Question

Q. The Nehru report was the first attempt by Indians in the direction of constitution making. In this context, consider the following statements:

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

• A. 1 and 2 only
• B. 2 and 3 only
• C. 1 and 3 only
• D. 1, 2 and 3

Answer 1

The correct option is C 1 and 3 only

Explanation:

This committee was headed by Motilal Nehru with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Secretary. Other members were Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Mangal Singh, M S Aney, Subhas Chandra Bose, Shuaib Qureshi and G R Pradhan. This was the first major attempt by Indians to draft a constitution for themselves.

Major recommendations:

• Dominion status for India (like Canada, Australia, etc.) within the British Commonwealth. (This point was a bone of contention with the younger set of leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose who favoured complete independence). Hence the 1st statement is correct.
• Nineteen fundamental rights including the right to vote for men and women above 21 years of age, unless disqualified.
• Equal rights for men and women as citizens.
• No state religion.
• No separate electorates for any community. It did provide for reservation of minority seats. It provided for reservation for seats for Muslims at the centre and in provinces where they were in a minority and not in Bengal and Punjab. Similarly, it provided for reservation for non-Muslims in the NWFP.
• A federal form of government with residual powers within the centre. There would be a bicameral legislature at the centre. The ministry would be responsible to the legislature. Hence the 2nd statement is incorrect.
• Governor-General to be the constitutional head of India. He would be appointed by the British monarch.
• A proposal for the creation of a Supreme Court.
• The provinces would be created along linguistic lines. Hence the 3rd statement is correct.
• The language of the country would be Indian, written either in Devanagari (Sanskrit/Hindi), Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi or Gujarati in character. Usage of English to be permitted.