It is generally considered that
the constitution of India is the world's longest constitution. At the time of
inauguration, it had 395 articles in twenty two parts and eight schedules. It
contains almost eighty thousand words. Now it may come in your minds that who
wrote such a long Constitution and in how many days? So, the ball is almost in
the court of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, as he was the chairman of the drafting committee
of the Constituent Assembly, but at bottom there were many experts from every
caste and religion, who brightened up the constitution with the ink of their
bloods.
In fact the movement of legislation started from the time of Mr. Ramzy
MacDonald, when he became the Prime Minister of Britain in 1929. So on the
recommendation of Sir John Simon’s Commission, a round table conference was
called.
This was because Indian people were almost fed up with the tyranny and injustice
of British rule, their oppressions grew more and more, and even some of them
thought it inhuman. This resulted in the round table conference in 1930. But
alas! that opportunity was prey to politicians; Muslim League and Indian
Congress started fighting, and the political situation of India deteriorated.
On 8th August 1940, the Viceroy of India Lord Linlithgow made a statement about
the expansion of the Governor-General's Executive Council and the establishment
of a War Advisory Council. This offer, known as the August Offer, included
giving full weight to minority opinions and allowing Indians to draft their own
constitution. Then under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946, on 9th December 1946
the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly was held in the constitution hall
(now the Central Hall of Parliament House).
At the end of 1946 and by the early months of 1947 the Members of the Muslim
League participated in the constituent assembly, but in the wake of the
partition of the sub-continent in 1947, which resulted to the creation of
Pakistan and India, many members of the Muslim League became the founders of the
Pakistan's constitution, while its 28 members and other elected members from
different states and different castes and religions approved the draft of Indian
constitution on 26th of November 1949. And the new constitution was implemented
on 26th of January 1950, and on this very day we commemorate Republic Day.
Here is a question, may stick in your minds that after the partition how many
Muslim members were in Indian Constituent Assembly and where is their history?
This is because today the history revolves around only few names, like Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad and so on, while there were 28 Muslim members from Muslim League
and others from different states, who not only participated in the constituent
assembly, but they brightened up the constitutions with their tremendous skills
in knowledge, fair analysis, and wise evidence.
According to the list of the members in 1949, there were 12 percent Muslim
members in the Constituent Assembly that is 35 out of 302 members. And this is
the account of those Muslim members whose names are scattered here and there in
the books and the articles, while I do not know how many were prey to the
religious prejudice and the bias of those wrote Indian history.
It is well-known fact that a man though tries hard to hide something from the
real history, but the context of the history leads its students to all its
hidden aspects. After I bent over backwards through the histories, related to
the members of Indian Constituent Assembly, I found such Muslim faces in the
lists, who were, so smart, educated and were beacons of the knowledge among the
members of the Constituent Assembly.
The role and the contribution of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad could never be
overlooked, who was inducted in the Constituent Assembly to draft India's
constitution. Under his tenure, a number of measures were undertaken to promote
the constitution. He played a prominent role to keep the Constitution, balanced
and equal to the people of multi-religious, multilingual and multi-ethnic
country of India. And he asked for the betterment of education system. As he
became the first Education Minister of India he established many educational
foundations in India. He is recognized by celebrating his birthday as "National
Education Day" across India.
From the very first the word ''minority'' was the misery for Indians, and it was
Mr. Tajamul Husain, who condemned the use of this word in the Assembly saying:
“The term minority is a British creation. When the British are gone and the term
minority has to go with them. Please remove the term minority from your
dictionary. There is no minority in India, we just have different modes of
worship.”
Begam Aziz Rasul was the only Muslim woman in the constituent assembly, from
United Provinces. She drew attention to several amendments for important issues
like the need for ministers to hold office for a good period to get enough time
to do work of real impact. At the time of partition, the minority felt unsure
for their future, she supported the minority and said in the legislative
assembly: "To my mind reservation is a self-destructive weapon which separates
the minorities from the majority for all time. It gives no chance to the
minorities to win the good-will of the majority. It keeps up the spirit of
separatism and communalism alive which should be done away once and for all."
Despite the issues of minorities, the Muslim members drew attentions of other
members to the numerous amendments and revisions, and they analyzed them fairly
to make the constitution effective and applicable. These Muslims were not only
well versed with the law, but also had knowledge of constitutions of other
countries as many of them were lawyers and barristers.
But alas! Nothing was captured by the pen on the lives and achievements of these
unparalleled history makers till now. In fact the constitution, but the history
of India, whatsoever, can never be completed or polished without Muslims. We
would have acted with wisdom and without prejudice on the concerns of our
benefactors, formulated an action plan upon their commands and principles; then
surely we could hit our target by now. Then India would have been in a better
shape, than it is now.
Members of Indian Constituent Assembly are as follows:
(1)Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
(November 11, 1888- February 22, 1958)the first education Minister of India.
(2) Abdul Kadar Mohammad Shaikh
(3)Abul Kashem Khan
(April 5, 1905 – March 31, 1991) Best known as A. K. Khan. He was a Bengali
lawyer, industrialist and politician (4) Abdul Hamid
(5)Abdul Halim Ghaznavi
(1876-1953) was a politician, patron of education and culture, zamindar and
industrialist. (6)Sayyed Abdur Rouf
(7)Choudhary Abid Hussain
(8)Shaikh Mohammed Abdullah
(December 1905 –8 September 1982)
(9)Syed Amjad Ali
(1907 – 5 March 1997)
(10)Asaf Ali
(11 May 1888 – 1 April 1953), was and noted as an Indian lawyer. He was the
first ambassador from India to the United States. He also worked as the governor
of Odisha.
(11)Bashir Husain Zaidi
best known as B.H. Zaidi, (1898 - 29 March 1992) was a member of the first Lok
Sabha. He also served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India from
United Province (later Uttar Pradesh). He was awarded Padma Vibhushan.
(12) B. Pocker Sahib Bahadur
(1890-1965) was an Indian lawyer and politician and the member of Indian
Constituent Assembly.
(13)Begum Aizaz Rasul
(1908–2001) was an Indian politician and the only Muslim woman among the member
of the Constituent Assembly of India.
(14)Hyder Hussain
(15)Hasrat Mohani
(16)Hussain Imam
(17)Jasimuddin Ahmad
(18)K. T. M. Ahmed Ibrahim
Members of Indian Constituent Assembly are as follows:
(19)Kazi Syed Karimuddin
MA, LLB (19 July 1899 -14 November 1977) He was a member of the Constituent
Assembly of India from Madras.
(20)K.A.Mohamed
(21)Latifur Rahman
(22)Mohamed Ismail Sahib
(1896–1972) was an Indian politician belonging to the Indian Union Muslim
League. He was a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, and a member of
the Indian Parliament - both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Also he served as a
member of the Indian Constituent Assembly . He is popularly known in his native
states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala by the title of "Quaid-e-Millat" (Leader of the
Nation)
(23)Mahboob Ali Baig Sahib Bahadur
(Was one of the prominent member of Indian constituent assembly, played a key
role in representing the minority, and specially he added protective clause
regarding freedom of religion and caste.)
(24)Muhammad Ismail Khan
(25)Mohd. Hifzur Rahman
(26)Mohammad Tahir
(27)Shaikh Muhammad Abdullah
(5th December 1905 –8th September 1982) was an Indian politician and a member of
the Indian Constituent Assembly from J&K
(28)Mirza Mohmmad Afzal Beg, (29)Maulana Mohammad Sayeed Masoodi
(30)Naziruddin Ahmad,
(31)Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
(February 18, 1894- October 24, 1954, New Delhi, India)
(32)Raghib Ahsan,
(33)Syed Jafar Imam,
(34) Sir Syed Muhammad Saadulla
(21 May 1885 - 8 January 1955) was the first Chief Minister (Then called Prime
Minister) of Assam.
(35)Tajamul Hussain