Comparative Snapshot: Japanese, Chinese and Swiss Constitutions

World constitutions offer the comparative yardstick against which India's own Constitution was drafted and defended, and a look at the Japanese, Chinese, and Swiss charters shows three distinct paths to constitutional government — a post-war pacifist document, a single-party socialist charter revised four times, and a federal compact that needs approval from both citizens and constituent states. Reading these three together with the article-count debate that took place inside India's own Constituent Assembly explains why Indian constitutional design borrowed selectively rather than copying any single foreign model.

Why the Constituent Assembly Looked Abroad

While defending the length of the Draft Constitution, one member of the Constituent Assembly set out a comparative count of articles across other national constitutions of the time:

The same speaker argued that India's far longer document was justified because the country was being constituted for "almost one-fifth of humanity," with a scale and range of problems that no other constitution-maker had confronted. The comparison was meant to answer critics who called the Draft Constitution needlessly bulky.

The Japanese Constitution and India's Due-Process Debate

The 1947 Japanese Constitution came up directly in the Constituent Assembly's debate over what became Article 21. Members who wanted India to adopt "due process of law," rather than the narrower "procedure established by law," pointed to Japan (alongside Ireland) as constitutions that had gone further — spelling out the actual procedure an arrested person is entitled to, including the right to be told the cause of arrest and to have the arrest adjudicated by a court, instead of leaving that procedure to be defined later by an ordinary legislature. Other members disagreed, arguing that Japan's and Ireland's circumstances were not comparable to India's and that the analogy did not hold. The exchange remains one of the clearest recorded instances of a foreign constitutional text being invoked, and then contested, while India's Fundamental Rights were being worded.

The Chinese Constitution: Four Charters Since 1949

China's current constitutional order traces back to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, after the Communist Revolution led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) under Chairman Mao Zedong. Since then, China has adopted four constitutions — in 1954, 1975, 1978, and 1982. The 1982 Constitution, still in force, was prepared by a National Constitution Revision Committee set up by the National People's Congress (NPC); once the draft was approved by the NPC Standing Committee, it was put out for nationwide public discussion before final adoption.

The 1982 Constitution also lays down duties for citizens, including obligations to observe public order and respect social morality, safeguard the security, honour, and interests of the country, defend the country and resist aggression, perform military service or join the militia, pay taxes in accordance with law, and combine the rights to work and education with an obligation to practise family planning.

The Swiss Constitution: Three Charters and a Double Ratification

Switzerland has had three constitutions to date — in 1848, 1874, and 1999. The 1848 constitution established the Swiss federal state; it was replaced by a second constitution in 1874, which then remained in force for roughly 125 years. The current, third constitution was adopted by the Federal Assembly on 18 December 1998, approved separately by the people and by the cantons (Switzerland's constituent states) in a referendum on 18 April 1999, and came into force on 1 January 2000. It is a comprehensive written constitution, a feature it shares with India, Japan, and China.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• China has adopted four constitutions (1954, 1975, 1978, 1982); Switzerland has adopted three (1848, 1874, 1999).
• The Japanese Constitution was recorded as having 103 Articles in the Constituent Assembly Debates.
• Switzerland's current constitution needed approval from both the people and the cantons before taking effect on 1 January 2000.

Mains (GS2 — comparative constitutions)

• How the Constituent Assembly used foreign constitutions selectively: citing Japan and Ireland on due process while defending India's Constitution against comparisons based purely on length.
• Contrast the ratification and revision processes of Japan, China, and Switzerland with India's own constitutional amendment process.

FAQ

Q1. How many constitutions has China had since 1949? Four — adopted in 1954, 1975, 1978, and 1982, with the 1982 Constitution still in force.

Q2. How many constitutions has Switzerland had? Three — in 1848, 1874, and 1999, with the current one in force since 1 January 2000.

Q3. Why is the Japanese Constitution significant for India's Article 21? Because members of the Constituent Assembly cited Japan's (and Ireland's) explicit procedural safeguards on arrest while debating whether Article 21 should read "procedure established by law" or "due process of law."

Q4. How was Switzerland's 1999 Constitution approved? It was adopted by the Federal Assembly in December 1998 and then ratified by a referendum of both the people and the cantons in April 1999.

Q5. Why did some Constituent Assembly members defend the length of India's Constitution? They argued that India's scale, diversity, and the range of new problems it faced justified a longer document than comparatively shorter constitutions such as Ireland's or the United States'.

Quick Revision

• China: 4 constitutions — 1954, 1975, 1978, 1982; current one drafted via an NPC Constitution Revision Committee.
• Switzerland: 3 constitutions — 1848, 1874, 1999; current one in force from 1 January 2000.
• Japan: 1947 Constitution, recorded as having 103 Articles in the Constituent Assembly Debates.
• Japan and Ireland were cited in the Article 21 debate on "procedure established by law" versus "due process of law."
• Constituent Assembly members compared India's article count against Ireland, the U.S., Australia, South Africa, the U.S.S.R., Switzerland, Germany, and Japan.

Sources

• Constitution of India — legislative.gov.in
• Constituent Assembly Debates — Parliament of India digital library (eparlib.nic.in)

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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