The Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, chaired by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, was set up on:

The Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly was set up on 29 August 1947, two weeks after Independence, with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as its Chairman.

Purpose of the committee:

• Its main task was to prepare a Draft Constitution, on the basis of the decisions taken by the Constituent Assembly and the reports of its various committees.
• It was asked to scrutinise the draft prepared by the Constitutional Adviser, and to submit a revised draft to the Assembly.

Work of the committee:

• It held many meetings over several months, and examined every provision carefully.
• It submitted the Draft Constitution to the President of the Assembly in February 1948.
• The draft was published, and the public and the governments were invited to send their comments.
• After considering the comments, the committee proposed amendments, and a revised draft was prepared.
• The Draft Constitution was introduced in the Assembly on 4 November 1948.

Dr. Ambedkar explained and defended the provisions of the draft during the long debates that followed.

Dr. Ambedkar's appointment:

• Ambedkar had been elected to the Constituent Assembly first from Bengal, but after partition his constituency went to East Pakistan.
• He was then re-elected from the Bombay Province, with the support of the Congress.
• He became the first Law Minister of independent India in August 1947.

His speeches:

• In his final speech in the Assembly, he warned against the "grammar of anarchy" (unconstitutional methods of protest) and "hero-worship" in politics.
• He said that political democracy must be made a social democracy, based on liberty, equality and fraternity.

Recognition:

He is called the "Chief Architect" of the Indian Constitution.

Why not the other options?

• ✗15 August 1947 was the date of Independence; 9 December 1947 is not correct; 4 November 1948 was the date on which the draft was introduced in the Assembly.