In 1946, Hansa Mehta, the activist for freedom and human rights, wrote about the work of drafting a constitution for the country that would soon be independent from British colonial rule. This task, she remarked, could not be taken up by men alone: “The future constitution of the country will affect both men and women equally. Women, therefore, have as much interest in it [Constituent Assembly] as men have, perhaps, more, for women would like to see that the new constitution is based on democratic principles and that no disability attaches to any citizen on the grounds of caste, creed, or sex and that it provides equal rights and equal opportunities for women in all spheres of human activities.”
Hansa Mehta addressing the Constituent Assembly on August 15, 1947. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
When the Indian Constitution was finally signed on January 24, 1950, by the representatives of “We, the People” who had drafted it, the signatories on that remarkable document included 11 women. It is important to list their names, bringing them into the foreground from the erasure of the “founding fathers” discourse: G. Durgabai, Ammu Swaminathan, Amrit Kaur, Dakshayani Velayudhan, Hansa Mehta, Renuka Ray, Sucheta Kripalani, Purnima Banerji, Begum Qudsiya Aizaz Rasul, Kamala Chaudhri and Annie Mascarene. Indeed, when the Constituent Assembly was first formed, it had 15 women members; two more women were elected later. In 1946, Hansa Mehta expressed satisfaction that women comprised about 5% of the total membership of the Constituent Assembly, not a great number in a body that took its decisions by vote, but nevertheless, a considerable victory for women, “considering the great scramble for seats by men.”
In the course of the work, however, some members would leave. Unfortunately, seats vacated by women members were filled by men. Speaking in the Constituent Assembly, Purnima Banerji expressed disappointment about this: “Women could have also filled up these places with equal merit and they should have been invited to do so.”
Amrit Kaur on Time Magazine’s special cover celebrating 100 exceptional women since 1920, with the caption, ‘Amrit Kaur (1947): championing an independent India’. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
Active participation
Going beyond the archival narrative of the formal Constituent Assembly Debates, Achyut Chetan examines the records of committee and subcommittee proceedings, petitions, journalistic writings, and private correspondence in Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic: Gender Politics of the Framing of the Constitution to show how women participated actively, and especially backstage, in articulating the principles of equality, freedom, and human rights that would go on to articulate their vision of the Constitution of India.
Hansa Mehta with Eleanor Roosevelt at the UN Commission on Human Rights, on June 1, 1949, in New York. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
Women members of the Constituent Assembly came from different backgrounds. Hansa Mehta, Amrit Kaur, Renuka Ray, Aizaz Rasul, Ammu Swaminathan, Purnima Banerji, and Sucheta Kripalani had been actively involved with the All-India Women’s Conference ever since it was set up in 1927. Though not associated with the AIWC, pioneering women like G. Durgabai and Dakshayani Velayudhan had been active in working for equality. As a political prisoner in Vellore in 1932, Durgabai had seen the difficult conditions of women convicts. Their desperate need for free legal aid in order to obtain justice had motivated her to study law.
A painting of the wedding ceremony of Dakshayani and R. Velayudhan, presided over by Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
Unlike other privileged members of the Constituent Assembly, Dakshayani Velayudhan, born in the Pulaya caste in Kochi, was the first girl in her community to wear an upper cloth; the first Dalit woman in India to graduate from college; and the only Dalit woman member of the Constituent Assembly. Her marriage to Dalit leader R. Velayudhan was presided over by Gandhi and Kasturba at Wardha.
Resisting erasure
The work of drafting the Constitution was a massive project. The Constituent Assembly had its first meeting on December 11, 1946. After 169 meetings, the proceedings of which are recorded in the Constituent Assembly Debates, the members finally signed the document on January 24, 1950. During this time, the same body functioned as Constituent Assembly (Legislative), from August 15, 1947 until the day the Constitution was adopted. Thus, in addition to the abstract work of drafting the Constitution, its members were engaged in the day-to-day business of legislative work. Women members worked tirelessly and tactically on committees such as the Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee and the Minorities Sub-Committee, the Advisory Committee, and the Steering Committee. As co-authors in the great project of drafting the Constitution, they not only expressed their will in the formulation of the document, but also wrote several notes of dissent, marked with the signatures of individual women, meant, as Chetan observes, “to resist the erasing march of the collective, oral debates.”
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Sarojini Naidu at the Shimla Conference in 1945. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
Finally, Chetan reminds us that decades of advocacy and work on the ground had preceded women’s participation in co-drafting the Constitution. To give just one example: in 1931, at its Karachi session, the Indian National Congress adopted its landmark resolution on fundamental rights. Nevertheless, women were paying close attention not only to the rights enumerated in the resolution, but also the language in which these rights were defined. Thus, as a member of the AICC, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay objected to the use of the word ‘protection’ in an article of the resolution which declared ‘Protection of women workers, and specially adequate provisions for leave during maternity period’ as a fundamental right. Kamaladevi demanded that the word ‘protection’ be replaced with the word ‘attention.’ She asserted that women would “not tolerate protection from anybody, not even the State,” as the word was patronising and implied an inferior position.
Founding Mothers is a powerfully moving read. A fascinating narrative about women’s solidarity and perseverance, it is an important addition to the history of the drafting of the Constitution and the formation of India.
Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic: Gender Politics of the Framing of the Constitution; Achyut Chetan, Cambridge University Press, ₹1,095.
The reviewer is in the IAS.
