The Constitution of India — An Introduction

About this chapter

The Constitution of India — An Introduction is the tenth chapter of Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond Part 1, sitting under the theme 'Governance and Democracy'. It opens with the Republic Day parade at Kartavya Path, notes that the original Constitution is preserved in a helium-filled glass case in Parliament, and then explains what a constitution is — a rulebook that lays down the framework of the three organs of government (legislature, executive, judiciary), checks and balances, rights and duties of citizens, and long-term goals. The chapter walks through how the Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946 with 389 members (reduced to 299 after Partition, of whom 15 were women), how Dr. Rajendra Prasad chaired it and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee, and how the Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950. It then traces three influences — the freedom movement, India's civilisational heritage (vasudhaiva kutumbakam, Fundamental Duties), and learnings from other countries (liberty-equality-fraternity from France, DPSP from Ireland, independent judiciary from the USA) — before listing key features (Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties, DPSP, three-tier government, 73rd Amendment 1992 for Panchayati Raj, 42nd Amendment 1976 adding 'socialist' and 'secular'), and ending with the Preamble's seven values: Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic, Justice-Liberty-Equality-Fraternity. CTET Paper 2 SST tests this chapter through dates (1946, 1949, 1950, 1976, 1992), key people (Ambedkar, Rajendra Prasad, Sachchidananda Sinha, Prem Behari Narain Raizada, Nandalal Bose), Preamble keywords, and the source country of borrowed features. The four tests — Practice 15, Quiz 15, Hard 15, Mastery 30 — cover all six topic clusters at CTET depth.