Earlier this month, the world observed 2 December as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. This marked the 72nd anniversary of an important United N...

On 1 May 1947, Constituent Assembly members discussed an early version of the Constitution’s fundamental rights chapter that included a right to convert to other relig...

  (This Brief is part of a series that highlights the context, content and effect of important constitutional amendments that were passed in India after we enacted our ...

Union Home Minister, Amit Shah in his Hindi Diwas (14 September), speech urged Indians to be ‘atmanirbhar’ with languages, especially Hindi. The Union Defence Minister, Ra...

Recently, a few MLAs from Karnataka were inducted into the State cabinet. When they took their oaths, they invoked the name of specific gods like Gaumata, Seva Lal, Vijayn...

9 August marked the International Day of World’s Indigenous People. In India, indigenous people number around 104 million and comprise 8.6% of the population.  Adivasi or ...

In 1928, India sent an official contingent to the Olympics for the first time which included a hockey team. The team was captained by Jaipal Singh who had...

Vaccination programmes in India date back to the early 19th Century – the smallpox vaccine was one of the first initiatives. It was administered by the Vaccination and San...

Around 108 years ago, on 21 April, hundreds from the Pulaya (a Dalit community in Kerala) and other lower-caste communities came together on small boats on Kerala’s backwa...

Constitutionofindia.net has come a long way since we launched the site on Republic Day in 2016. The first version of the site contained human tagged searchable transcripts...

On March 25, 1953, the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru announced the creation of India’s very first linguistic State – Andhra Pradesh. Three years later Par...

Today, 12 March marks the 91st anniversary of the Gandhi led Salt March. We have already looked at the Salt March through the lens of historical constitutions in the This ...

The Draft Constitution of India 1948 contained a right to freedom of speech and expression. However, this right was not absolute, limitations were placed on this right. On...

On 1 February 2021, the democratically elected government of Myanmar was dismissed and in marched the Army. The sovereign powers of the Myanmar State were transferred to t...

In September 2020, the People’s Movement for the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh passed a resolution stating that they would boycott Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council e...

In May 1951, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress party proposed the first amendment, which made the following modifications to the fundamental rights: Article 19 was amended...

18th December of every year is celebrated as Minorities Rights Day in India: to highlight the constitutional minority rights – specifically religious minorities. In this b...

Last week, a comic artist, Rachita Taneja, was charged with contempt of court, because her work (a satirical cartoon) portrayed the Supreme Court being biased towards the ...

Two recent tv shows – A Suitable Boy and Indian Matchmaking– have reaffirmed what many have always known: that religion, class, and caste have always been important consid...

Today, 26th November, is nationally celebrated as Constitution Day. It was on this day in 1949 that the Constituent Assembly formally adopted the Constitution of India, af...

Sunday (15 November) was Jharkhand Foundation Day. On that day in 2000, the state of Jharkhand was formally established through the Bihar State Reorganization Act.  Sin...

The ongoing U.S. presidential elections are the most contentious in recent memory. Even before Election Day on 3rd November, over 300 lawsuits had been filed challenging v...

Today, 113 years ago, Bhagat Singh was born in undivided Punjab. His role in the Indian freedom movement has been immortalised in literature, art, and film owing to his dr...

In August 2020, the Supreme Court in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma held that Hindu women could claim equal rights as men in ancestral property. Although the Hindu Succes...

Protestors who had assembled to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed African-American man, in the city of Kenosha in Wisconsin, were recently targeted by an arm...

India, unlike many other nations, adopted universal adult franchise immediately after it gained independence. Under British rule, franchise was subject to certain qualific...

The National Education Policy, released in July 2020, has proposed major reforms to India’s education system. It reiterates the controversial ‘three-language formula’ whic...

Since independence, the Central Government has released three different policy frameworks for the Indian education system. The first and second, known as the National Po...

A petition before the Supreme Court has asked it to declare the insertion of the words ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ by the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976 as unconsti...

Our blog post over the weekend looked at how the Constituent Assembly reacted to proposals that wanted to include referendums into the Constitution. Today, we highlight an...

26 January 1950 was a momentous day in history: not only did the Constitution of India, 1950 come into force, but India also became a republic – marking the first time tha...

Most of us know that the Constituent Assembly of India sat on 165 days to draft India’s Constitution over a period of 2 years and 11 months. But did you know that the memb...

Myanmar is due to hold general elections on November 8th, in an event that is widely seen as a test of the country’s transition to democracy. Much as when it gained indepe...

On 27 June 2020, the National Constitution Society along with the Centre for Law and Policy Research will organise a webinar on Prisoners & the Pandemic: Health, Safet...

The Supreme Court recently dismissed a plea to rename India as Bharat by amending Article 1 of the Constitution. Article 1(1) of the Draft Constitution, 1948, declared tha...

The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, recently declared that Delhi hospitals were closed to non-residents of the state. Although the order was overruled by the Lie...

The death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, at the hands of a white police officer has sparked large-scale protests across the world. Floyd’s death has ser...

Defined as ‘keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home’, social distancing has been prescribed as the most effective counter to the spread of COV...

On 24th November 1948, B.H. Khardekar stood up in the Constituent Assembly to speak for the first time. He confessed he was nervous, and told members that he had never spo...

The impact of the ongoing pandemic on the world economy has caused many states to announce economic stimulus packages. Some commentators have described this move as social...

The ongoing lockdown in India has resulted in economic insecurity for millions of people, particularly those working as casual or daily wage labourers. Migrant workers wer...

For almost a month now, the Central and State Governments have issued extraordinary orders to battle COVID-19: travel has been banned, national and state borders have ...

COVID-19 continues to test the resolve of nations – their institutions, leaders and people. India too is in the thick of this global fight. While COVID-19 is unique ...

The Supreme Court of India is one of the unique apex courts in the world. It acts as an appellate and constitutional court. The Constitution of India, 1950 mandates the Co...

On the eve of Republic Day this year, Mandakini Panda and Prithwik Mishra got married in Berhampur, Odisha taking their vows on the Indian Constitution. In Karnataka, gues...

This week, India celebrated Constitution Day.  26 November 2019 marked the 70th anniversary of the Constituent Assembly adopting the Constitution. In a joint parliament...

Exactly 70 years ago, on 26 November 1949, Constituent Assembly President Rajendra Prasad for the last time put a question to the house - President: It now remains to p...

On 31st August 1949, the Constituent Assembly was slotting 'items' into the Union and State Lists. The Union government would have legislative and executive power over the...

The Indian freedom movement sought total Independence from British colonial rule but saw India firmly tethered to the world affairs. When Indians were drafting their Const...

There is a dominant view that Gandhi's role in constitution-making was minor. Gandhi’s vision of basing India’s federal, political and administrative set up on the panchay...

Last week, on Hindi Diwas, Union Minister Amit Shah controversially suggested that Hindi be adopted as India's national language. Sure enough, this triggered push back ...