NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Civics (Political Science) Chapter 2 Constitutional Design contains answers to the exercise questions given in ‘Democratic Politics -I’. These solutions will help students for the preparation of CBSE Class 9 SST exam. All the answers are useful for exams as most of the questions are asked from the NCERT textbooks. So, students can study these solutions and score high in their exams.
Class 9 Civics Constitutional Design Questions and Answers
Question 1: Here are some false statements. Identify the mistake in each case and rewrite these correctly based on what you have read in this chapter.
(a) Leaders of the freedom movement had an open mind about whether the country should be democratic or not after independence.
Answer: Leaders of the freedom movement had a consensus that after independence, India will be a democratic nation.
(b) Members of the Constituent Assembly of India held the same views on all provisions of the Constitution.
Answer: Members of the constituent assembly of India held the same views on the basic principles of the constitution.
(c) A country that has a constitution must be a democracy.
Answer: A democratic country must have a constitution.
(d) Constitution cannot be amended because it is the supreme law of a country.
Answer: Constitution can be amended to keep up with the changes in aspirations of the society.
Question 2: Which of these was the most salient underlying conflict in the making of a democratic constitution in South Africa?
(a) Between South Africa and its neighbours
(b) Between men and women
(c) Between the white majority and the black minority
(d) Between the coloured minority and the black majority
Answer: (d) Between the coloured minority and the black majority
Question 3: Which of these is a provision that a democratic constitution does not have?
(a) Powers of the head of the state
(b) Name of the head of the state
(c) Powers of the legislature
(d) Name of the country
Answer: (b) Name of the head of the state
Question 4: Match the following leaders with their roles in the making of the Constitution:
| (a) Motilal Nehru | (i) President of the Constituent Assembly |
| (b) B.R. Ambedkar | (ii) Member of the Constituent Assembly |
| (c) Rajendra Prasad | (iii) Chairman of the Drafting Committee |
| (d) Sarojini Naidu | (iv) Prepared a Constitution for India in 1928 |
Answer.
| (a) Motilal Nehru | (iv) Prepared a Constitution for India in 1928 |
| (b) B.R. Ambedkar | (iii) Chairman of the Drafting Committee |
| (c) Rajendra Prasad | (i) President of the Constituent Assembly |
| (d) Sarojini Naidu | (ii) Member of the Constituent Assembly |
Question 5: Read again the extracts from Nehru’s speech ‘Tryst with Destiny’ and answer the following:
(a) Why did Nehru use the expression “not wholly or in full measure” in the first sentence?
Answer: Nehru used the expression “not wholly or in full measure” because according to him the task of building a nation is a gargantuan task which cannot be fulfilled in one’s lifetime.
(b) What pledge did he want the makers of the Indian Constitution to take?
Answer: Nehru wanted makers of the Indian constitution to take a pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
(c) “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye”. Who was he referring to?
Answer: He was referring to Mahatma Gandhi.
Question 6: Here are some of the guiding values of the Constitution and their meaning. Rewrite them by matching them correctly.
| (a) Sovereign | (i) The government will not favour any religion |
| (b) Republic | (ii) People have the supreme right to make decisions |
| (c) Fraternity | (iii) Head of the state is an elected person |
| (d) Secular | (iv) People should live like brothers and sisters |
Answer.
| (a) Sovereign | (i) People have the supreme right to make decisions |
| (b) Republic | (ii) Head of the state is an elected person |
| (c) Fraternity | (iii) People should live like brothers and sisters |
| (d) Secular | (iv) The government will not favour any religion |
Question 7: How did your school celebrate the Constitution Day on November exercises 26th? Prepare a brief report.
Answer: Do it yourself based on your experience.
Question 8: Here are different opinions about what made India a democracy. How much importance would you give to each of these factors?
(a) Democracy in India is a gift of the British rulers. We received training to work with representative legislative institutions under the British rule.
Answer: It is true that the experience of Britishers helped us to form institutions in independent India but it cannot be considered as a gift of the Britishers, as Indian struggles for many years for independent India.
(b) Freedom Struggle challenged the colonial exploitation and denial of different freedoms to Indians. Free India could not be anything but democratic.
Answer: Freedom struggle did challenge the colonial exploitation but it worked for democracy by making laws with consensus and not imposing anything on anyone.
(c) We were lucky to have leaders who had democratic convictions. The denial of democracy in several other newly independent countries shows the important role of these leaders.
Answer: The leaders had the desire to give freedoms to the people. India’s freedom struggle is the only example of a bloodless freedom struggle in contemporary history. This could be possible because our nationalist leaders had the maturity to listen to others’ views.
Question 9: Read the following extract from a conduct book for ‘married women’, published in 1912. ‘God has made the female species delicate and fragile ‘both physically and emotionally, pitiably incapable of self-defence. They are destined thus by God to remain in male protection – of father, husband and son – all their lives. Women should, therefore, not despair, but feel obliged that they can dedicate themselves to the service of men’. Do you think the values expressed in this para reflected the values underlying our constitution? Or does this go against the constitutional values?
Answer: The values expressed in this para is totally contradictory to the values underlying our constitution. Here, women are treated as weak while in our constitution men and women both are treated equal. The governmental policies also favour women to bring them in mainstream.
Question 10: Read the following statements about a constitution. Give reasons why each of these is true or not true.
(a) The authority of the rules of the constitution is the same as that of any other law.
Answer: Not true because the Constitution is the supreme law.
(b) Constitution lays down how different organs of the government will be formed.
Answer (b): True
Reason: Constitution defines the role of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary and how they should be formed and by whom.
(c) Rights of citizens and limits on the power of the government are laid down in the constitution.
Answer (c): True
Reason: The constitution provides rights to citizens and limits on the power of the government.
(d) A constitution is about institutions, not about values
Answer (d): Not True
Reason: Not true as the Constitution holds values on which all institutions work. Our preamble states about values – justice, liberty, fraternity, and equality.