SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 4 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which country has the Republic feature of the Indian Constitution been borrowed from?

(a)Irish Constitution
(b)British Constitution
(c)French Constitution
(d)Australian Constitution

Answer

Why

Correct — C. In the standard list of borrowings, the republican form of government — an elected head of state instead of a hereditary monarch — is credited to the French Constitution.

France supplies the Preamble's other debt as well: the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

India became a sovereign democratic republic on 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force and an elected President replaced the Crown as head of state.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Irish Constitution — The Irish Constitution gave India the Directive Principles of State Policy, the method of electing the President and the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha — not the republican form itself.
(b)
British Constitution — The British debt is the parliamentary system — cabinet government, the Speaker, single citizenship, the rule of law. Britain is a monarchy, so the republic cannot come from there.
(d)
Australian Constitution — The Australian borrowings are the Concurrent List, the freedom of trade and commerce across the country, and the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.

Concept

The Constituent Assembly studied working constitutions and adapted what suited India. The textbook borrowing list is the shorthand for that, and SSC asks it as a one-to-one match.

The heaviest single source is the Government of India Act, 1935, which supplied the federal scheme, the office of Governor, the judiciary and the emergency provisions.

Around it sit the smaller debts: Britain for parliamentary government, the United States for Fundamental Rights and judicial review, Ireland for the Directive Principles, France for the republic and the Preamble's ideals.

"Borrowed" is a convenient word, not a literal one. The Assembly reworked every provision it took, and the Constitution is not a stitched copy — but the exam asks the list as the list is taught.

Key facts

The republican form of government is attributed to the French Constitution.
Liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble are also traced to France.
The Directive Principles of State Policy came from the Irish Constitution.
The Concurrent List and the joint sitting of the two Houses came from Australia.

Study next

Preamble — the words socialist, secular and integrity added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976Borrowings from the United States — Fundamental Rights, judicial review and impeachmentGovernment of India Act, 1935 as the single largest source of the Constitution

Common traps

Marking Ireland because it is a republic too, which the borrowing list does not turn on.
Confusing the republican form with the parliamentary form, which is the British debt.

The borrowing list is asked as a straight pair, and SSC gives you either half — the country or the feature.

The corpus asks it from the other side at 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.5, where the Irish Constitution is the given half and the Directive Principles are the key.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.