About The Book
Much of the germinal work on the Indian Constitution has been done by Legal experts and historians. The distinctiveness of this collection of Essays is its focus on the Indian Constitution from the perspective of Political theory. Contributors to this volume view the Constitution either as a political or as an Ethical document, reflecting configurations of power and interests or articulating a moral vision.
Critically analysing the various aspects of the Constitution, the essays discuss equality, freedom, citizenship, Minority rights, democracy, rights, property, and welfare. It also asks questions like : Does the Constitution recognize all moral rights possessed by citizens? Are these rights only against the state or also against fellow citizens? Is the section on duties consistent with the section on fundamental rights? Does the Constitution support liberty, equality, and fraternity in equal measure? If so, how does it Balance them? Is the Constitution a Framework for balancing liberty against power? Does the Constitution embody one ethical perspective or several competing moral visions? How, if at all, are these visions reconciled?
Together, the essays offer a balanced view on the potential, achievement, and limitations of the Indian Constitution. They emphasize the need to examine whether a disjunction exists between Constitutional ideals and political practice.
An important objective of this work is to resuscitate political theory in India, to evolve a form of political theory that is suitable in the Indian context, and to simultaneously open up Western political theory as it exists today.
This volume will be useful to scholars and advanced students of political theory, moral philosophy, law, politics, and history.
Contents
Introduction
Outline of a Political Theory of the Indian Constitution/Rajeev Bhargava
Section I :
1. The Constitution as a Statement of Indian Identity/Bhikhu Parekh
2. Gandhi and the Constitution : Parliamentary Swaraj and Village Swaraj/Thomas Pantham
3. Institutional Visions and Sociological Imaginations : The Debate on Panchayati Raj/Peter Ronald Desouza
4. Outline of a 'Theory of Practice' of Indian Constitutionalism/Upendra Baxi
5. A Text Without Author : Locating the Constituent Assembly as Event/Aditya Nigam
Section II :
6. The Indian State : Constitution and Beyond/Suhas Palshikar
7. Citizenship and the Indian Constitution/Valerian Rodrigues
8. Citizenship and the Passive Revolution : Interpreting the First Amendment/Nivedita Menon
9. Democracy and Constitutionalism/Sanjay Palshikar
10. Constitutional Justice : Positional and Cultural/Gopal Guru
Section III :
11. Containing the Lower Castes : The Constituent Assembly and the Reservation Policy/Christophe Jaffrelot
12. Affirmative Action for Disadvantaged Groups : A Cross-Constitutional Study of India and the US/Ashok Acharya
Section IV :
13. Religion and the Indian Constitution : Questions of Separation and Equality/Gurpreet Mahajan
14. Passion and Constraint : Courts and the Regulation of Religious Meaning/Pratap Bhanu Mehta
15. Rights Versus Representation : Defending Minority Interests in the Constituent Assembly/Shefali Jha
16. Minority Representation and the Making of the Indian Constitution/Rochana Bajpai
List of Contributors
1. Acharya, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.
2. Rochana Baipai, Lecturer in the Politics of Asia/Africa, Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
3. UpEndra Baxi, Professor of Law, University of Warwick.
4. Rajeev Bhargava, Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi.
5. Peter Desouza, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi.
6. Gopal Guru, Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi.
7. Christophe Jaffrelot, Director of CERI (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences and research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Paris.
8. Shefali Jha, Associate Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (on leave till July 2008).
9. Gurpreet Mahajan, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
10. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
11. Nivedita Menon, Reader, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.
12. Aditya Nigam, Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi and Visiting Fellow, Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Department of History, Princeton University.
13. Sanjay Palshikar, Reader, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad.
14. Suhas Palshikar, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Pune.
15. Thomas Pantham, former Professor of Political Science, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.
16. Bhikhu Parekh holds the Centennial Professorship at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics.
17. Valerian Rodrigues, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.