Opinion | Celebrating the Soul of India

As the crisp autumn air settles over the Valley and the rest of the country, we prepare to mark one of its most significant national observances – Constitution Day or Samvidhan Divas – on November 26.
This day holds profound historical importance, commemorating the adoption of the Constitution of India by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949. Though the Constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950, giving birth to the Republic of India, it is this November date that symbolizes the culmination of years of tireless deliberation, debate, and democratic vision.
Seventy-six years ago, in the Central Hall of Parliament House (then the Council House), 284 members of the Constituent Assembly appended their signatures to two handwritten copies of the Constitution – one in Hindi and one in English – after nearly three years of rigorous drafting.
The document, often hailed as the longest written constitution in the world, comprises 395 articles, 8 schedules, and over 1,46,000 words in its original form.
The journey began on December 9, 1946, when the Constituent Assembly first met, just months before India gained independence. Under the chairmanship of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and guided by the visionary leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, the Assembly held 11 sessions over 165 days, deliberating for 114 days on the draft alone.
No tribute to Samvidhan Divas is complete without honoring Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. A jurist, economist, social reformer, and polymath, Dr. Ambedkar rose from the depths of caste oppression to become the principal force behind India’s legal framework for equality and justice.
Despite facing systemic discrimination throughout his life, he earned doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. His famous words in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, still resonate:
“I feel that the Constitution is workable; it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile.”
For decades, November 26 remained a quiet footnote in history. It was only in 2015, on the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar, that the Government of India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officially declared the day as Constitution Day. The decision was announced on October 11, 2015, during a meeting of the committee headed by the Prime Minister to commemorate Ambedkar’s legacy.
Since then, Samvidhan Divas has grown into a nationwide movement to read, understand, and live the values enshrined in the Constitution – justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity.
The Indian Constitution is not merely a legal text; it is a moral compass for a diverse nation of 1.4 billion people speaking over 1,600 languages and practicing multiple faiths. It abolished untouchability, guaranteed fundamental rights, established universal adult franchise (when even countries like the US and UK denied voting rights to women and minorities), and laid the foundation for a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.
As India stands at the cusp of becoming the world’s third-largest economy and a global leader, Samvidhan Divas reminds every citizen – from the snow-capped peaks of Kashmir to the shores of Kanyakumari – that the strength of the nation lies in upholding the Constitution.

(Author can be contacted on welfare166@gmail.com)