Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A replica of the original copy of Constitution is the most prized possession of the library of Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. The copy was gifted to House in 1958 two years after Madhya Pradesh came into being on November 1, 1956. It carries a seal, saying that it is Book No 689 in the library and was received on November 13, 1958. At least 30 political and legal luminaries and leaders from different walks of life from what is today Madhya Pradesh had played a role in the drafting the Constitution for nascent Republic of India. Two of them became chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh.
In fact, Dr BR Ambedkar, the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, also had a Madhya Pradesh connect. He was born in Mhow, a military cantonment near Indore in the state, though he spent much part of his life in neighbouring Maharashtra. The illustrations were made by Nand Lal Bose, an artist from Shantiniketan. Bose’s closest associate in the team was Beohar Ram Manohar Singha who hailed from Jabalpur. However, no place from Madhya Pradesh figured in the illustrations including Eran and the Sanchi Stupas.
Know the members
The members of Constituent Assembly from Madhya Pradesh including the Central Provinces and Berar and princely states were: Raghu Vira, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Bhagwantrao Annabhau Mandloi, Brijlal Nandlal Biyani, Thakur Chhedi Lal, Seth Govind Das, Dr Hari Singh Gour, Hari Vishnu Kamath, Hemchandra Jagobaji Khandekar, Ghanshyam Singh Gupta, Laxman Shrawan Bhatkar, Panjabrao Shamrao Deshmukh, Ravi Shankar Shukla, RK Sidhva, Shankar Tryambak Dharmadhikari, Frank Anthony, Kazi Syed Karimuddin, Vinayak Sitaram Sarwate, Gopi Krishna Vijayvargiya, Kusum Kant Jain, Radhavallabh Vijayvargiya, Sitaram S Jaju, Avdhesh Pratap Singh, Shambunath Shukla, Ram Sahai Tiwari, Mannulal Dwivedi, Bhaiyalal Singh and Lal Singh.
Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla: 1st chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
Some of them have made great contributions to the state. Dr Hari Singh Gour, a lawyer known for his dazzling intellect, founded the Saugor University, which is now a Central University named after him.
Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla went on to become the first chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, after it came into being on November 1, 1956. Bhagwant Rao Mandloi was the chief minister of the state twice in the late 1950s and then in early 1960s.
Another member from the state, Seth Govind Das, represented Jabalpur in the Lok Sabha for several terms. He was a great protagonist of Hindi and wanted the Constitution to be written in that language. However, the proposal was shot down due to stiff opposition from members from the Southern states.
Hari Vishnu Kamath refused to bow down to British empire, gave up ICS
Hari Vishnu Kamath was originally from Mysore and was an ICS officer of the 1933 batch. As the collector of Narsingpur, he met Subhash Chandra Bose after the Tripuri convention of the Indian National Congress near Jabalpur in 1939. That enraged the British Government. But Kamath, instead of bowing before the imperialist rulers, resigned from the ICS.
Frank Anthony from Jabalpur was included in the Constituent Assembly as a representative of the Anglo-Indian community.
Yet another member, Captain Avdhesh Pratap Singh was the father of state’s fifth chief minister Govind Narayan Singh. The Rewa University is named after him.
