Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction: Outline of a Political Theory of the Indian Constitution Rajeev Bhargava 1

Section I

1 The Constitution as a Statement of Indian Identity Bhikhu Parekh 43

2 Gandhi and the Constitution: Parliamentary Swaraj and Village Swaraj Thomas Pantham 59

3 Institutional Visions and Sociological Imaginations: The Debate on Panchayati Raj Peter Ronald deSouza 79

4 Outline of a ‘Theory of Practice’ of Indian Constitutionalism Upendra Baxi 92

5 A Text Without Author: Locating the Constituent Assembly as Event Aditya Nigam 119

Section II

6 The Indian State: Constitution and Beyond Suhas Palshikar 143

7 Citizenship and the Indian Constitution Valerian Rodrigues 164

8 Citizenship and the Passive Revolution: Interpreting the First Amendment Nivedita Menon 189

9 Democracy and Constitutionalism Sanjay Palshikar 211

10 Constitutional Justice: Positional and Cultural Gopal Guru 230

Section III

11 Containing the Lower Castes: The Constituent Assembly and the Reservation Policy Christophe Jaffrelot 249

12 Affirmative Action for Disadvantaged Groups: A Cross-constitutional Study of India and the US Ashok Acharya 267

Section IV

13 Religion and the Indian Constitution: Questions of Separation and Equality Gurpreet Mahajan 297

14 Passion and Constraint: Courts and the Regulation of Religious Meaning Pratap Bhanu Mehta 311

15 Rights versus Representation: Defending Minority Interests in the Constituent Assembly Shefali Jha 339

16 Minority Representation and the Making of the Indian Constitution Rochana Bajpai 354

Notes on Contributors 392

Index 394