elected indirectly by the members of the provincial assemblies. The Cabinet Mission appointed in 1946 allotted seats to each Province and each Princely State or group of States. Accordingly, Provinces or areas under direct British rule elected 292 members and all Princely States together elected 93 members. The plan also guaranteed that the seats in each Province had members from the major communities in India : Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others, in proportion to their respective populations. The Council also ensured that 26 members from Scheduled Castes are represented in the Assembly. While elections were held in Provincial legislative houses, representatives of Princely States were identified through consultation. In all it had only nine women members. The Indian National Congress was the single largest party with 69% of all seats followed by the Muslim League which had most of the seats reserved for Muslims. In the beginning, it had members from all parts of British India and after 14 August 1947, as the country was partitioned between India and Pakistan, the members from Pakistan formed a separate Constituent Assembly for Pakistan.

As you can see, the Constituent Assembly (CA) was not elected through universal adult franchise, but indirectly and as such did not represent all sections of Indian society. Only about 10% of the population could vote in the provincial elections then. In fact, the members from the princely states were not elected at all and were decided through consultation with the concerned princely states. Such a decision was taken keeping in view the special situation that had arisen due to intense political activity on the eve of freedom and mounting tensions among the people. The princely states had not yet agreed to become part of the Indian Union and many of them hoped to remain independent kingdoms. That is why their representatives were asked to join the Assembly. In the beginning, the Muslim League members did not attend the meetings, though they joined it

Even though the C A was not strictly representative, it took