There was a see-saw battle between the demands of the national movement and the concessions granted through the Acts of 1909, 1919 and 1935. The leaders of the national movement started demanding for grant of responsible government in India from 1890 onwards and by 1916 they began to “espouse the doctrine of self-determination or the right of the Indians to frame their own constitution”. Thus, the desire to have a constitution based on self-determination was as old as 1916. On 18 July 1947, British India divided into two new independent states, India and Pakistan, which were to be dominions under the Commonwealth of Nations until they had each finished drafting and enacted a new constitution. The Constituent Assembly was divided into two for the separate states, with each new Assembly having sovereign powers transferred to it for the respective dominion. The Act also terminated British suzerainty over the princely states, each of which was left to decide whether to accede to one or other of the new dominions or to continue as independent states in their own right. The clarity and elegance of this book not only a necessary but a pleasurable read for anyone interested in comparative constitutional law and the recent political history of India, and for students, teachers and researchers of the subject.
