Indian Constitution 101: A Visual Journey

The Constitution of India is probably one of the least read of texts in India. It enjoys neither popular affection, nor particular appreciation. However, the original book that is this painfully-detailed mammoth text, is a piece of art in its own right.

While the main body of the text is something we are all vaguely aware of, thanks to civics classes in school, the artwork that details each page of the original book is something most of us are unfortunately unaware of.

Through this piece intends to focus on the images and the artwork that is an integral part of the Constitution and unravel the meaning behind each image and each piece of art, thereby, further adding meaning and layers to the otherwise tediously boring sounding words.

The Constitution is a fusion of a  historical document with a contemporary writing style which needs to be made more accessible, eliciting greater appreciation and recognition.

Here's the catch. We don't like to read much. So I have taken up the challenge to write a description of the images in 140 twitter-worthy characters.

There exists a hand written edition in both Hindi and English of the Constitution of India

What is a constitution and why do we need it?

The constitution of a country is a set of written rules that are followed by the citizens of the nation. It is the supreme law that determines the relationship between the citizens and the government. It generated a degree of trust and coordination required for enabling a diverse population living together in harmony. Constitution also specifies the formation of government and the structure of power distribution. It not only states the rights of the citizens but also expresses their aspiration and visions for creating a better society.

Before we begin the visual journey,let us glide through some popular facts about the Constitution of India.

It is the longest constitution with 448 articles, 12 schedules and 94 amendments.

On 29 August, 1947, a committee for drafting the constitution was established.Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was appointed as the Chairman of the committee

After the constitution was presented to the Constituent Assembly, they took two years, eleven months and seventeen days to pass it.

As many as 284 members of the Constituent Assembly had signed the documents on January 24, 1950. Two days later, the constitution came into effect.

On January 26, 1950, the Indian Government also adopted Sarnath, the Lion Capital of Ashoka with the wheel, bull, and horse as the national emblem of India.

And, it is the only constitution in the world which has images.

The details and text makes it an art of a different kind.

The Hand-crafted Indian Constitution

Let us start with a question. Were you aware that the original Constitution of India was not printed but handwritten?

Don't worry. You ain't the only one. A majority of the Indian population is  not aware of that fact. The exquisite original hand-crafted constitution was a product of artistic inventiveness of Acharya Nandalal Bose and his student from Kala Bhawan in Shantinikentan over a time period of five years.

A glance through the artist history

Prem Behari Narain Raizada did the calligraphy using a holder and nib, (303 no. nib). The Government of India had allotted him a room in Constitution House where he completed this prestigious work, for which he did not charge any fee. Shree G. Mavlankar (first Speaker of India) had written in a letter – “I must mention that he (Raizada) did the work merely for his love of art & his country, without any demand or expectation even of remuneration”. The only condition he had was to be allowed to write his name on the bottom of each page.

Along with his students, Nandalal Bose in Shantiniketan, took up the historic task of doing the art work for the original handwritten version Constitution of India. In addition to planning and providing the leadership for this ambitious work, Nandalal Bose himself painted the major images.

The “Preamble” page, arguably the most important one in the constitution, was done exclusively by Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and it bears his signature, Ram, in the Devnagari script. Beohar Rammanohar Sinha initially did not sign it, but his teacher, Nandalal Bose insisted that the former must sign the page so that future generations are able to recognize, remember and celebrate the artist who ornamented the face of the Constitution of India.

The Preamble with the signature of Ram. He significantly contributed to the execution of line-drawings and gold-works that bear Nandalal Bose’s signature “Nand”.

 A minor analysis of the images.

Pages of the Constitution are embellished with highly stylized decorative borders, headers and backdrops. The complex decorative patterns in the borders and in front and back covers, embossed in gold on leather, are reminiscent of the Ajanta ceiling murals. 

At the beginning of each part of the Constitution, Nandalal Bose has depicted a phase or scene from our national experience and history.

Nandalal Bose has taken us through a veritable pictorial journey across four thousand years of rich history, tradition and culture.

The art work and illustrations (twenty two in all) rendered largely in the miniature style.

Represent vignettes from the different periods of history of the Indian subcontinent ranging from the prehistoric Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley, the Vedic Period, the Gupta and Mauriya Period and the Mughal Period to the national freedom movement. 

The Vedic period is represented by a scene of gurukula (forest hermitage school).

Epic period by a visual of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana returning homeward.

Trivia: This image of Ram, Sita and Lashman was used to for a verdict for the 'Ram Janmabhoomi' dispute. The court declared Ram to be a Constitutional entity as his image has been used in the constitution.

Another Kalabhavan artist who is said to have contributed to the art work of the original handwritten constitution was Kripal Singh Shekhawat from Rajastan.

The constitution portraying the epic period by image of Krishna and in battlefield.

There is a beautiful line drawing of the Nataraja, as depicted in the Chola Bronze tradition.

Other important figures from India’s history include Akbar, Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh, Tipu Sultan, and Lakshmibai

.

The freedom movement is depicted by Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi march and his tour of Noakhali as the great peacemaker, and of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Snippet of history: the page that describes the commencement of the constitution.

The illustrations and the decorative borders are quintessential of the Santiniketan (Kalabhavan) style, which in turn was greatly influenced by the cave paintings of Ajanta.

In many ways, this original hand crafted Constitution of India represents one of the triumphs of Shantiniketan and Kala Bhavan.

If you found the constitution of India exotic and intriguing read the entries in detail over here.

About The Author:

I am Sneha Nanavati and I am a bibliophile. I am an obsessive compulsive dreamer guided only by my zeal for learning new skills.I like to live my life to fullest and dedicate my soul into what I do. I love to voice my opinion and would not settle for anything less that the best. I love creativity intermixed with a heavy dose of analytic and fact based information. I am quite inquisitive, determined yet sceptical by nature. I hopelessly love to lose myself in the world of books and selected telly shows. I love to be a medium for change and progress of a community as a whole.

[This article has been republished from its original source, The Campus Diaries, with due permission of the author]

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The Curious Case of Google Books (Authors Guild v Google Books)

Google Books has been into news, not for the snippets of information that it has been supplying, but for a very long and protracted litigation, whose end does not seem near. While many of us may be using Google Books, not many will have an idea about the battle that it has been embroiled in for the past decade. In order to get a clear picture of the legal dispute, it becomes necessary to understand what is Google Books and what it does. Google Books is a decade-old service that has created a digital library of books by scanning them and making some portions available online. It searches the full text of books that Google has scanned and stored in its digital inventory and makes them available to users in snippets. The users are required to pay for accessing the entire book. The service also offers data mining- a procedure by which researchers can study the frequencies of words and phrases, syntactic patterns and thematic markers over a period of time to analyze the various changes that have taken place. The books are supplied by publishers and authors, or by Google's library partners, through the Library Project. The service was hailed by students, academicians and researchers as they could access, at least in part some books that were hitherto unavailable. 

So far as authors willing provide their books to the venture, it was not a problem. The bone of contention in this issue is the Library Project, which scans works with library partners and adds them to the digital catalogue. Under this project, Google has scanned around 20 million books. In 2005, the Authors Guild (AG) and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a class action suit in the Southern District Court of New York in the US alleging copyright infringement by Google as the Library project included not only books that were in the public domain, but also copyrighted books. Moreover, it did not obtain permission from the copyright holders prior to scanning the full text of their books. After a long seven-year battle, the parties tried to settle in October 2012, whereby publishers could choose whether to make their books and journals available for Google’s Library project and Google agreed to pay $125 million. However, the settlement was rejected by the court. The court held that a prima facie case of copyright infringement was made out against Google. Google took the defence of the doctrine of fair use. Fair use serves as a defence to copyright infringement. However, certain conditions must be satisfied before an act can be considered fair use. These include-

 Nature of the use, i.e., whether it is commercial or for purposes like research and education

 Whether the use is transformative, i.e., if the use adds to the existing work 

 Volume of the portion used compared to the whole

 Whether market value of the original work has been affected 

On the nature of the use, the court said that although Google was deriving profits out of the venture, but at the same time, it was serving educational and research purposes. The court ruled that the use by Google was transformative because it converted text into digital form and used data mining. The service was not replacing the original work, as only snippets were made available. So far as the third requirement, although Google scanned books in their entirety, it made available to the users only a limited portion out of the whole. Regarding the effect on the market value of the original work, it was ruled that Google Books provided publicity to the works and thereby increased the users for the original work. It was finally ruled that the use fell within the ambit of fair use. Judge Denny Chin of the 2nd Circuit U.S. 

Appeals Court therefore dismissed the lawsuit filed by Authors Guild.The Guild appealed against the order by stating that Google Books could not be afforded protection under the fair use doctrine because its activities were highly commercial in nature and it was adversely affecting the market for the original works by weakening the digital market for them. The court was not convinced by these arguments and said that most cases of fair use involve some element of a commercial nature. Also, it was of the opinion that digital licensing was not affected adversely and was possible. A detailed decision is still awaited. 

This decision would have wide ramifications for the Indian intellectual property landscape. This is because although India has more stringent conditions that must be met for a use to be considered as fair, it is feared that this decision will set a global standard for fair use. Indian authors and publishers are likely to win against Google in Indian courts, it remains to be seen what will be the long-term implications of the case.

About The Author: 

Kudrat Agrawal, is a second year student at National Law University, Delhi. Presently in the fourth semester of law school, she is interested in Business Laws and want to pursue a career in Mergers and Acquisitions. She is an avid writer and is working as an Editor with Lawctopus-Acdemike and is a  Sub-Editor with fuccha.in. She is currently experimenting with writing research papers and pursuing online courses. In her free time, she likes listening to music and reading. 

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Samvaad. 26th to 28th June, 2015, New Delhi

Model Governance Foundation welcomes you to take part in ‘Samvaad’ which will be held on 26th to 28th June, 2015 in New Delhi. The theme for Samvaad is “Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat”. Model Governance Foundation is excited to host the event in cooperation with eminent organizations like Adhrit Foundation, Advitya Ventures, Agrasar Foundation, Alexis Society, Bharat Sansthan and India Leadership Institute. This three day event will focus on fostering leadership qualities amongst students and young professionals by opening a cross-cultural dialogue on issues of national and international relevance. Samvaad will also provide ample opportunities for business networking with visionary entrepreneurs and industry experts around the world. Each one of our speakers is an expert in their respective fields with years of experience. 

Join us at Samvaad for your chance to hear these specialists, as they share with you the latest trends, insights and strategies on various issues of their expertise.

Events:
Formal Events
 Debate
 Uniform Civil Code
 Misuse of Sexual Harassment Laws
 Call for Papers
 Interactive Lectures by Eminent Personalities
 Debating Sessions
 Group Discussions

Informal Events
 Life Mapping Exercise
 Leadership Development Conversation

Register Now HERE

Official Brochure    Call For Campus Correspondents

Registered Office:
Model Governance Foundation, B-1/37,
Sector D, Priyadarshani Colony,
Sitapur Road, Lucknow - 226020.

For More Details Contact:

Akanksha Arora, Convenor: +91 9929451140
Garima Sharma, Co-Convenor: +91 9990255202
Rahul Rautela, Co-Convenor: +91 8376085251

Email india.samvaad@gmail.com
Facebook                     Twitter                           Website

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Indian Liberals: An online archive of Indian liberal writing

We are delighted to announce the launch of IndianLiberals.in, an online library of Indian liberal writings by Centre for Civil Society. The portal was formally launched on 17 January 2015 at the 1st Annual Asia Students for Liberty Conference by Mr Arun Shourie, prominent journalist, author and politician. The Indian Liberals stood for the liberty of thought and action and against central planning. In current scenario, such liberties are in constant threat, which is not any different to the hubristic actions of the central planners during the socialistic pattern of society adopted by the Nehru government. It’s of utmost importance to go back to these heroes of freedom and acquire their wisdom through their powerful writings. IndianLiberals.in is an online library of all Indian liberal writings, lectures and other materials in English and other Indian regional languages. The material that has been collected so far contains liberal commentary dating from the early 19th century till the present. It is this content that we hope to preserve and disseminate, by building a digital liberal archive that hosts all Indian liberal material in one place. We aim to digitise 50,000 pages in total, supplemented by audio and video content of prominent liberals, including personal stories of the work and struggles of Indian liberals who lived through the planning era, that is lesser known to us today, if not totally forgotten already. The portal shall help preserve often unknown but a very rich Indian liberal tradition and understand the relevance of the writings in today’s context. You can access collection of writings, videos, talks and lectures of: A D Shroff | B R Shenoy | C Rajagopalachari | D R Pendse | M R Pai  Minoo Masani | Nani Palkhivala | Sauvik Chakraverti | Sudha R Shenoy It was encouraging and inspiring to have Mr Arun Shourie launch the archive. He said that “the portal reminds us that there has been a tradition in India for a liberal polity. It is almost a civilisational principle and it is facilitated by the fact that we are such a rich and diverse country. It is also important that we start using alternate media for getting our message out and the idea of documenting this tradition is a perfect beginning.” Join us in our efforts to spread the message of liberty! This portal is made possible by the combined efforts of all of us, to identify and source the works of important India Liberals. Do send us your feedback and suggestions! Write to editor@indianliberals.in.

For more information, contact Samta Arora (samta@ccs.in | +91 99538 27773)

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