In the previous piece, this author had contended that the use of (a) “ancient land” to refer to this country in the Objectives Resolution of January 22, 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, and (b) “Bharat” in Article 1 as a synonym for “India”, was proof that the framers of the Constitution were conscious of the civilizational heritage and legacy of the Republic of India/Bharat. Given that no provision of the Constitution can be understood in its entirety without reference to its specific history, it becomes important to examine whether this author’s contention is supported by the history of Article 1.
While the history of the drafting of the Constitution deserves a separate discussion, for the purposes of the specific issue at hand, let us start from the point where the Draft Constitution prepared by the Drafting Committee was taken up for debate by the Constituent Assembly for the first time on November 15, 1948.
Yukti 