Ravi, a history student, reads the speech with which Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly. Nehru recalls the American and French Revolutions as earlier moments in the long struggle for freedom. Yet Ravi notices that Nehru does not lay down the exact political system India should have, and declares that Indians are not going just to copy others. Ravi's friend argues that Nehru was only borrowing Western thinking for India. Ravi wants to show his friend what Nehru really had in mind for the new Constitution.
Why, in Nehru's view, was no particular form of democracy laid down at this stage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The form had to be decided through deliberations among the members
Option (1) The form would be settled later by the Interim Government under Nehru — Incorrect. The Interim Government was a working administration under the Viceroy in 1946-47. Framing the Constitution belonged to the Assembly and its debates.
Option (2) The form had to be decided through deliberations among the members — Correct. Nehru did not fix the form of democracy in advance. He said it had to be <strong>decided through deliberations</strong>, so the system would fit the temper of the Indian people.
Option (3) The form had already been laid down in the Government of India Act of 1935 — Incorrect. The 1935 Act was a law made by the British Parliament. Nehru wanted a Constitution that fitted the temper of the Indian people, worked out afresh by the Assembly.
Option (4) The form was to be left to each province to decide for itself — Incorrect. Nehru spoke of one system for the whole country, shaped by the Assembly's discussions. The choice of democracy stayed with the Assembly as a whole.
NCERT (2026-27): “2. The Vision of the Constitution … |