being included in the original Schedule from 1950. These 14 languages are: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya (now spelled Odia), Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. The four languages that were added in 2003 were Bodo, Dogri, Santali, and Maithili.
The governmental body responsible for making policy decisions and establishing guidelines for the promotion of Hindi is the Kendriya Hindi Samiti, established in 1967. A Parliament Committee on Official Language, constituted in 1976, periodically reviews the progress in the use of Hindi and submits a report to the President.
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Sovereign status
The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document of India, and it is the world's longest written national constitution. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political codes, structures, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions. It also sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens.
The constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by members of the provincial assemblies. The 389-member assembly (later reduced to 299 after the partition of India) took almost three years to draft the constitution, holding eleven sessions over a 165-day period. The constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950.
The Indian Constitution espouses constitutional supremacy, not parliamentary supremacy as found in the United Kingdom. This is because it was created by a constituent assembly rather than Parliament. The constitution provides for a parliamentary form of government, which is federal in structure with certain unitary features. The constitutional head of the Executive of the Union is the President, who exercises his or her functions with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, which is headed by the Prime Minister.
The Republic of India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of government. The constitution also provides for the creation of local Legislatures or Council of Ministers or both for certain Union territories. Each state and union territory has its own government, analogous to the President and Prime Minister.
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Frequently asked questions
The Indian Constitution is a legal document that outlines the country's fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, as well as the fundamental rights, directive principles, and duties of its citizens. It is the world's longest written constitution for a sovereign nation.
The Indian Constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by the members of the provincial assemblies. B.R. Ambedkar presented the draft to the assembly and delivered a landmark speech.
The Constituent Assembly took almost three years to draft the constitution, holding eleven sessions over a 165-day period. The entire process, from the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly to the finalisation of the Constitution, took about three years and two months.
The Indian Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950.
The Indian Constitution is approximately 145,000 words long, making it the second-longest active constitution in the world.
