Prem Behari Narain Raizada: The Man Who Wrote India’s Constitution
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1. The original Constitution of India was handwritten by Prem Behari Narain Raizada in a flowing italic style with beautiful calligraphy. Each page was beautified and decorated by artists from Shantiniketan.
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2. The original copies of the Indian Constitution, written in Hindi and English, are kept in special helium-filled cases in the Library of the Parliament of India.
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3. With 25 parts containing 448 articles and 12 schedules, the Indian Constitution is the longest-written Constitution of any sovereign country in the world spreading over 479 pages.
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4. The Constituent Assembly, which first met on December 9, 1946, took precisely 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to come up with the final draft.
When the draft was prepared and put for debate and discussion, over 2000 amendments were made, before it was finalised.
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5. The drafting of the Constitution was finally completed on 26th November 1949. But, it was legally enforced only after two months on 26th January 1950. Which came to be known as the Republic Day.
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6. While Nandalal Bose and his students designed the borders of every page and adorned it with beautiful art pieces, it was the singlehanded effort of Prem Behari Narain Raizada (Saxena) that brought the primary contents and the preamble to the Constitution, to life though his… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
7. When the draft of the Constitution of India was ready to be printed, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru approached Shri Behari with the proposal of handwriting it in a flowing italic style.
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8. Shri Prem Behari was born on 17 December 1901, in a family of traditional calligraphists. He lost his parents when he was very young and was brought up by his grandfather Master Ram Parshadji Saxena and uncle Mahashya Chatur Behari Narayan Saxena. Prem Behari’s grandfather was… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
9. After graduating from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, Shri Behari eventually became a master in calligraphic art.
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10. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru approached Shri Behari with the proposal of handwriting the constitution and asked him, how much he will charge?
“Not a single penny. By the grace of God I have all the things, and am quite happy with my life,” was his response to PM Nehru.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
11. However, Shri Prem Bihari did have a request.
“But I have one reservation—that on every page of the Constitution, I will write my name and on the last page I will write my name along with my grandfather’s name.”
Granting his request, the Government of India entrusted with… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
12. He was allotted a room in the Constitution Hall that later came to be known as Constitution Club. At this point, the draft consisted of a total of 395 articles, 8 schedules, and a preamble. Prem Behari took six months to complete the task.
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13. 432 pen-holder nibs were used throughout the process, and he used No. 303 nibs for this calligraphy.
The nibs were affixed to a wooden holder and dipped in an ink-pot for the writing. Some of the nibs were imported from Belgium specially for this purpose.
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14. The original manuscript of the Constitution was written on parchment sheets measuring 16X22 inches which have a lifespan of a thousand years. The finished manuscript consisted of 251 pages and weighed 3.75 kg.
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15. This manuscript was signed by the members of the Constituent Assembly on 24th January 1950.
It was first signed by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, while the last to sign in was Feroze Gandhi, the president of the Constituent Assembly.
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16. Photolithographed copies of the finished and signed manuscript were made at the office of the Survey of India in Dehradun.
17. The handwritten Constitution was signed on 24th January 1950, by 284 members of the Constituent Assembly, which included 15 women. It came into force two days later on 26th January.
18. Original Signatures on the first draft of the constitution of India
The first to put his signature on the document was Jawaharlal Nehru while at the end of page 10 we can see his son-in-law Feroze Gandhi as the last man to sign. Being the president of the assembly, we can… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
18(a) Original Signatures on the first draft of the constitution of India twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
18(b) Original Signatures on the first draft of the constitution of India twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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