The Constitution of a country lays down the fundamental principles of governance to be followed in that country and also delineates the division of power, privileges and responsibilities between different organs of government. The Indian Constitution, prepared after hectic deliberations by the Constituent Assembly, is possibly the lengthiest document of its kind in the world and has far more detailed provisions than any other comparable document. The USA is the first country to adopt the first-ever written constitution in the world in 1776. It is surprising to know that England (Great Britain) does not have a written constitution till date.
The Indian Constitution is the outcome of the debate, deliberations and research of a sovereign Constituent Assembly. Various Subject Committees like the Committee On Fundamental Rights and Union Constitution Committee had submitted their respective proposals and after a general discussion on all the proposals, a Drafting Committee chaired by Dr. BR Ambedkar was appointed. The Drafting Committee had the full authority to add, modify or delete any of the proposals submitted by the committees. The finalized draft of he Indian Constitution got the signature of the President of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Rajender Prasad on Nov 26, 1949, which is referred to as the Date of Passing. Since the Constituent Assembly, which finalized the Constitution was duly elected by means of indirect election by the people of India, The Constitution of India derives its authority from the people of India. The Constitution was thus enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, and came into effect on 26 January 1950. The date 26 January was chosen to commemorate the Purna Swaraj declaration of independence of 1930. With its adoption, the Union of India officially became the modern and contemporary Republic of India and it replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the country's fundamental governing document.
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 448 articles in 25 parts, 12 schedules and 97 amendments. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation. The Indian Constitution has borrowed heavily from other constitutions of the world and can be called a “beautiful patchwork”. India could not have afforded to experiment with something entirely new at a crucial juncture in its history. So the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution preferred to rely on the time-tested value of experience elsewhere and adopted those provisions which had proved to be successful and workable in other countries.