Jairam Ramesh Recalls Lesser-Known History of India’s Constitution and Emblem

Marking 76 years since the Constitution of India came into force, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday reflected on its making and the lesser-known history behind India’s national emblem and motto, highlighting the debates and decisions that shaped them.

In a detailed post on X, Ramesh said the drafting of the Constitution has been closely studied ever since the publication of Granville Austin’s landmark 1966 book The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation and B. Shiva Rao’s five-volume work The Framing of India’s Constitution, completed in 1968. He noted that scholarly interest has continued over the decades, with a special mention of the recent book Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History by Rohit De and Ornit Shani.

Ramesh pointed out that the first two handwritten copies of the Constitution, in English and Hindi, already carried the national emblem on their covers. The decision to adopt the Ashokan Lion Capital as the emblem was taken by the end of 1947, drawing inspiration from the sculpture excavated at Sarnath in 1905.

However, he noted that the national motto was not initially part of the emblem. “It was only by early 1949 that the motto ‘Satyameva Jayate,’ taken from the Mundaka Upanishad, was added below the abacus,” he wrote. He also recalled that the phrasing of the motto was debated, with some arguing it should be “Satyameva Jayati” instead of “Satyameva Jayate,” prompting consultations with leading Sanskrit scholars before the final decision.

Ramesh further referred to a 1956 intervention by historian and then nominated MP Radha Kumud Mookerjee, who had observed that the original Ashokan Lion Capital featured a large wheel above the lions’ shoulders. Despite this, the emblem was left unchanged, as it had already been widely adopted and used.

He also noted that alternative inscriptions were considered during the Constituent Assembly’s deliberations. In some Assembly reports from 1948, the words “Dharmachakra Pravartanaya” appeared below the abacus, before being replaced by “Satyameva Jayate” in early 1949.

Interestingly, Ramesh added that “Dharmachakra Pravartanaya” continued to hold symbolic significance, as the words were illuminated above the Lok Sabha Speaker’s chair in the Old Parliament Building until the House shifted to the new Parliament complex in September 2023.

Placing his remarks in the context of ongoing discussions on constitutional values and symbolism, Ramesh said these historical details reflect the layered and deliberative nature of India’s constitutional journey—one that continues to invite reflection even 76 years later.