Thursday, 29 August 2013

INDIAN CONSTITUTION.

Constitution of India

The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, and came into effect on 26 January 1950. The Constituent Assembly was the main body responsible for drafting the constitution of India that would lay the basis of governance. The Indian Constitution was one of the first steps taken by an Independent India to form the base for a democratic nation. The Constitution lays down the foundations of the government under which the people of the country are to be governed. The constitution clearly establishes three main structures of the government - the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive, their structure and functioning. The structure of the constitution also delineates the accountabilities of each utility. The Constitution, thus, outlines the functions of all these three structures with the government for the benefit of the citizens of the country. Made with democratic ideals and a vision of autonomy, the Indian Constitution is the first and last word in Indian law and governance and lays down the national goals of democracy, socialism, secularism and national integration while spelling out the rights, duties and obligations of the Indian Citizen.

The Preamble
The Preamble is one of the most significant aspects of the Indian Constitution. Focusing on the chief objectives of the Indian constitution the Preamble states the following.

“We the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic and to secure all of its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political
LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and opportunity;
And to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation;
In our constituent assembly, this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this constitution.
Being the heart of the Indian Constitution, the Preamble focuses on the spirit of the country which is made especially for and by the people of India without the influence of outer powers or governments.

Elements of the Constitution
It is the longest constitution ever drafted in the history of mankind. The Indian constitution has 22 parts, 13 schedules and 444 articles. The articles and the structures of the Indian constitution, provide the citizens with the rights and liberties that are entitled to them on being a citizen of the country. There are also long lists of duties that the Indian citizen has to follow as per the constitution of the country. It is a written constitution that promises the citizens of the country their sovereignty, and describes the fundamental rights, directive principles and fundamental duties of the inhabitants. It follows a rigid and flexible system and is centrally governed by the Government of the country, allowing for amendments and additions to the original draft of the constitution.

Functions of the Constitution

One of the main functions of the Indian constitution is to ensure that the citizens of India will be entitled to rights pertaining to Equality, Educational rights, Freedom rights, Constitutional Remedies, Religion rights, and a right against exploitation. The Fundamental rights are deliberately one of the most important functions of the Indian Constitution.
The constitution also plays a central role in defining the duties of the citizens of the country under Article 51A known as “Fundamental Duties”.
Being framed by the ‘people of India’, it functions as an equal representative body to all sections of society and provides a secular environment for all the citizens of the country. The constitution will not allow for any sort of discrimination on the basis of religion or race, and therefore, secularism is implied in all parts of India.
The constitution functions as a foundation to establish the four main elements of the constitution; sovereignty, socialist, republic and democratic.
As a sovereign country, the people of the realm are free from any sort of external control and have the individual power to elect their own representatives for the Parliament and all other local bodies.
As a socialist nation, all individuals will be citizens of equality. There will be no discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, language and creed.
As a republic nation, the constitution states that there will be a President of the country rather than a monarchy establishment, and that the country will function democratically under the choices and preferences of the people.
‘We , the people of India’, happens to be the first part of the Preamble, that clearly depicts the democratic spirit of the country, with every citizen entitled to rights, and who are bound to follow duties and obligations as responsible people of the country.
The Directive Principles included in the Constitution function as a set of ‘instructions’ that regulate the operation of the government. These principles are not legally enforceable.
The constitution functions as a written law manuscript encompassing the essence of the country along with dispensing the judicial controls between the Parliament and other structures within the constitution.
As the lone foundation of the operation of the country, the constitution fundamentally represents the people of the country and what effectively belongs to each one of them.
The Preamble functions on the visions of Mahatma Gandhi that he had painstakingly described in the ‘The India of my dreams’.

Although the constitution has had various amendments, additions and deletions, it has been the backbone of the functioning of the country from the time it was drafted in the year 1949. Being a federal, democratic republic, India has incessantly been administered by the functions of the Indian constitution, which will always remain as the mainstay for the development and the running of the country.

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vande matram by bakimchandra chatarji

National Song of India

Composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterji in Sanskrit, the song Vande Mataram was primarily conceived to serve as a motivation to the people in their freedom struggle. Though it was penned down in 1876, the first publication emerged in the year 1882 in 'Anandamatha' amidst doubts of a ban by the British Raj. Sharing an equal status with Jana-gana-mana (National Anthem of India), the song was first sung in the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. Vande Mataram served as a voice against British rule during the freedom struggle. Initially, people with patriotic fervor flocked the streets of Calcutta and other metropolis, shouting the slogan 'Vande Mataram' or 'Hail to the Mother (land)!'

Terrified by the impending danger, British banned the expression of song and imprisoned freedom fighters, who disobeyed the command. Vande Mataram initially served as the National Anthem of India, but later Jana-gana-mana was adopted as the anthem of independent India. This was because the Muslim sect in India felt that the song was biased, as it depicted the nation as 'Ma Durga', a Hindu Goddess. Though Vande Mataram aptly illustrated the pre-independence national zeal and passion, it was espoused as the National Song of India. In the following lines, we have provided the wordings of the National Song of India and its English translation.

National Song Of India

Vande maataraM
sujalaaM suphalaaM malayaja shiitalaaM
SasyashyaamalaaM maataram ||

Shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiiM
pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniiM
suhaasiniiM sumadhura bhaashhiNiiM
sukhadaaM varadaaM maataraM ||

Koti koti kantha kalakalaninaada karaale
koti koti bhujai.rdhR^itakharakaravaale
abalaa keno maa eto bale
bahubaladhaariNiiM namaami taariNiiM
ripudalavaariNiiM maataraM ||

Tumi vidyaa tumi dharma
tumi hR^idi tumi marma
tvaM hi praaNaaH shariire

Baahute tumi maa shakti
hR^idaye tumi maa bhakti
tomaara i pratimaa gaDi
mandire mandire ||

TvaM hi durgaa dashapraharaNadhaariNii
kamalaa kamaladala vihaariNii
vaaNii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaaM

Namaami kamalaaM amalaaM atulaaM
SujalaaM suphalaaM maataraM ||

ShyaamalaaM saralaaM susmitaaM bhuushhitaaM
DharaNiiM bharaNiiM maataraM |"

English Translation

Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.

Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When the sword flesh out in the seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Though who savest, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foeman drove
Back from plain and Sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nervs the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair

In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Lovilest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!

National Symbols

National Animal
National Anthem
National Bird
National Calendar
National Flag
National Flower
National Fruit
National Song
National Tree

Indian scientists

Scientists

Indian scientists have played a stellar role in the development of India. In the short span of its post-independence history India has achieved several great scientific achievements. Indian scientists have proved their mettle in the face of international sanctions and have made India one of the scientific powerhouses of the world. Here is a brief profile of famous Indian scientists.

C.V. Raman
C.V. Raman is one of the most renowned scientists produced by India. His full name was Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. For his pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

Homi Bhabha
Homi Bhabha, whose full name was Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, was a famous Indian atomic scientist. In Independent India, Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, with the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation of a scientific establishment and was responsible for the creation of two premier institutions, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

Jagdish Chandra Bose
Jagdish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). His father Bhagabanchandra Bose was a Deputy Magistrate. Jagadish Chandra Bose had his early education in village school in Bengal medium.

Meghnad Saha
Meghnad Saha was born on October 6, 1893 in Sheoratali, a village in the District of Dacca, now in Bangladesh. He was the fifth child of his parents, Sri Jagannath Saha and Smt. Bhubaneshwari Devi. His father was a grocer in the village. Meghnad Saha had his early schooling in the primary school of the village.

M. Visvesvaraya
Sir M. Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860 in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar district of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore (present day Karnataka). His father Srinivasa Sastry was a Sanskrit scholar and Ayurvedic practitioner. His mother Venkachamma was a religious lady. He lost his father when he was only 15 years old.

Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose was an outstanding Indian physicist. He is known for his work in Quantum Physics. He is famous for "Bose-Einstein Theory" and a kind of particle in atom has been named after his name as Boson.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He did commendable work in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics. Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.

Vikram Sarabhai
Vikram Sarabhai was one of the greatest scientists of India. He is considered as the Father of the Indian space program. Apart from being a scientist, he was a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary.

Anil Kakodkar
Dr Anil Kakodkar is a very distinguished nuclear scientist of India. He is presently the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) as well as the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy.

APJ Abdul Kalam
Apart from being a notable scientist and engineer, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. He is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country and is also often also referred to as the Missile Man of India.

Birbal Sahni
Birbal Sahni was a renowned paleobotanist of India, who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. Also a great geologist, Sahni is credited for establishing the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Born on 14 November in the year 1891 at Behra in the Saharanpur District of West Punjab, Birbal was the third son of Ishwar Devi and Prof.

Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician par excellence. He is widely believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasa Ramanujan made significant contribution to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.

Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar was a distinguished Indian scientist. He was born on 21 February 1894 at Shahpur, which is located in Pakistan in present times. His father passed away sometime after the birth of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. As such, he spent his childhood days with his maternal grandfather who was an engineer and it was here that he developed an interest in science and engineering.

Har Gobind Khorana
Har Gobind Khorana is an American molecular biologist born on 9 January 1922 to an Indian Punjabi couple. For his work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the year 1968.

Raja Ramanna
Handpicked by the founder of India's nuclear program, Dr. Homi Bhabha, Dr. Raja Ramanna was a celebrated physicist and nuclear scientist that India had ever produced. A multifaceted personality, Dr. Raja Ramanna played the roles of a technologist, nuclear physicist, administrator, leader, musician, Sanskrit literature scholar, and philosophy researcher.

Ganapathi Thanikaimoni
Ganapathi Thanikaimoni, a successful botanist of his days, is remembered till date for his widespread contribution in the field of palynology. His researches and projects not only helped India to make its presence felt on the world stage of botany, it also furthered public relations between two countries.

Harish-Chandra
For those who quiver at the thought of calculations and numerical deductions, unless when counting money, mathematics can be the equivalent of hell on earth. And for such 'math atheists' a mathematician like Harish Chandra can very well seem like a mirage. Harish Chandra is one amongst those few people who often

G. N. Ramachandran
Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran, popularly referred to as G. N. Ramachandran surely must be included in the list of one of the best scientists that 20th century India had produced. The best known work of G. N. Ramachandran till date is the Ramachandran plot, which the scientist had conceived along with Viswanathan Sasisekharan, to understand the structure of peptides.

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Economic census, population census, agricultural surveys and various other large scale and in depth samples and surveys that have been admired the world over for their scope and accuracy owes its popularity and worldwide acceptance to the grit, determination and genius of one man, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.

Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao
Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was one of the greatest physicists of 20th century India. His work in spectroscopy led to the development of the Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance in Physics. Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao is also known for his long association with the Andhra University in which he served as professor of Physics and subsequently,

Salim Ali
Almost every one of us is interested in watching colorful and distinct birds crossing us. But very few are passionate about studying them in detail. One such man who took extreme interest and excitement in studying birds closely and categorizing them was Dr. Salim Ali. One of the greatest biologists of all times,

Yellapragada Subbarao
"You've probably never heard of Dr. Yellapragada Subba Rao, yet because he lived you may be well and alive today; because he lived you may live longer". A famous adage quoted by American author, Doron K. Antrim, Yellapragada Subbarao was one of those rare people who made several significant contributions,

Sam Pitroda
Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda is a famous Indian and a renowned inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker who currently serves as an advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh. His work revolves around Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations. He is respected for being a technological intellect

Venkataraman Ramakrishnan
Indian born American, Venkataraman Ramakrishnan is a senior scientist in the Structural Division at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, England. This great scholar has worked in various fields of biology during the earlier part of his career. However, Venkat along with Thomas A.

Mangal pandey.

Mangal Pandey

Born: 19 July 1827
Martyrdom: 8 April 1857
Achievements: A sepoy working under the British East India Company, Mangal Pandey's name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today remembered as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India's First War of Independence. The reason behind this was the rumor that the cartridges used by Indian sepoys were greased with the fat of cow and pig.

Mangal Pandey, whose name is often preceded by Shaheed meaning a martyr in Hindi, was an Indian soldier during the pre-independence era. A member of the 34th Regiment of the Bengal native infantry of the East India Company, Mangal Pandey is counted among the most popular figures associated with India's freedom struggle in present times. He was born on 19 July 1827 in the Nagwa village in the Ballia district of the Uttar Pradesh state. There still exist families in this village who claim to the descendents of Mangal Pandey.

However, some disputes exist over the exact place where Mangal Pandey was born. So read on to know more about the biography of Mangal Pandey, who joined the sepoy force of the British East India Company in the year 1849 at the age of 22. His name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today called the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India's First War of Independence. Due to this, he was later captured and hung till death on 8 April in 1857.

Here's more about the life history of Mangal Pandey, who was a devout Hindu and practiced his religion strictly. It was rumored that the cartridge used in the Enfield P-53 rifle which was being used by the Indian sepoys was greased with the fat of pig and cow fat. These cartridges had to be bitten off in order to remove the cover prior use and this went against the religious beliefs of the Muslims and Hindus. The general opinion was that the Britishers had deliberately done this to hurt the sentiments of Indians. And this was the main reason behind the outburst of Pandey's anger.

Dadabhai nauroji

Dadabhai Naoroji Biography

Born: September 4, 1825
Died: June 30, 1917
Achievements: First Indian to become a professor of the college; instrumental in the establishment of the Indian National Congress; was President of the Indian National Congress thrice; the Congress' demand for swaraj (self-rule) was first expressed publicly by him in his presidential address in 1906

Dadabhai Naoroji is fondly called as the "Grand Old Man of India". He is viewed as the architect who laid the foundation of the Indian freedom struggle.

Dadabhai Naoroji was born in a poor Parsi family in Bombay on September 4, 1825. His father, Naoroji Palanji Dordi, died when Dadabhai Naoroji was only four years old. He was raised by her mother Maneckbai who despite being illiterate herself ensured that Dadabhai Naoroji got best English education possible. As a student Dada Bhai Naoroji was very good in Mathematics and English. He studied at Elphinstone Institution, Bombay and on completion of his education he was appointed the Head Native Assistant Master at the Elphinstone Institution. Dadabhai Naoroji became a professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Elphinstone Institution at the age of 27. He was the first Indian to become a professor of the college.

Dadabhai Nauroji entered the political fray in 1852. He strongly opposed the renewal of lease to the East India Company in 1853. He sent petitions to the English government in this regard. But the British government ignored his pleas and renewed the lease. Dadabhai Naoroji felt that the British misrule of India was because of ignorance of the Indian people. He set up the Gyan Prasarak Mandali (Society for Promotion of Knowledge) for the education of adult menfolk. He wrote several petitions to Governors and Viceroys regarding India's problems. Ultimately, he felt that the British people and the British Parliament must be made aware of India's plight. In 1855, at the age of 30 he sailed for England.

In England, Dadabhai Naoroji joined several learned societies, delivered many speeches and wrote articles on the plight of India. He founded the East Indian Association on December 1st, 1866. The association was comprised of high-ranking officers from India and people who had access to Members of the British Parliament. Dadabhai Naoroji was elected to the British Parliament in 1892 from Central Finsbury as the Liberal party candidate. He got a resolution passed in British Parliament for holding preliminary examinations for the I.C.S. in India and England simultaneously. He also got the Wiley Commission, the royal commission on India expenditure, to acknowledge the need for even distribution of administrative and military expenditure between India and England.

Dadabhai Naoroji was instrumental in the establishment of the Indian National Congress founded by A.O. Hume in 1885. Thrice he was elected to the post of the President of the Indian National Congress, in 1886, 1893 and in 1906. During his third term, he prevented a split between moderates and extremists in the party. The Congress' demand for swaraj (self-rule) was first expressed publicly by him in his presidential address in 1906. Dadabhai Naoroji believed in non-violent and constitutional methods of protest. He died at the age of 92 on June 30, 1917.