A Kannadiga who actually drafted the Constitution of India - B.N.Rau (Sir Benegal Narasimga Rau). - A Hero weve all forgotten. Brother of B.Shiva Rau who authored Framing of the Indian Constitution Narsing Rau was born in Mangalore on 26 February 1887 in a family of intellectuals. His father Benegal Raghavendra Rau was an eminent doctor. Narsing Rau passed Matriculation in 1901 from the Canara High School, Mangalore, topping the list of students of the entire Madras Presidency. He stood first in the entire University in the F.A. (Intermediate) examination and gained his degree with First Class marks in English, Sanskrit, and Mathematics. On a scholarship, he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his Tripos in 1909, just missing the Senior Wranglership. A graduate of the Universities of Madras and Cambridge, Rau entered the Indian civil service in 1910. After revising the entire Indian statutory code (1935–37), he was knighted (1938) and made judge (1939) of the Bengal High Court at Calcutta (Kolkata). His writings on Indian law include a noted study on constitutional precedents as well as articles on human rights in India. He served briefly (1944–45) as Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir state. From February 1952 until his death, he was a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, The Hague. Before his election to the court, he was regarded as a candidate for secretary-general of the United Nations. B. N. Rau was appointed as the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly in formulating the Indian Constitution. He was responsible for the general structure of its democratic framework of the Constitution and prepared its original draft. The Constituent Assemblys resolution setting up the Drafting Committee, under the chairmanship of B. R. Ambedkar, declared that it was being set up to Scrutinise the Draft of the text of the Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Adviser giving effect to the decisions taken already in the Assembly and including all matters ancillary thereto or which have to be provided in such a Constitution, and to submit to the Assembly for consideration the text of the Draft Constitution as revised by the Committee. There already was a Draft in existence when this Committee was set up. The President of the Constituent Assembly Rajendra Prasad, before signing the Constitution on 26 November 1949, thanked Rau for having worked honorarily all the time that he was here, assisting the assembly not only with his knowledge and erudition but also enabled the other members to perform their duties with thoroughness and intelligence by supplying them with the material on which they could work.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 06:08:11 +0000