Rule of Law in India

Abstract

The independent state and its Constitution were immediately preceded by a long history of colonial rule, which although problematical from the nationalist point of view, had the most lasting impression on the choices made by the Constituent Assembly. Instead of reverting to a pre-British institutional set up, the Constitution of 1950 borrowed heavily from the previous constitution—the Government of India Act, 1935 while designing the framework of governance for the state. Perhaps this was the most practical option available under the circumstances; or may be the influence of modernity had robbed the founders of their capacity to imagine an alternative course for the nation. Probably, there was no concept of ‘nation’ for the pre-colonial non-moderns to work with in the first place, and so it was only natural that their institutional frameworks of government would not be of much relevance for the new Indian state. Whatever may have been the actual case, the point is that the Constitution did not signify a radical departure from the colonial regime, at least as far as its preferred mode of government was concerned