Constitution-Meaning and Significance — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. The word "Constitution" comes from the Latin word constituere, which means:

   • To rule
   • To establish or set up (correct answer)
   • To punish
   • To elect

   Explanation. Constituere means to set up or establish. Aristotle used the Greek idea in his work Politics for the way the offices of a state are arranged.

2. Who used the term "constitution" in his work Politics to describe the arrangement of offices in a state?

   • Plato
   • Aristotle (correct answer)
   • Montesquieu
   • Cicero

   Explanation. Aristotle's Politics is one of the earliest recorded uses of "constitution" in a political sense.

3. K.C. Wheare defined a Constitution as:

   • A set of religious rules for governance
   • The whole system of government of a country, the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government (correct answer)
   • Only the written document adopted by a legislature
   • A treaty between the ruler and the ruled

   Explanation. K.C. Wheare's definition is the standard one most Indian textbooks build on.

4. In K.C. Wheare's two senses of the word, Britain is the usual example of a constitution in which sense?

   • Narrow sense (a body of legal rules, usually in one document)
   • Wide sense (the whole system of government of a country) (correct answer)
   • Federal sense
   • Presidential sense

   Explanation. In the wide sense, every state has a constitution, written or unwritten. In the narrow sense, a constitution is a body of legal rules, usually collected in one document, as in India and the United States.

5. The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on:

   • 15 August 1947
   • 26 January 1950
   • 26 November 1949 (correct answer)
   • 9 December 1946

   Explanation. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950.

6. Under which Article is a law that conflicts with the Fundamental Rights void to the extent of the conflict?

   • Article 13 (correct answer)
   • Article 19
   • Article 356
   • Article 368

   Explanation. Article 13 voids a law to the extent that it conflicts with the Fundamental Rights. This is why a court can strike down even an Act of Parliament.

7. "Constitutionalism" is best described as:

   • Merely having a document called a Constitution
   • The idea that government power must actually be limited by law in practice, not just on paper (correct answer)
   • A synonym for federalism
   • The process of amending a constitution

   Explanation. A state can have an elaborate written Constitution and still lack constitutionalism if the document is routinely ignored or unenforced.

8. Which Article says that Parliament may amend the Constitution only by the procedure laid down in that Article?

   • Article 13
   • Article 245
   • Article 368 (correct answer)
   • Article 394

   Explanation. Article 368(1) allows Parliament to amend the Constitution by the procedure in that Article, and only that procedure can change it.