Class-VIII

Political Science
Lesson-1

The Indian Constitution

Very Short Answers:

Q1. What is a Constitution?

An) A Constitution can be described as a document outlining the basic laws or
principles by which a country is to be governed.

Q2. What is Right to Constitutional Remedies?

An) Right to Constitutional Remedies allows citizens to move the court if they believe
that any of their Fundamental rights have been violated by the state.

Q3. What does Federalism mean?

An) Federalism refers to the existence of more than one level of government in the
country.

Q4. What is universal adult franchise?

An) Universal adult franchise means every adult citizen has a right to vote irrespective
of gender, caste, creed, education and financial status.

Short Answers:
Q5. What are the three organs of government?
An) According to the Constitution, there are three organs of government. These are the
legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
● The legislature refers to our elected representatives.
● The executive is a smaller group of people who are responsible for
implementing laws and running the government.
● The judiciary refers to the system of courts in this country.
Q6. What do you mean by Directive Principles of State Policy?
An) Directive Principles of State Policy was designed by the members of the
Constituent Assembly to ensure greater social and economic reforms and to serve as a
guide to the independent Indian State to institute laws and policies that help reduce
the poverty of the masses.

Q7. What are the main features of ‘Right to Equality’?

An) Features of Right to Equality:
● All persons are equal before the law. This means that all persons shall be
equally protected by the laws of the country.
● It also states that no citizen can be discriminated on the basis of their religion,
caste or gender.
● Every person has access to all public places including playgrounds, hotels, shops
etc.
● The State cannot discriminate against anyone in matters of employment.

Long Answers:

Q8. What are the factors the drafting committee had to take into consideration while
drafting the constitution?
An) The committee had to keep in mind that India was a land of many communities,
languages and many religions.
India was a land of diverse cultures and the princely states in India had to be
considered.
The partition of the country into India and Pakistan was to take place and the drafting
committee had to bear this in mind.
Finally the biggest consideration was the socio-economic condition of a majority of
Indians which was in a bad state.
Q9. Write a brief note on the struggle for freedom in Nepal.
An) In Nepal, people fought for freedom in 1990. Democracy was established and it
lasted for 12 years until 2002.
In October 2002, King Gyanendra began taking over the government with the
assistance of the army. In 2005, King Gyanendra took over as the head of the
government.
In 2006, people’s movement for democracy began gaining immense force. In 2006 the
King restored the Third Parliament and asked the political parties to form a
government. On January 15, 2007, Nepal adopted an Interim Constitution and Nepal
gained political freedom.

Q10. What is the importance of Constitution?

An) Importance of Constitution:
● A Constitution helps serve as a set of rules and principles that all persons in a
country can agree upon as the basis of the way in which they want the country
to be governed.
● The Constitution often lays down rules that guard against this misuse of
authority by our political leaders.
● Constitution ensures that a dominant group does not use its power against
other, less powerful people or groups.
● The Constitution helps to protect us against certain decisions that might be
takenwhich could have an adverse effect on the larger principles that
thecountry believes in.