Modern Constitutionalism and the Indian Founding

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the political thought of India’s constitutional founding. More than half of the world’s constitutions have been written in the past three decades. Unlike the eighteenth century constitutional revolutions, these recent revolutions have taken place in countries characterized by religious, ethnic, and social divisions, as well as low levels of growth and education. The creation of democracy in such conditions has been a challenge – and an answer to traditional accounts which regarded such conditions as unfit for self-government. The Indian post-colonial founding exemplifies the twentieth century challenge of constitution-making alongside democratization in such an inhospitable environment. This dissertation considers how the question of democratization shaped the Indian constitutional vision. By unpacking the founding approach towards written constitutionalism and judicial power, centralization and modernization, and representation and citizenship, I reveal the legal architecture that was intended to make popular rule possible. In doing so, I highlight the first major twentieth century response to nineteenth century scholars of democracy, a response which argued that democratic norms emerged from democratic practice rather than the other way around.