India celebrates its Constitution Day on the 26th day of November every year. In the year 1947, on this day, the Constituent Assembly of India formally adopted the Constitution of India, which came into effect on January 26, 1950.

On the 19th day of November 2015, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment notified the decision to celebrate every year the 26th day of November as the “Constitution Day” so as to promote the Constitutional Values amongst citizens, to the Government of India.

This day is also a tribute to Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar who was the first law minister of India and played an important role in drafting the Indian constitution.

The preamble of the Constitution states that as a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic and aims to secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation.

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With that being said, the Indian constitution is by far the longest in the world, and let me tell you, this isn’t the only interesting fact relating to our constitution. Some more facts about the Constitution of India are:

  1. The period in which the constitution was drafted was a very crucial moment. It happened between 1946-1949, when religious riots, caste wars, and entrenched gender inequality were threatening the social fabric of the country.
  2. The Constitution is handwritten and is calligraphed in Hindi and English. It was not printed or typed.
  3. Thanks to the Indian Constitution, females got their right to vote, before that no such thing existed.
  4. Our Constitution has borrowed certain features from countries like Britain, Ireland, Japan, the USA, South Africa, Germany, Australia, and Canada.
  5. For drafting the constitution, the Constituent Assembly was established in 1946 and they met for 166 days which was spread over a  period of 2 years, 11 months, and 18 days.
  6. Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of the Constituent Assembly who happens to be the first President of India as well, and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was the head of the drafting committee.
  7. The father of the Indian Constitution is Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.
  8.  There is a total of 1,17,369 words in the English version of the Constitution of India.
  9. The original constitution document was signed by 283 members of the parliament.
  10. The word “socialist” was added to the preamble of the Indian Constitution during the emergency period, by the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976.
  11. The Library of Parliament House has the original hand-written copies of the Constitution, preserved in helium-filled cases.
  12. The Government of India Act, 1935 is used as a basis for the Indian Constitution.