DEMAND FOR A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 5 January 2022

■ DEMAND FOR A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

◇ It was in 1934 that the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was put forward for the first time by M.N. Roy, a pioneer of communist movement in India.

◇ In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India.

◇ In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf the INC declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise’.

◇ The demand was finally accepted in principle by the British Government in what is known as the ‘August Offer’ of 1940.