One great merit of this Constitution I consider is that the people of this country are not going to have a Constitution very much different from what they are familiar with during the last ten or twelve years. With the exception of responsibility at the Centre it is essentially the Act of 1935. I do not mean this, for the moment at any rate, as a sort of condemnation. I am prepared to regard it as a merit and not a demerit, because the people will not have much difficulty in understanding the Constitution. The Governors are there, the name of the Governor-General has been altered to the President, but essentially the whole superstructure of the constitution of 1935 remains intact. There is one important change which will bring about, I hope, a radical change in the social and political status and composition of the people in the country and that is adult franchise. Excepting for this there is very little in the Constitution to enthuse over. But that, namely adult franchise, is one factor which I think will make a tremendous difference to the nature of representation in the various legislative bodies. Although the superstructure will remain the same. I have no doubt that the underdog or the common man in India will have greater power in his hands and he will be able to wield it to the benefit of the whole country. I look at the Constitution from two distinct points of view and I consider it unsatisfactory from those points of view. Firstly, if we look at it from the point of view-of building a strong nation we have certainly discountenanced many binding forces which should have been useful and which are useful to all societies and all nations : I mean for instance the binding force of religion. At the present day I do not think in the whole world there is any other country which is so definitely irreligious as India is and on the excuse or on the fundamental principle of making our Constitution secular we have seen to it that there is not even a shadow of our religion reflected in our Constitution. I am not a very religious man myself but I think religion has and can certainly have a definite place in the life of every society and in the administrations of many States. I would not have minded if we had given some place to the noblest religion on earth, namely the Hindu religion, and even if we wanted that the Constitution should remain secular, even if we had declared that this shall be a Hindu State, I have not the slightest doubt that the Constitution would have remained as secular as we wanted it to be, because there is no religion on earth which is more secular in character than Hinduism (Hear, hear) I for one would have utilised, especially in a country like ours, the religion of India which our forefathers and ancestors have left us for the further unification and building up of the future Indian nation.
