Holistic Coverage of Constitutional Development in India : Tips and tricks

Categories: Prelims, Published: 16th Apr, 2021

Constitution is the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it. It is a written instrument embodying the rules of a political or social organization. It is a method in which a state or society is organized and sovereign power is distributed. The constitution also resembles the democratic nature of any nation. Indian Constitution is quite vast and lengthy in nature. Before understanding the constitution we must understand the process behind the development of the constitution. Even in the UPSC Prelims Exam, the questions have been asked repeatedly from this section. About 1-2 questions are asked every year from this section.

Before moving to the sources of study and books that should be followed to cover this section let us first understand what led to the development of the constitution and what were the circumstances that gave rise to the development of the constitution. The constitutional development started to take shape quite earlier with the passage of certain acts, bills, and resolutions. Though these bills and acts were intended to benefit the British rule in India the impact of these over Indian masses can’t be ignored. The Previous Years Question Papers of UPSC Prelims reveal that these sections are often asked in the form of questions. The regulating act, Pits’ India Act, Indian Council Act, Government of India Act 1935remain the most popular choice of examiner. These areas often overlap with the GS Papers of Mains exam too. These areas are often having a lot of facts and figures that need to be memorized to fetch better marks in the exam. Apart from this area the features of constitution have been borrowed from the constitution of multiple countries. For an example maximum features have been taken from Government of India Act 1935 or British Constitution. Apart from this Australia, Germany, Soviet Union, France and America were few other countries from whose constitution the features were borrowed and assimilated in the Indian Constitution. These countries and the feathers borrowed too often forms an important segment from where the questions are asked.

Then comes the most important area that is a constituent assembly that was responsible to frame our constitution. But there are multiple events that occurred before the formation of the constituent assemblies such as the Cripps Mission, Cabinet Mission Plan and Mountbatten Plan. These events and incidents can be treated as a precursor to the formation of the constituent assembly. These areas should also be covered thoroughly by the students. The constituent assembly formation and its representation and election are also crucial to understand the constitution in a broader sense. Important portfolios and the head of committees too should be memorized.

The books that need to be followed is NCERT books of class 10, 11 and 12 . They will strengthen the foundation and help you to understand the entire process of constitution-making in lucid and simple manner. Apart from this M.Laxmikant and D.D Basu could be important book that can be referred for this .however this entire practice could be curtailed by following Prelims Sampoorna FactFile On Constitutional Development. This compilation has been released by GS Score one of the Top IAS Coaching in India. This compilation is detailed matter in crisp and lucid manner that can be useful during revision process. This Fact file could be fruitful in the consolidation of study material and thus ensuring the success of aspirants in the Civil Services Prelims Examination. The factfile has been designed by the team of scholars and teachers having vast experience in civil services examination and study materials related to this.