The main concepts governing the Constitution were:
India to remain undivided under the Presidential form of government with provision for Pakistan;
Provinces to remain undivided without any territorial readjustments, Muslims majority provinces to be permanently ruled by Muslim governor and Hindu permanently to be headed by Hindu governors;
President and governors not to belong to any party; they would be chosen or elected from among the civil servants;
Civil service to be evolved to new dimensions; the test examinations in abstracts subjects to be radically amended to make a civil servant fully fledged for governing a free and virile people; to be endowed with qualities of body as well as head and heart so that every town and village in his regime became a colony of people masters of their own destiny; the type of men India was producing to serve the purposes of British Empire to disappear at the first sight;
A living personality to be responsible for safeguarding fundamental rights of the citizen; for this purpose, the President of India to have only one duty and one portfolio in his possession, that of safeguarding the Fundamental Rights of Man.
Hunger was the main cause of India’s suffering, and India was hungry because it fed others so liberally and obligingly that it preferred to starve itself. Even the low standard of moral virtues was considered due to absence and scarcity of food.
The question of raw materials of a dependent and slave countries like India, selling at a price one hundred times lower than Europe manufactured article of equal weight, was ultimately question of the cheap wages to which laborers of slave countries submit on account of pressure of exploitation by ruling nations and the low margin of profits of capitalists of enslaved countries who export these raw materials.
Democracy is not rule by a single dominant party, but by all parties, spreading its utility to all people irrespective of their large or small number..
The main features of the Constitution prepared in the light of these concepts were listed follows.
This keynote of the Constitution is simply of administration, its efficiency and complete absence of Hindu Muslim tension in any quarter. for this purpose one President at the Center, whether Hindu or Muslims, for three years, with no prime ministers, vice-premiers, vice-presidents etc., of opposite denominations to make government a tug-of-war between political parties, has been made the rule, the President of India and the Governors shall be men above all parties and shall be chosen from the Indian Civil Services (as the Governors are chosen now by the British) after a thorough experience of the whole machinery of Government extending over 25 to 35 years. for three years the Hindu President shall rule India, to be followed by the President shall choose a panel of five Muslim names from among Provincial Governors or Ex-Governors fit in his estimation for the post of President, and shall put this panel before a grand assemblage of the Central and all Provincial Assemblies and the Muslim who secures the highest number of votes in this grand assemblage shall be the next President for three years and vice versa. For the Hindu Provinces of Bombay, Madras, U.P, Bihar, C.P. and Orissa there shall always be Hindu Governors and for the remaining five provinces always Muslims President rests on the Hindu President and vice versa from among the provincial Governors, no Hindu or Muslim Governors shall ever deal with Muslim or Hindu minorities unjustly.
The President as well as the Governors shall choose their cabinets of ministers from parties in the assemblies in fixed proportions of the communities, and being the elected non-party heads of vast experience who have served India throughout their lives, shall possess wide veto-powers over their cabinets and assemblies, in order to see that no party crushes the other party or community. Thus they will possess kingly qualities along with their being fully elected rulers. In the Centre, Hindu and Muslim shall get 40% seats each, Scheduled Castes 10%, Christians 3%, Sikhs 4%, Janis 1%, Buddhists 1%; in the Provinces the same percentage of seats as now given in the Govt. of India Act with the non-communal seats equally divided among the Hindu and the Muslim. Thus the condition of Hindu and Muslim minorities in the Provinces will greatly improve by this device.
There is virtually joint electorate at the top of the Administration as the Hindu President is chosen by the Muslim President and vice-versa. In order to remove the oppression of the rich over the poor there shall be three classes of constituencies, class I for the very poor class of a community, class II for the middle class and class III for the very rich class, and no vote for any class shall be elected by the vote of the inferior class. Franchise shall be on the basis of qualified adult suffrage. Village panchayat system shall be introduced everywhere. Distinction between martial and non-martial races will be abolished. Compulsory military service in the time of dire necessity for all. Every Province in India shall have the right to secede from the Ventral Government and form a totally independent unit, thus providing full “Pakistan” for all time. Treaties with States shall be transferred intact to the Central Government, but they will be annulled as soon as a State becomes as fully democratic as Province, and then new treaties will become bi-lateral. The merger scheme shall not be enforced, but small States can join the Provinces adjacent to them as “district” of the Province permanently ruled by hereditary ruler. The administration of all States shall be through a Council of Prince of 15 members almost exactly on the line of the Council of Ministers of President of India. Provinces will have autonomy.
Currency shall be measured by the WHEAT standard, a Rupee being always that coin which buys at least sixteen seers of wheat everywhere in India for all the time and all economies of the State shall be adjusted so as to solve the problem of HUNGER in India. Within 15 years from the attainment of freedom, a rupee shall buy thirty two seer of wheat everywhere. The external value of the rupee shall be three times this value in case of manufactured export and for times this value in case of raw exports, so that no foreign country may exploit the labor and raw materials of the country unduly.
Besides all the usual Fundamental Tights we have in this Constitution: every destitute mother to get Rs.2.p.m for her infant for 2 years, every year destitute family of dead bread winner to get Rs.2.p.m per person every destitute above seventy to get pension up to Rs.5.p.m., every unprotected child to be maintained by the state by grant up to Rs.10.p.m adequate measures for the protection of cows, improvement of general health by the establishment of Unani and Vedic systems, measures for extermination of tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy; no person to be detained without trail, none to be kept under police vigilance without his knowledge, imprisonment of under-trail person to be counted in his punishment, prohibition of corporal punishment, abolition of capital punishment, freedom for use of Jhatka for Sikhs, Muslims rights to call Azan everywhere, and for cow-slaughter in private places, the prohibition of Bande Mat ram song in mixed public gathering, option for a boy to attend adverse religious instruction lectures in denominational school and hospitals; abolition of all forced labor and beggar, for laborer decent living wage, healthy conditions of works , limited hours of labor , sickness and casual leave indemnities for diseases incident to professions, sanitary quarters and facilities for education of children , also suitable machinery for settlement of disputes with employees; adequate and facilities for education of women-workers; prohibition of child labor; for the small peasant no land-revenue, establishment of equality between the urban and the rural tax-payer; abolition of incapacities to buy land, effective revival of small industries in villages, special pension for children of soldiers who have fought in the recent world wars and measures to help their re-settlement; special measures to make justice prompt, cheap and in situ, curtailment of litigation among peasant, and general separation of the judiciary from the executive; full freedom of the Press; full recognition for the protection of Services adequate measures for reduction of agricultural indebtedness.
Among the Caste Hindus the High Caste Hindus to get 25% share, backward Hindus to get 10% share, and Dravidians to get the 5% out of the 40% fixed for them; among the Muslims the well-to-Sunnis to get 25% the well-to-do Shiahs 5% and Backward Muslims (including Momins) to get 10% out of their 40% fixed for the; the protection of personal law of the Hindus the protection of personal law of the Muslims, the institution of Shari at courts, the managements of Waqfs, the passing a zakat Acts everywhere and the proper management of incomes from waqf properties and zakat for Backward classes of all communities adequate shares in State Services, free education to their children up to 12 years, protection of handle loom industry, free use of vacant land in village abadis and of shamilat0i-deh and Patti lands for their cattle; for Scheduled Castes over and above all these rights protection from disgrace due to exhibition of untouchability, provision of drinking water well in every village, free education to children up top 12 years; for the Indian Christians and Anglo-Indians all privileges given to others in the same position, protection of English language, family law and personal status, protection of appointment of public services and of educational and other grants, due facilities for acquisition of land; for the Sikhs the protection of Punjabi language in Gurmukhi script, adequate facilities and concessions for grants-in-aid, education and franchise, protection of Sikh officials from humiliation by superior officers, special provisions for Mazhabi, Ramdasia and Ramgarhia Sikhs, etc., etc., adequate provision for Jains, Parsees, Buddhists, Jews, and Tribes.
The document was initially prepared by Allama Mashriqi and his inner circle but was finally scrutinized and initialed by two legal committees. The first committees was headed by George S. Arundale and consisted of 41 members and readers who included, among others, Moulvi Fazal Haq, Dr. Sir Zia-ud-din Ahmed and Professor Humayun Kabir. the second legal committee was presided over by Sir Currimbhoy Ibrahim and comprised 20 members; among them were Justice Sir Dulip Singh, Mr. Nalini Rajan Sarkar, Dr. Sayed Zafarul Has an and Nawab Sir Habibullah, Nawab of Dacca. three prominent journalists were also included in the second committees; they were F.W Bustin, Editor of the Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, Seth Nihal Singh of Dehra Dun and Jaochim Alva, editor Forum weekly, Bombay. Their reports were read by July 1945. Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru later visited Ichhra and gave his approval to the Constitution.
ALLAMA MASHRIQI.
