This article revisits the Constituent Assembly Debates to uncover how India’s framers imagined both the nation and its Constitution. Moving beyond a simple legal history, it analyzes key speeches by Nehru, Ambedkar, Patel, Hansa Mehta, Frank Anthony and others to show how they grappled with two intertwined challenges: holding together a deeply diverse country, and dismantling entrenched social hierarchies of caste, class, gender and community.