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Indian Polity / Making of the Constitution

Introduction to the Indian Constitution

    A Constitution is said to be a written document containing the fundamentals of governance of a country that includes the structure of the Government, the powers of different organs of the Government and also provides and guarantees various rights of the people and at the same time maintains a balance between the powers of the Government and different rights of the people.

    • A Constitution can either be (1) Unwritten (or) Written or (2) Flexible (or) Rigid.
      • Unwritten - It is a type of Constitution, where it contains very few aspects of administration, e.g. Britain
      • Written - In this type, all the aspects of administration are reduced to writing, e.g. USA, India, etc. Even in written Constitutions, some unwritten conventions are followed like in India where the President should not be elected for more than two times.
      • Flexible - It is a type of Constitution which does not involve a special procedure or special majority in order amend it. The Constitution of the country is amended like a Statutory law. That is, there is no difference between ordinary law or Constitutional amendment law.
      • Rigid - If a Constitution is to be amended with a special majority, it will be called rigid Constitution.
    • The first written Constitution in the world is US Constitution.
    • Article 368 deals with amendments to the Indian Constitution.
    • In India, some parts of the Constitution are amended by the Parliament with simple majority, e.g. Abolition and creation of states
    • Indian Constitution is a combination of both flexibility and rigidity. It is somewhat more rigid than flexible. We have basically a rigid Constitution because of the federal structure of the Government. As India is a developing country, we incorporated some elements of flexibility into our Constitution.
    • Any amendment that is made to the Indian Constitution with simple majority is not deemed to be an amendment. That is, no number will be given to such an amendment.