Top of page

The Constitution of India – Pic of the Week

Share this post:

Below is a picture of the preamble as contained in the limited print edition of the Constitution of India, which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950. The World Digital Library states that “the original of this elaborate edition took nearly five years to produce” and “the illustrations represent styles from the different civilizations of the subcontinent, ranging from the prehistoric Mohenjodaro, in the Indus Valley, to the present.”  According to a blog post on the printed edition of the Constitution, “it is the longest hand-written constitution of any independent nation of the world.”

The original of this work is held in the Parliament Library in India, but 1,000 photolithographic reproductions were made.  The Law Library of Congress has one of these reproductions in our Rare Book Collection.  As you can see from an interview with another owner of a copy of the Constitution, it is highly prized and cherished.

Comments (2)

  1. As an octogenarian from India who had seen the happenings during pre and post British era, I am excited to view the original copy of Constitution of India.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.