PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Making of the Constitution
Unity and integrity of India was perhaps the single uppermost factor in the minds of the Constitution makers. Comment.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 Partition + communal violence + 540 princely states → fears of secession / Balkanization → holding the country together = framers’ first concern R2 asubcontinent fractured by Partition → Constitution designed above all to hold a diverse polity together → unity as the organising anxiety of the makers centralising design: Art 1 (Union of States, not a compact) → Arts 2-3 (Parliament creates/alters states) → strong Union List + single citizenship + integrated judiciary + emergency 352/365 (Centre armed against fragmentation) → but unity through accommodation, not force: cultural rights 29-30, Fifth/Sixth Schedules, Art 371, linguistic reorganization → Manor: internal
Body flow
heterogeneity strengthens unity → holding-together federation unity not the sole aim → Austin: Constitution first and foremost a social document, equally devoted to justice and fraternity
Counter-view
Rr! on balance, threat of disintegration kept unity foremost → fs secured through accommodation, not coercion 2 claim holds, with one qualification → unity uppermost as the immediate priority, but pursued as plural, holding-together unity, not
Conclusion routes
coercive uniformity
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
