1
Q
Define constitution
A
- A written document in which we find the constitutive rules that make up a country is called constitution
2
Q
How are rules formulatd when there are many people living together?
A
Through consensus
3
Q
A consensus is available is which format
A
Written
4
Q
Why do we need a constitution?
A
- It lays out certain ideals that form the basis of the kind of country that the citizens aspire to live in
It tells what the fundamental nature of the society is - A constitution helps serve a set of rules and principles that all people of a country can agree upon as the basis of the way in which they want the country to be governed
This not only includes the type of government but also an agreement on certain ideals they all belive the country should uphold - It states/defines the nature of a country’s political system
5
Q
Why should a constitution be careful about the rules it lays down
A
- A country is usualy made up of different communities who share certain beliefs but may not always agree on all issues
Thus, the constitution helps serve a set of rules and principles that all persons in a country can agree upon as the basis of the way in which they want the country t be governed
5
Q
When did the INC form a Contituent Assembly?
A
In 1934, the Indian National Congress made the demand for the constitent assembly
6
Q
What does the basis of the way in which the country should be governed encompass?
A
Type of government, certain ideals that everyone believes the country should uphold
7
Q
When was the consitution in the making
A
Between December 1946 and November 1949
8
Q
Describe the want for a consititution in WW2
A
During the second world war, the assertion for a independent constituent assemble formed of only indians gained momentum and was convened in December 1946
9
Q
What did the freedom struggle produce
A
Great idealism, which fueled the making of the constitution
10
Q
When was the previous Constitution of Nepal adopted?
A
1990
11
Q
Describe how the constitiution should give a basis of the country that the citizens aspire to live in through Nepal
A
- The previous consitution of Nepal , adopted in 1990, reflected the fact that the finl authority rested with the King
- A people’s movement was fought for decades and in 2006, they finally put an end to the monarchy and wrote a new Constitution to establish Nepal as a democracy
- They wanted to change the constitution as they did not feel lik the constitution reflected the ideals that the people wanted Nepal to be
12
Q
Give a summary of events that happened in Nepal.
A
- 1990: After a long time struggle, Nepal established democracy that lasted 12 years
- October 2002: King Gyanendra cited the Maoist uprising in the countryside as his reason and started to take over different aspects of the government with the help of his army
- February 2005: King Gyanendra took over as the head of the government
- November 2005: The Maoists joined other political parties and signed a 12 point agreement that signalled to the larger public an imminent return of democracy and peace
- 2006: The People’s Movement for democracy began with immense force and refused the small concessions the King gave
- April 2006: King restored the Third Parliament and asked the politcal parties to form the government
- 2008: Nepal officially abolished Monarchy and became democratic
13
Q
Explain where the constitution plays a role in decision making
A
In democratic socitis/ countries that have adopted a democratic form of government or polity, the Constitution plays a crucial role in laying out certain important guideloines that govern decision making within these societies
14
Q
What happens if there is bad leadership? What does the Constitution do to prevent it?
A
- If there is a bad leadership, there is a chance that the leaders might misuse their authority and the Constitution usually provides safeguards against it
- In democratic societies, the Constitution lays down rules that guard against the misuse of power/authority by political leaders
Many of these rules are under the Fundamental rights
15
Q
Talk about the right to equality
A
- It is in the Fundamental Rights section
- It states that no citizen can be discriminated aginst on the grounds of caste, gender, race, religion, place of birth etc
16
Q
What does misuse of authority lead to
A
Gross injustice
17
Q
When did Nepal adopt a new constitution
A
2015
18
Q
What is right to equality
A
one of the fundamental rights
19
Q
Define consituent
A
forming a part or constituent of something.
20
Q
Are all countries with a constitution democratic? Explain with an example
A
no.
nepal had a constitution for a long time for a monarchy
21
Q
Talk about dominant groups and how they affect stuff and what does the consititution do?
A
- An important funcion of a constitution plays in a democracy is to ensure that a dominant group does not use its power against less powerful or dominant groups or people
- These unhealthy situations can occur in democratic societies where a maority can continuosly eexclude minorities and their inerests
- Every society is prone to such tyranny
- The constitution contains rules that ensure minorities are not excluded from anything that is routinely available to the majority
- It also prevents tyranny or domination by the majority of a minority
22
Q
How does the constitution protect minorites? Explain briefly
A
- It ensures that a dominant group does no tuse its power against a less dominant or powerful people or groups
* In all socities, majorities can continuously enforce decisions that exclude minoritie and go against their interests. Every socity is prone to this tyranny and the Constitution provides safegurads against all this - It presevntstyranny or domination of a majority on a minority
* Refers to both intra-community or inter community - It makes sure that minoritie are not excluded from anything that is routinely available to the majority
23
Q
What is inter community domination and intra community domination
A
- Inter-community dominatin: Wheen one community dominates another
- Intra community: When members of one community dominate others within the same community
24
Can tyranny occur in democratic societies too? How?
They can continuosly enforce decisions that exclude minorities or go against their beliefs
25
Taljk about how the consitution "saves us from oursellves"
* Someitmes, the citizens of a country may at times feel strongly about an issue that may go against larger interests. The Constitution provides guards against this
* It protects us agaisnt certain decisions that we might take that could have an advere effect on the larger principles that the country belives in
* e.g. people might feel that India needs a good dictator without realsing dictatorship is terrible for everyone
* Constitutions does not alow these burts to overthrow the provisions that guanrantee rights of citizens and protect their freedom
26
Talk about what a good consitituon does in regards to its people's whims?
The Constitution does not allow sudden bursts of unhappiness change its basic structure
It does not allow for easy overthrow of provisions that guanrantee rights of citizens and protect their freedoms
27
Whatdoes a good constitution have? What are the constitutive rules that make up india?
* A good constitution has guards against all types of tyranny, injustice and bad rule. It enforces on key ideas and does not let easy overthrow of the constitutive rules.
CONSTITUTIVE RULES:
* It lays down ertain ideals that form the basis of the kind of country that we as citizens aspure to live in
* It tells what the fundamental nature of the country is
* It serves as a set of principles and rules that all persons in a country can agree upon as the basics of the way in which they want the country to be governed, whoch not only includes type of govt., but also an agreement on certain ideals that they all bnelieve the county must uphold
* It provides safeguards against leaders misusing their power, whci leads to gross injustice
* It gives Fundammental rights such as right to equality
* It protectst minorities and disallows a dominant groups from using its poer agianst less powerfula dn dominant people
* It stops majorities form continuolsy excluding minorities
* It makes sure that minorieties ae not excluded from thngs that the majority gets rountinely
* It stops tyrnanny or domination by a majority over a minority
* It protects us from ourselves
* It does not allow for easy overthrow of proviions taht guarantee rigt sof itzens and protect their freedom
28
From when ha the Indian Nstional movement been active?
from the beginnng og the 20th century, it had been active for several decades
28
Talk about how the assembly worked
* There was a great sense of unity amongst the members of the constituent assembly. Each of the provisions of the futre were discussed in great detail aand there was a sincere effort to compromise and reach an agreement through consensus
29
How many people forme the constitunt assembly? When and how did they meet?
300 members, who became memebrs of constituenty assembly in 1946 and met periodically for 3 years to write the consittuion
30
What were the nationalists convinced of after British rule?
The long experience of authoritarian rule under the colonial state convinced Insians that free India should be a democracy in which evertyone should be treared equallty and to be alloed to participate in the goverment
The nationalists had devoted a great deal of time to imagining and planning what a free India would be like. UNder the britiish, they had been forced to obey rules that they had lttle role in making
30
Talk about the difficulties faced by the constituent asesembly
THe memebers of the Assembly had a huge task before them
* The country was made of several different communities who spoke different kanguages, belonged to different religions and had a variety of cultures
* When the Constitution was being written, India was going through partion of the country into India and Pakistan was imminent and th Princely States remained undecided
* The socio-economic condition of the vast majority of people was sad and bad
* All these issues played on the minds of the members
31
Talk about the main goals of the consitituon when they worte it
* The members of the Constituent Assembly drafted a visionary document that reflects a respect for maintaining diversity while preserving national unity
* The final document also reflects their concern for eradicating poverty through social economic reforms
* They also wanted to emphasize the crucial role the people played in choosing the leader
* They wanted to make India a strong, democraic society
31
What were the core values?
diversity, unity, socio-economic reform and represnetaion of peopl
(RUSD: REPRESENTATION, UNITY, SOCIO ECONOMIC REFORM, DIVERSITY)
32
Define federalism
This refers to the existance of more than one level of government in the country. In India, there are governments at the state level, centre and the panchayati raj forms the third tier of government
33
What did a federalist government mean?
This meant that tgis is a system of government duid no just involve the peopl e at the capital making decisions due to the vast number of communities
33
Talk about the Ftaher of the Cosntituition
* Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is the Ftaher of the Constitution
* He belived his participation in the assembly helped scheduled castes get some more safeguards in the draft constitution
* He also stated that although the laws are there, the administration were in the hands of "caste Hindu officers" and so there was a reson to worry
* He encouraged scheduled castes to join the govt. as well as civil sservices
34
Explain federalism in detail
* The existance of more than one level of government in a country. In india, there are governments in the state, centre and local govenrments.
* Instead of the centre making decisions for everone,. each level of government in the states take decisions for the paticular area
* While each state has autonomy for exercising powers on certain issue, national concern require all the states to follow the order of central government
* The Constitution contains lists that detail each of the issues that each tier of thegovernment can mak laws on
* It also specifies where they can get their money from
* Under federalism, the states are not organs of the govt, but draw their authority from the constitution as welk
* All persons in India are governed by laws and policies mad eby each of these levels of government
*
34
Talk about parliamentary form of government
* The different tiers of govt. consist of represntatives that are elected by the peopl
* The Constitution gurantees unversal adult suffrage for all citizens
* They felt the freedom strufggle had prepare the country for universal adult suffrage and this would help encourage a democratic mindset and break traditional caste, class and gender hierarchies
* The people havea direct role in electing representatives
* Anyone despite background ca contest in electrions
34
Wat does the Consitution say about state governments
The constitution
* details and lists the issues that each tie of governmetn can make laws on
* it also specidies whre they can get their mkoney from for th ework that ti does
35
Whatis universal adult suffrage
Universal adult suffrage means that all adults over 18 years ld can vote for their represnetatives.
36
the representatve are answerable to hom
the people
36
What is seperation of powers? Explain in detail
* According to the Constitution, there are three organs of the overnment
* These are the legislature, the executive and the judiciary
* The legislative refers to elected representatives
* The executive is a smaller group who are responsible for impleenting laws and uniing the government
* The judiciary is the system of courts in india
Concerns:
* The members of the CA feared that the executive might become too strong and ignore its responsibility to the legislature
* They, included a number of provisions in the consitution to limit and control the action tken by the executive ranch as a whole
* To prevent the misusse of power byanyone banch, the C says thate ach of these organs shold exercie different powers
* Through this each organ acts a s a check on the pother orhamns an this ensures the balance of power between all 3
36
How does constitution protect against the misuse of powet
* Each level has a different function which helps each ogan act a aheck on the ther organs of government which ensures balance of power between all 3
37
What was the CA wory
The member of the Assembly feared that the executive will become too powwerful and ignore its responsibility to the legislature
It therefore oincluded number of provisions to limi and control the actions taken by the executiv branch as a whoole
38
differentiate between state and government
State:
The State refers to a political instution that represents a sovereign people who occupy a definite territory
The State efers to more than just the governemt
The State doesnt chang based on elections
government:
* Government is responsible for administering and enforcing laws
* It changes absed on elections
* It is just a part of the State
38
define state
The state refers to a political institution tht represents a sovereign people who occuppy a definite territory
39
Who said anbout faih in people and democaratic ule
Shri AK Ayyar, a member of the Constituent Assembly
40
What did Shri AK Ayyar say
tthat the edecision for universal adult suffrage was done with the full belief that intro of democratic gobermemt on the basis of adult suffradge will bring enlightenment and promoate the wll being , the standard of life , the comfort and the decent living of the common man
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Civics
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