Musings On The Constitution-V Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan Before we tuck into the importance and justification to read and rely on constitutional history and debates in the Constituent Assembly, as a legal tool, in judicial decision making , let us check out the prime actors in the framing of our Constitution
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
Before we tuck into the importance and justification to read and rely on constitutional history and debates in the Constituent Assembly, as a legal tool, in judicial decision making , let us check out the prime actors in the framing of our Constitution. Just as in the United States, where 12 of the Founders came to the fore, as the leading lights, we have our share too, in the making of our Constitution. One name B.N.Rau, gets talked of all the time. But not in the same breath as others. He was a consultant to the Constituent Assembly in the framing of our Constitution. He towered above the rest, including Dr.Bhimarao Ambedkar, as Babasaheb himself conceded on more than one occasion as the ‘prime architect’, as the author of the draft presented for deliberation by the Assembly. Who was he?
Sir Benegal Narsing Rau, CIE, (26 February 1887 – 30 November 1953) was an Indian civil servant, jurist, diplomat and statesman known for his key role in drafting the Constitution of India. He was also India’s representative to the United Nations Security Council from 1950 to 1952. His brothers were Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Benegal Rama Rau and journalist and politician B. Shiva Rao. One of the foremost Indian jurists of his time, Rau helped draft the constitutions of Burma in 1947 and India in 1950. As India’s representative on the United Nations Security Council (1950–52), he was serving as president of the council when it recommended armed assistance to South Korea (June 1950). Later he was a member of the Korean War post Armistice United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC).
A graduate of the Universities of Madras and Cambridge, Rau entered the Indian civil service in 1910. After revising the entire Indian statutory code (1935–37), he was knighted (1938) and made judge (1939) of the Bengal High Court at Calcutta (Kolkata). His writings on Indian law include a noted study on constitutional precedents as well as articles on human rights in India. He served briefly (1944–45) as Minister of Jammu and Kashmir state. From February 1952 until his death, he was a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, The Hague. Before his election to the court, he was regarded as a candidate for secretary-general of the United Nations.
B. N. Rau was born at Karkal in South Kanara on 26 February 1887. After completing his education in Madras and Cambridge, he cleared his civil services examination in 1909 and joined the services in 1910. His career in the civil services was enviable. During his early years as a civil servant, Rau was posted as assistant magistrate and collector in various districts of Assam and Bengal. In 1920, the chief commissioner of Assam requested his services. Thereafter in 1925, Rau was appointed as the Legal Remembrancer and Secretary to the Government of Assam in the legislative department and Secretary to the legislative council .Rau’s reputation as a legislative and constitutional expert grew during this stint.
At the peak of his career, Rau was thus placed at the most significant moment in Indian political history, namely the transition of power and the making of the Indian constitution. In advising the constituent assembly, Rau sought to combine his vast administrative experience of colonial India and his phenomenal juristic knowledge from other countries in the world. Even prior to his appointment asthe constitutional advisor, Rau had written several notes and drafts on a future constitution for India. As the constitutional advisor, Rau, in addition to drafting also attended several subcommittee meetings that met separately and which deliberated on different aspects of the constitution. Most significantly, perhaps, Rau was a member of the drafting committee of the constitution and in the process worked very closely with Ambedkar on deciding the finer aspects of the constitution before the draft was placed before the assembly in 1948.
B.N Rau
Historians have not accorded due credit that it was BN Rau who was appointed as the adviser to the Constituent Assembly, and as the expert who did the running around, meeting stalwarts, reading up and writing in, and worked on the democratic framework of the Constitution. He singlehandedly prepared the initial draft by February 1948, to be debated, revised and finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly, on November 26, 1949, yet he has not got the accolades, he possibly deserved.The Drafting Committee, under the chairmanship of Ambedkar, declared that the ‘Draft Constitution’ was being scrutinised thoroughly by adviser BN Rau for making it one of the world’s best Constitutions.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of the Constituent Assembly, signing the Constitution of India, as passed by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950.
President of Constituent Assembly Rajendra Prasad, just before signing the Constitution on November 26, 1949, thanked Rau profusely for having “worked honorarily” assisting the assembly not only with his knowledge and erudition but enabling the other members to perform their duties with thorough prudence. Rau was not a member of the Constitutional Assembly but was the most important expert who did the primary thinking and writing .While Ambedkar has rightly been anointed as the father of the Constitution and a legal icon, B N Rau, cannot be said to have been recognised, as well, for his dedicated service to the nation. In the words of Ambedkar B N Rau was the ‘principal architect’, yet very rarely we have heard any of our front line politicians even acknowledging Rau’s role. One wonders, how many of us are even aware of his presence and role.
Arvind Elangovan an associate professor of history at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, has in his book , Norms and Politics: Sir Benegal Narsing Rau in the Making of the Indian Constitution, 1935-50, published in 2019, flagged off the role of B N Rau in the Making of our Constitution, filled up a huge vacuum of sorts. He writes, ´In the chronicles of the Indian Constitution, it is usually rare to see the name of Sir Benegal Narsing Rau (1887-1953) mentioned with any prominence. There are at least two good historical reasons for the same. Firstly, Rau was a bureaucrat, a distinguished one, and as such played a vital role in the administrative machinery but mostly away from the public eye. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, after independence, the dominant story of the Indian Constitution was written fundamentally as a story of successful Indian nationalism. He was perhaps the best example of someone who consistently embodied and exhibited a constitutional temperament to address the pressing political problems of the day.
No issues on the constitutional scholarship of B N Rau. What of his character as a man and a bureaucrat, the stuff he grew into from a village in South Kanara. A simple letter and an episode….
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(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)
