Constituent assembly

I am a watchman.

After that, you know, and the call Constituent Assembly.

I'm a constituent assembly and yeah we say consultations I remember I've been taught what and I agree at a

point okay

and the money be over and yes so controversial This is the first time I've seen this.

A bit later than you might think.

All right, on this day, 1949, India's Constituent Assembly adopts Hindi as an official language, celebrated today as Hindi Day.

Uh, whoop-dee-doo.

Yeah, well done.

After six long weeks of wrangling and discussion, the third estate, growing more and more in opposition to the king, took the bull by the horns, and on June 17 declared that they were the national assembly to which the nobles and clergy might join themselves if they cared.

not only by this action did the third estate affirm the doctrine of their complete sovereignty as representatives of the people but they even went further and declared that they were no longer bound in their opinion by the all remonstrances of the king were in vain and for this he himself was partly to blame ever since the first meeting of the states-general the third estate had been made to feel by the attitude of the court that they were inferior to the nobles and clergy they had put up with slights small and great some intentional and some due only to stupid oversight unfortunately the deputies were keenly on the look-out for causes of offence the gravest instance of this was when three days after they had declared themselves a national assembly they were unfortunately shut out of their usual meeting-place the salle de menu plaisir in the palace it so happened that the hall had been placed in the hands of carpenters in order that it might be prepared for the royal seance that is the meeting between the king and the deputies to discuss the question of keeping the estates separate the simple courtesy of informing bailly the president of the third estate was for some reason omitted the disgusted deputies looked upon this as a foolish trick to prevent them from holding their meeting after standing about in angry gesticulating groups they trooped off in the drizzling rain to a neighbouring tennis court here they took an oath the famous oath of the tennis court never to separate until they had given france a constitution carlyle's description of the episode is famous he writes strange sight was this in the rue st franois vieux versailles a naked tennis court as the pictures of that time still give it four walls naked except aloft some poor wooden penthouse or roofed spectators gallery hanging round them on the floor not now an idle tea-teeing a snapping of balls and rackets but the bellowing din of an indignant national representation scandalously exiled hither however a cloud of witnesses looks down on them from wooden penthouse from wall-top from adjoining roof and chimney rolls towards them from all quarters with passionate spoken blessings some table can be procured to write on some chair if not to sit on than to stand on the secretaries undo their tapes bailly has constituted the assembly experienced mounier not wholly new to such things and parliamentary revolts which seen or heard of thinks that it were well in these lamentable threatening circumstances to unite themselves by an oath universal acclamation as from smouldering bosoms getting vent the oath is redacted pronounced aloud by president bailly and indeed in such a sonorous tone that the cloud of witnesses even outdoors hear it and bellow response to it six hundred right hands rise with president baize to take god above to witness that they will not separate for man below but will meet in all places under all circumstances wheresoever they can get together till they have made the constitution thus the assembly took upon itself the task of framing a constitution for france and hence its name constituent assembly this was a task the difficulties of which they did not see and one which was not completed until two years later at the time it was said that every man in the assembly believed he could have made it himself single-handed in a few weeks such was their ignorance of the difficulties which beset all statesmen in spite of this oath as the king refused to acknowledge the claims of the national assembly he met the deputies on june twenty third in that same salle de menu plaisir the preparation of which had been the cause of so much disturbance he himself was tactlessly hedged about with bayonets though he offered them concessions which really amounted to a charter of liberties a few months earlier such a statement would have been accepted with acclamation now it was heard in sullen silence when the king at last withdrew the bulk of the deputies remained behind to discuss the situation then being given a strong hint by the master of the ceremonies that they had better depart mirabeau who was now the outstanding personality of the assembly rose and said defiantly if you have been charged to make us quit this place you must ask for orders to use force for we will not stir from our places save at the point of the bayonet needless to say in face of a spirit like this the king had at last to give way the third estate had their first triumph and the nobles and clergy were persuaded to join the national assembly a few words must here be said of this extraordinary man honore gabriel count de mirabeau born in seventeen forty nine he was the son of the old marquis de mirabeau who was famous as one of the first of the old school of french political economists honore his son was his puzzle and his despair though a man of great ability his life was the life of a rascally scoundrel he was four times imprisoned he thieved he lied and he ran away with another man's wife he was dishonest in every sense of the word and yet he was a man whose gifts could charm and fascinate both men and women he had great experience for he had lived in switzerland and england as an exile he had travelled to the prussian court on a diplomatic errand more far-sighted than any man of his generation he saw what a revolution was coming upon france and in the last few years of his life in spite of his worthless past he developed into a man of power carlyle revered mirabeau for his insight in spite of all his glaring faults to him mirabeau is only a man of instincts and insights a man nevertheless who will glare fiercely on any object and see through it and conquer it for he has intellect he has will force beyond other men mirabeau was unattractive in appearance awkward in his manners dirty as to his clothes and person carlyle thinks even this is symbolic of his rough ability in fiery rough figure with black samson locks under the slouch hat he steps along there a fiery fuliginous mass which could not be choked and smothered but would fill all france with smoke and now it has got air it will burn its whole substance its whole smoke this mirabeau the greatest of all the deputies had been refused by the nobility of his native town aix as their candidate for the state's general but he was chosen instead as deputy for the third estate mirabeau had watched the revolutionary tides rising in france and saw that unless they were skilfully managed they would sweep onwards too powerful to be baulked and eventually reduce france to chaos

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on another occasion mirabeau claimed for the king an absolute veto on bills of the legislature but he was unable to gain his end the king was only allowed a suspensive veto that is a veto which would last for the period of two legislatures in other words for four years mirabeau also made himself unpopular with the assembly by advocating that the right of declaring war should be left to the king and his ministers he pointed out that an assembly might much more easily be swayed to war than the king and his ministers his reward was to hear pamphlets entitled grand treason of count mirabeau hawked in the streets of paris with all mirabeau's faults he had a sublime confidence in himself like the elder pitt he felt that he and he alone could save the nation twice he approached the court and offered his services but he was mistrusted as a self-seeker he desired to control the destinies of france and to be well paid either as a minister or a pensioner for so doing Thus, when Louis XVI was nearing his tragic end, Mirabeau offered him sound advice which might have saved the situation.

Louis has been blamed for not attempting to take it, but he was hardly likely to do so, when the man who gave it was allowing himself to be elected president of the Jacobin Club, the most revolutionary society in Paris, and urging and voting for the civil constitution of the clergy, a step which to Louis XVI was not only blasphemous, but imperiled the immortal souls of all his subjects.

section four of the political history of france by muriel o davis this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter two the constituent assembly part two mirabeau was full of force talent and insight he was a great man but at the same time an enigma it is hard to get away from the dictum that sums him up as, beyond all controversy, one of the most unprincipled scoundrels that ever lived.

However, this is not the view of Carlyle, who apparently thought that when Mirabeau died, there had passed away one of the lights that lightened the darkness of mankind's folly and ignorance.

The meanings of citizenship as well as gender justice kept on broadening, narrowing, being contested, and pursued across different spheres of public life.

Her focus is on a cohort of leading figures within two major organizations, All India Women's Conference and the National Federation of Indian Women, and also she looks at the trajectories of women in India's constituent assembly.

Annie, thank you so much for joining us today.

And I want to start with this particular question.

They are debating with each other and losing their compatriots sometimes, and I want you to reflect on that.

But along with it, I want, uh, you to illuminate it using the idea of reservation.

Now, you write in your book that, um, Hansa Mehta has rejected reservations for women in the constituent assembly, uh, in the, in the debates, and you write that-

Mm-hmm