The man who laid the bedrock for the Indian Constitution

Sir Benegal Narsing Rau played a decisive role in facilitating India's evolution from colonial rule to an independent nation

B N Rau. Wikicommons 

Sir Benegal Narsing Rau, a legal luminary and bureaucrat from Karnataka, made a monumental contribution to the Indian Constitution.

He played a decisive role in facilitating India’s evolution from colonial rule to an independent nation. Although not a member of the Constituent Assembly, he provided several crucial inputs during the drafting of the landmark document.

Born into a family of intellectuals on February 26, 1887, in Mangalore of the erstwhile Madras Presidency, Rau excelled in academics all along.

After clearing the Indian Civil Services examination, he was posted to Bengal and went on to work as a District and Sessions Judge. Early in his career, he showed an inclination towards constitutional law. Moving forward, Rau was associated with some of the major constitutional developments in the Indian subcontinent and became the most sought after professional in the field.

In 1946, B N Rau was formally appointed as the Constitutional Advisor to the core Drafting Committee of seven experts headed by Dr B R Ambedkar.

In a land exemplified by diversity, composing the laws and codes of conduct for citizens and safeguarding their individual rights was an elaborate task.

It required someone who could see the constitution’s potential, beyond its colonial mooring. With his pragmatic demeanour and idealistic outlook, Rau addressed the political concerns of the time.

Republic Day

As part of his venture, he travelled to the US, Canada, Ireland and UK, where he held discussions with scholars, judges and authorities of legislative law. In early 1948, he prepared the original draft of the constitution, which was later debated, revised, and finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949.

His expertise even helped the members of the Constituent Assembly find references to various jurisdictional provisions. Eventually, on January 26, 1950, the most voluminous constitution in the world was legally enforced.

This day is celebrated as the Republic Day ever since.

It took almost three years to write the Indian constitution, the original handwritten copies of which are stored in special cases in the Indian Parliament.

It is said that B N Rau also played a significant role in the inclusion of directive principles in the constitution.

He declined to accept any remuneration for his work as a Constitutional Advisor to the Indian government and the Constituent Assembly.

In his final years, when he represented India in the United Nations and served as a judge in the International Court of Justice, he attained a global stature.

B R Ambedkar rightly acknowledged the contribution of B N Rau in his concluding speech in the Constituent Assembly: “The credit that is given to me does not really belong to me. It belongs partly to Sir B N Rau, the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly, who prepared a rough draft of the constitution for the consideration of the Drafting Committee...”

Dr Rajendra Prasad, the President of the Constituent Assembly said of Rau that he “was the person who visualised the plan and laid the foundation” of the Indian constitution.