Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution

Rajeev Bhargava

Oxford India Paperbacks

In-depth reading of the Indian Constitution
Highlights contesting interpretations to different features of the Constitution
Well-known contributors such as Bhikhu Parekh, Upendra Baxi, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, among others

Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution

Rajeev Bhargava

Description

This collection of essays analyses the Indian Constitution as a political or an ethical document, from a political theory perspective, reflecting configurations of power and interest or articulating a moral vision. This study of the Constitution provides a platform on which extensive political deliberations and arguments over procedural and substantive issues relating to Indian society can take place. The essays discuss ideas of equality, freedom, citizenship and property, minority rights, democracy and welfare as found in the Constitution. It also asks questions like: Does the Constitution recognize all moral rights possessed by the citizens? What importance does the Constitution accord to the rights that it recognizes? Is the section on duties consistent with the section on fundamental rights? If so, then why do tensions between rights and duties still exist? Is it because the Constitution prescribes duties over rights? Does the Constitution support liberty, equality, and fraternity in equal measure?
The contributors critically examine the potential, achievements, and limitations of the Indian Constitution. They further emphasize the need to examine whether or not a serious disjunction exists between the ideals as enshrined in the Constitution and their expression. The volume also aims to resuscitate political theory in India, 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.

Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution

Rajeev Bhargava

Oxford India Paperbacks

Acknowledgements; 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 an 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 Constitutent 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);
Notes on Contributors; Index

Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution

Rajeev Bhargava

Oxford India Paperbacks

Author Information

Rajeev Bhargava, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

Contributors:

Ashok Acharya, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi; Rochana Bajpai, Lecturer in Politics of Asia/Africa, Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Upendra Baxi, Professor of Law, University of Warwick; Rajeev Bhargava, Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; Peter Ronald deSouza, Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla; Gopal Guru, Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi; Christophe Jaffrelot, Director, Centre d'Edudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI) at Sciences and Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris;
Shefali Jha, Associate Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Gurpreet Mahajan, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Cnetre for Policy Research, New Delhi; Nivedita Menon, Reader, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi; Aditya Nigam, Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, and Visiting Fellow, Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Department of History, Princeton University; Sanjay Palshikar, Reader, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad;
Suhas Palshikar, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Pune; Thomas Pantham, former Professor of Political Science, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Bhikhu Parekh holds the Centennial Professorship at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics; Valerian Rodrigues, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.