Missing soul in Bharat's constitution: Forgotten legacy

Hans India

15-06-2025

On February 11, 2025, the usually calm Rajya Sabha witnessed an unusual uproar. Parliamentarian Radha Mohan Das Agrawal startled the House by revealing that most printed copies of the Bharatiya Constitution from students' textbooks to ceremonial editions have quietly dropped 22 exquisite illustrations that originally adorned the handwritten manuscript signed in 1950.
Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar backed this concern, declaring that any version of the Constitution that excludes these images is incomplete and inauthentic. He urged immediate steps to ensure that only illustrated versions, faithful to the framers' vision, are circulated, cautioning that any changes introduced without parliamentary approval amount to a betrayal of the country's heritage. Why did these images vanish?
To grasp the gravity of what was lost, one must revisit a remarkable but often overlooked chapter of the country's freedom struggle: the making of a Constitution that was a legal manuscript, also a visual narrative of India's 5,000-year civilizational journey.
Masterpiece Born at Santiniketan
When leaders of Bharat drafted the Constitution after independence, they envisioned it as far more than a set of rules it was to be a living testament to Bharat's cultural continuity. To bring this vision alive, they turned to Nandalal Bose, revered as a father of modern Bharat art and principal of Kala Bhavan at Santiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore's art school.
Bose, a pioneer of the Bengal School, accepted the task to illustrate the entire Constitution page by page with motifs, borders, and miniatures depicting the sweep of Indian history, philosophy, and art.
Bose has handpicked a group of young, talented artists from Kala Bhavan to help transform parchment into a civilizational scroll. Together, this collective produced a manuscript unlike any other constitution in the world.
Unsung Heroes Behind the Brush
The ensemble that gave visual life to Bharat's Constitution included names that deserve national reverence:
l Beohar Rammanohar Sinha, whose journeys to Ajanta, Ellora, Sanchi, and Mahabalipuram inspired the lotus motifs, Ashoka lions, and animal figures. He painted the iconic Preamble page, signed simply as 'Ram'.
l Dinanath Bhargava, who as a young student at Santiniketan visited the Kolkata Zoo daily to study lions up close. His sketches became the model for India's official National Emblem — the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath.
l Prem Behari Narayan Raizada, master calligrapher who handwrote the entire English manuscript in elegant italic script, using hundreds of pen nibs over six painstaking months.
l Vasant K. Vaidya, who calligraphed the Hindi version in the flowing Devanagari script.
l Jamuna Sen, Bose's daughter, who painted scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and popularised batik and alpona motifs.
l Amala Sarkar, Gouri Bhanja, Bani Patel, Kripal Singh Shekhawat, A. Perumal, Nibedita Bose, and others who painted historical scenes, court scenes, legendary heroes, Buddhist monks, temples, and landscapes.
This was more than decorative effort. Every page carried thoughtful symbolism, reminding readers that the new republic was rooted in ancient wisdom yet looking forward.
Journey Through Bharat's Heritage
The original Constitution opens with the Lion Capital and Bharat's national motto: Satyameva Jayate (Truth Alone Triumphs). As one turns the manuscript, each Part begins with a miniature capturing India's timeline:
l A bull seal from Mohenjo-Daro introduces Part I — connecting the republic with the Harappan civilization.
l A Vedic ashram illustrates Citizenship — invoking learning and social duty.
l Scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata frame Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles — evoking dharma, justice, and wisdom.
l Buddha's first sermon, Mahavira's meditation, Ashoka spreading Buddhism, and Chola bronzes show India's spiritual pluralism.
l Mughal court scenes, King Vikramaditya's darbar, portraits of Lakshmibai, Chattrapati Shivaji, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose narrate the stories of courage, resistance, and cultural patronage.
l Natural scenes — Himalayas, deserts, rivers, ocean voyages — remind readers of country's diverse geography and the mobility of its people.
These illustrations were more than art: they were political statements of unity in diversity, cultural memory, and civilizational pride.
How We Lost It: The Printed Simplification
For practical reasons, when the Constitution was printed and distributed for everyday use in courts, schools, and parliament the lush handmade illustrations were dropped. Printing technology of the 1950s could not easily reproduce delicate watercolours and gold leaf patterns at scale. Instead, plain text editions proliferated, slowly standardizing a version of the Constitution stripped of its visual soul.
Over time, very few Indians even knew that their supreme law was once a hand-painted manuscript. Even ceremonial versions often use reprinted facsimiles with partial or stylized artwork, not always the full set of original miniatures.
Heritage Rediscovered — But Still Missing
The recent uproar in Parliament reflects a wider cultural anxiety: when the images of Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, and the freedom fighters disappear from official copies, is it just an aesthetic loss — or a deeper break from the vision of the founding generation?
Scholars and cultural historians argue that this is not just about 'decoration'. These motifs were meant to remind lawmakers, judges, and citizens that Indian law flows from a moral and cultural continuum, not a sterile legal code borrowed from the West.
Calls to Restore the Visual Legacy
Institutions like the Lalit Kala Akademi have documented the full manuscript in detail — the 2024 publication Art & Calligraphy in the Constitution of India is a timely tribute. Digital archives now exist, but the controversy has sparked calls for wider public access to high-fidelity facsimiles, inclusion of illustrations in school editions, and traveling exhibitions to reconnect citizens with this treasure.
Vice-President Dhankhar's intervention signals an official push to honor this legacy. Whether politics allows such restoration is another question but the issue has succeeded in reminding a new generation that India's Constitution is not just a rulebook, but a piece of living art.
A Living Scroll of Civilizational Memory
As Bharat nears eight decades of independence, perhaps it is time to ask: how many more generations will study the Constitution as a dry document, unaware that its very pages were painted with the stories of Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Chattrapati Shivaji, Laxmibai, and a thousand unnamed ancestors?
The framers knew a modern nation needs continuity with its past. Restoring the missing miniatures is more than an artistic footnote — it is an act of civilizational respect. In a time of rapid change and cultural flux, the Constitution's art reminds us: we are many stories, one people.