Why did we make so many amendments in our constitution?
Till now 101 amendments have been made to our constitution with GST being the latest one. These amendments have been made in 67 years of its existence. Do you know how many amendments have been made in US Constitution in its more than 200 years of existence? Just 17.One of the main reasons for so many amendments is that our constitution is not perfectly drafted.Here I am not trying to undermine the efforts put in by the founding fathers of our constitution, because preparing a constitution for a country like India which harbours so much diversity in terms of caste, race, language, culture etc. is not an easy task. Its a Herculean task. But having said that there's nothing wrong in criticism.Constituent Assembly took almost 2 years 11 months and 18 days to prepare it. Also, this was done by taking into account constitutions of other countries. So basically assembly members had an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others and then draft a constitution, unlike their US counterparts.Most of the Amendments have been made in order to fix the loopholes in our constitution which were exposed in the course of time. Intrestingly the first amendment to the constitution was made in the year 1951 (a year later after coming into force). This was done mainly to remove the effect of the Supreme Court's decision in Champakam Dorairajan case, also known as first anti-reservation decision. Thereafter a series of amendments were made in order to overturn the decisions of Supreme Court which went against the Government Policies.As a matter of fact the originally drafted constitution had so many loopholes that if Indira Gandhi wanted she could have changed the nature and objectives of our constitution completely. It was due to the timely interference by the Supreme Court in Keshavananda Bharti case that a legal fiction known as basic structure was introduced in order to prevent the governments from destroying the essence of our constitution (mainly fundamental rights).
How many pages is the US Constitution?
It depends; the original Constitution, as others have pointed out, took up four pages of parchment; today’s standard pocket Constitution normally devotes 17 printed pages to the basic Constitution and another 17 to the Amendments.Neither of these tells you what the Constitution means today. For that you must purchase or download the 3000+ pages of the U.S. Constitution, Analysis and Interpretation, which shows you what the Supreme Court thinks the sparse words of the original document mean and how they should direct the actions of the government.
Why did some states not want to ratify the constitution? How was this issue fixed?
There were many concerns over including a document that would protect the rights of the people (The Bill of Rights), in order to prevent another authoritarian government. There were also many issues that several states needed to flesh out in order to come to an agreement. Many states feared that the federal government would be too powerful. There were two groups that debated over these issues: The Anti-Federalists and the Federalists. The issues were fixed by coming to an agreement and including the Bill of Rights. Madison was one of the federalists who persuaded a number of people how the federal government would be effective. -- Keep in mind that these problems were in the 18th century, before many advanced communications and some states were not even included in many discussions which took place in Philadelphia because they were not able to be contacted.
Why did poor farmers oppose the US constitution?
The Democratic-Republican Party was anti-Federalist (Party) and anti-federalism. They opposed the new constitution. Farmers and tradesmen favored them because they were more truly liberal (see below) and opposed government interference in their trade. They would have freer reign selling their products and have less federal control over the land they opened and developed. Liberalism advocates: individual freedom, weak government, and free markets. Conservatism advocates: moral responsibility, strong government, and protected markets. Socialism advocates: social responsibility, omnipotent government, and controlled markets.
What are some mistakes in Constitution of India?
Oh Yes! There are several flaws that I've come across....The lawmakers in our country, I feel, were a bit ignorant about women, transgenders, gay, you know…..not proper measures have been taken to safeguard their rights so that they can live equally and freely in this country……Recently, I was reading about one article that made me very sad, it was about marital rape in India, which is at very high rate and that it is legal the accused would not be punished or charged with any kind of crime. While marital rape gets documented, cases are rarely registered, since it is excluded from the India Penal Code’s (IPC) definition of rape. And this is just one example where there is complete negligence and I am a woman so it triggered me... As such there are a number of laws made that are not very justified or are indifferent towards a section of society because maybe those who made were not a part of it or maybe their thinking was not that far reaching or on some levels there were loopholes. But that is not completely their fault, times change, needs change, new problems arise, what is important whether people are taking initiative or not to mend the conditions, the problems. Though there are people who have raised issue and the good thing is that things are changing.
Why has the Constitution remained so strong while so many reform efforts of the 18th century failed?
Very good question. One part of the answer is that the Founders built on the foundation of the English parliamentary system, which was quite advanced for its day and, in fact, for today. They tweaked a system that had (and has) worked quite well for the English rather than attempting radical innovation. Another is surely that they were able to write on a clean slate in a country that had little history. Therefore, there were no "scores to settle" as, for example, in France, and no one clamoring to go back to the "good old days" after a few years of experience under the Constitution. A third is that the main movers behind the Constitution were educated children of the Enlightenment, and had studied the histories of Greece and Rome and Enlightenment theorists like John Locke. Because of that learning, they could see what worked and what didn't work in historical governmental systems. A fourth is that the really diverse and balanced interests of the southern planters and the northern traders forced debate and compromise over the structure of the government. It could also be that something very special--call it, as Washington would have, "Divine Providence"--guided the Founders, as expressed in the title of the very good popular book about the Constitutional Convention: "Miracle in Philadelphia" by Catherine Drinker Bowen. Among those miracles was the presence of George Washington both at the Convention and as the first President; without his steady leadership, the outcome would have been far different and, probably, far worse.
How many constitutions did Ambedkar study to make the Constitution of India?
The initial draft of the Constitution of India was prepared by Sir Benegal Narsing Rao, an eminent jurist and the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly. (B. N. Rau - Wikipedia) The draft was then discussed and modified by the Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar before being placed before the Constituent Assembly.Sir B.N.Rau “travelled to the U.S.A., Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, where he had personal consultations with judges, scholars, and authorities on constitutional law”. B. N. Rau - WikipediaQUOTEThe Constituent Assembly's resolution setting up the Drafting Committee, under the chairmanship of B. R. Ambedkar, declared that it was being set up to "Scrutinise the Draft of the text of the Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Adviser giving effect to the decisions taken already in the Assembly and including all matters ancillary thereto or which have to be provided in such a Constitution, and to submit to the Assembly for consideration the text of the Draft Constitution as revised by the Committee." There already was a Draft in existence when this Committee was set up. B. N. Rau - WikipediaUNQUOTESo while I cannot say how many or which other Constitutions Dr.Ambedkar had studied in the process of finalising the draft of the Constitution, Sir B.N.Rau does certainly seem to have studied the Constitutions of USA, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom while preparing the first draft of the Constitution.