Development of the Constitution and Legislature in India

Abstract

The National Movement for freedom struggle in India and the evolvement of the constitution by way of the varied democratic experiment took place simultaneously on the national arena. A series of studies have been undertaken on the history of freedom movement. However, the authors have not bestowed much attention to the Democratic experiments and hence a comprehensive and critical study on the Democratic experiments in the Madras Presidency was found necessary. Democratic experiment took place in all the three presidencies in India. This study is an attempt to trace the Democratic exercises and experiments conducted in the Madras Presidency and how the present constitution was evolved out of the experiments. The study is based on the systematic observations of the day-to-day activities of the Legislators of the presidency method of elections, mode of participation, response of the people and other similar activities. An analysis of the content of the laws and resolutions passed by the legislature also fall in the purview of critical examination. It involves descriptive analysis based on the documents. Democratic experiments in the Madras presidency 1861 – 1935 is intended to explore the various exposures of the Indian people to the multi various British policies intended to satisfy them. It also explored the training ground of the Indians in the administration and law-making, which led them to develop a constitution to govern them.