The Indian Constitution: Main Provisions

The Indian Constitution: Main Provisions
The Constitution of India lay s down a set of rules to which the ordinary laws of the country must
conform. It provides a framework for a democratic and parliamentary form of government. The
constitution also includes a list of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles—the first, a
guarantee against encroachments by the state and the second, a set of directives to the state to
introduce reforms to make those rights effective.
Though the decision to give India a parliamentary sy stem was not taken without serious debate,
y et the alternative—of panchay atbased indirect elections and decentralized government—did not
have widespread support. Espoused by some Gandhians, notably Shriman Naray an, this
alternative was discarded decisively in favour of a centralized parliamentary constitution.
The intellectual or emotional commitment of many members to socialism also confirmed the
conviction about parliamentary government. What most members desired ‘was not that socialism
be embodied in the constitution, but that a democratic constitution with a socialist bias be framed
so as to allow the nation in the future to become as socialist as its citizens desired or as its needs
demanded’