ABSTRACT
Off and on, the Constitution of India has been a matter of passionate debates. This chapter is about the making of the scheme of self-government for India that started in earnest with the announcement of 1917 by British Secretary of State Edwin Montagu that the goal was to usher in responsible government. Three constitutions were framed between 1917 and 1949, two the result of collaborative efforts by the British and Indians and the final one by an elected constituent assembly. Over the years several questions have been raised about whether it would have been wiser to have a presidential form of government, about the federal structure and about reservations for depressed classes. But the coverage of these efforts in pre-independence India will clearly bring out one thing - that the constitution-making process was not confined to the two and a half years beginning in 1946; rather, it was spread over a good 30 years and involved at least two very important popular movements.
