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THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
395 Articles, organised into 25 Parts and 12 Schedules, make up the Constitution of India

PARTS
Each Part collates Articles on specific themes. E.g. Fundamental Rights in Part III.

SCHEDULES
Each Schedule contains provisions necessary to apply related Articles.

Original Manuscript

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HISTORICAL CONSTITUTIONS
The Constitution of India 1950 was preceded by British authored framework legislation to govern India, and proto-constitutional drafts by several Indian individuals and groups. These Historical Constitutions are archived here.

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES
The Constitution of India 1950 was drafted by a Constituent Assembly. 167 days of plenary assembly debates from 9 December 1946 to 24 January 1950 are archived here.

Browse digitised, edited and paragraph-numbered versions of critical primary materials related to the Indian Constitution and its origins.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Documents prepared by smaller groups of Constituent Assembly members which conducted preliminary research and advanced recommendations on specific constitutional topics.
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Travel through the various stage of the constitution-making process, discover the contributions of diverse institutions, and learn more about the framers of the Constitution through their biographies.

THE CONSTITUTION FRAMERS
Learn about the members of the Constituent Assembly, the role they played in India’s freedom movement and their contributions to constitution-making.

STAGES OF CONSTITUTION-MAKING
A stage-by-stage overview of the drafting of the Constitution of India 1950. Begin with our popular video on the making of the Indian Constitution.
INSTITUTIONS
The Constitution of India 1950 was drafted by the collective work of the following institutions:

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
A 389-member body responsible for drafting India’s Constitution.

COMMITTEES
Committees were created by the Constituent Assembly comprising smaller groups of members delegated with various responsibilities.

CONGRESS ASSEMBLY PARTY
An unofficial forum consisting of Assembly members belonging to the Indian National Congress that met on the side-lines of the Assembly.
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GOI.347

26. (1) In the foregoing provisions of this Schedule the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them, that is to say:—

” a European ” means a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent and who is not a native of India;

” an Anglo-Indian ” means a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is a native of India;

” an Indian Christian ” means a person who professes any form of the Christian religion and is not a European or an Anglo-Indian;

” the scheduled castes ” means such castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes, being castes, races, tribes, parts or groups which appear to His Majesty in Council to correspond to the classes of persons formerly known as ” the depressed classes”, as His Majesty in Council may specify; and

” prescribed ” means prescribed by His Majesty in Council or, so far as regards any matter which under this Act the Federal Legislature or the Governor-General are competent to regulate, prescribed by an Act of that Legislature or by a rule made under the next succeeding paragraph.

(2) In this paragraph the expression ” native of India ” has the same meaning as it had for the purposes of section six of the [33 & 34 Vict. c. 3.] Government of India Act, 1870, and accordingly it includes any person born and domiciled within the dominions of His Majesty in India or Burma of parents habitually resident in India or Burma and not established there for temporary purposes only.