Indian Constitutionalism: Inter Disciplinary Frames and Approaches

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Discipline Core	SLG3LS302	4

Course coordinator and team:

Does the course connect to, build on or overlap with any other courses offered in AUD?

SLGC offers numerous courses on constitutional law and politics both at the undergraduate and the MA level. These are substantive courses on constitutionalism, and the current course serves as an advanced course that focuses not merely on the substantive aspects of constitutional law and history in India but uses constitutionalism as a site through which the question of interdisciplinary legal studies is explored. The courses designed keeping in mind the fact that our doctoral students will come from diverse disciplines and the course materials them to interdisciplinary methodology which are central to the vision of the School and the University

Specific requirements on the part of students who can be admitted to this course: None (Pre-requisites; prior knowledge level; any others – please specify)

No. of students to be admitted (with justification if lower than usual cohort size is proposed): As per cohort size

Course scheduling (semester; semester-long/half-semester course; workshop mode; seminar mode; any other – please specify):semester long

How does the course link with the vision of AUD?

The University constantly strives to create innovative syllabus that challenges uni disciplinary approaches to the study of a particular field, but this course is designed keeping that vision in mind as it draws on a range of disciplines that have contributed to the discourse of constitutionalism in India

How does the course link with the specific programme(s) where it is being offered?

The PhD in Legal Studies will be first of its kind doctoral degree programme not located in a Law School, but in a Social Science University, marking a new paradigm in the field of research in and on law in India. This course sees the contribution of diverse disciplines to the study of law as a welcome development and seeks to create a community of scholars who can intervene in and contribute to the emerging terrain of interdisciplinary legal studies in the country

Course Details:

Summary:The study of Indian constitutionalism serves as a very fruitful site, both substantively and methodologically, to engage with questions of interdisciplinary legal studies. It is a terrain that has seen a range of intellectual interventions from diverse disciplines such as history, political science, economics and anthropology. This course distinguishes between constitutional law as it is studied within traditional legal education and constitutionalism as a force field that includes the study of constitutional doctrines but is not exhausted by it. While the early decades of the Indian Constitution did not see a significant scholarly interest from disciplines outside of law, the prominence of constitutional litigation on every social and political question in India has necessitated a welcome shift in the scholarly community that engages with constitutionalism. This course charts out the significance of a interdisciplinary approach to the subject and particularly focuses on the differences between the kind of questions that disciplinary vantage points bring to Constitutional theory. The courses is designed to demonstrate a range of methods that will be productive to doctoral students coming from diverse disciplines, and allow them to see how interdisciplinary methods redefines entry calibrates existing fields of enquiry

Objectives:

To provide a survey of different approaches to the study of the Indian Constitution
To understand the differences between different disciplinary entry points and how they expand the terrain of legal studies
To equip students with a critical understanding of Indian constitutional history and theory

Expected learning outcomes:

On successful completion of the course, students would demonstrate knowledge of

A sharp understanding of constitutionalism as a site in which law politics and culture overlap
Constitutional history and culture in India
An understanding of the specific challenges of postcolonial constitutionalism

Overall structure (course organisation, rationale of organisation; outline of each module):

Module 1: Theoretical foundations and debates: From the global to the postcolonial (Weeks 1-3)

Module 1 locates the debate on Indian constitutionalism within a larger intellectual history of constitutionalism as a global genre. It poses the question of how postcolonial constitutions transformed the assumptions of universal constitutionalism, and in particular what the challenges of the “Indian problem” were. The emphasis here is on the contribution of political theorists and legal scholars in framing the question of the Indian Constitution as a domain of intellectual enquiry. The module ends with an evaluation of the contribution of Uday Mehta to constitutional theory as a case study.

The Making of the Indian Constitution 2: Constitutionalism From Below

If the previous modules focused on constitutionalism from above, in this module we will turn towards a perspective of constitutionalism from below. Examining a social history of the early Indian Constitution, we look at what it means to provide a subaltern perspective on the history of the Indian Constitution and what can a “People’s history” of the Constitution tell us about the success and failure of constitutionalism in India.

Module 3: Thematics(Weeks 7-10)

Module 3 turns our attention from methodological issues to substantive ones and focuses on the question of the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy in India. The Module is broken down into theoretical discussions and an examination of sub themes including different disciplinary approaches to questions of institutions and process, emergency power in the Constitution and finally the question of religion and associational life in India

Module 4:Cultural and Ethnographic Approaches Weeks 11-12

The last module looks at interventions and constitutionalism from unlikely disciplines including cultural studies, literature and anthropology. It also uses representative examples of emerging approaches that open up new questions around constitutionalism and asks what the significance of these approaches are to the study of the Indian Constitution

Contents (week wise plan with readings):

Week	Plan/ Theme/ Topic	Objectives	Core Reading (with no. of pages)	Additional Suggested Readings	Assessment (weights, modes, scheduling)
1 & 2	Theoretical foundations and debates: From the global to the postcolonial	To locate the debate on Indian constitutionalism within a larger intellectual history of constitutionalism as a global genre. The challenges of the “Indian problem”. Specific focus on the overlap between legal theory and political theory	Global Debates Michael Perry, “What is “the Constitution”? from Larry Alexander, Constitutionalism: Philosophical Foundations, Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 99-151 Dieter Grimm, Chapter 1: The Origins and Transformation of the Concept of the Constitution, from Constitutionalism: Past, Present, and Future, Oxford Univ. Press, pp.3-40 The Postcolonial Problem Madhav Khosla, Introduction: The Indian Problem from India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy, Harvard Univ. Press, pp.1-26: Sujit Choudhry, Madhav Khosla, And Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Locating Indian Constitutionalism, in Sujit Choudhry et al., The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, Oxford Univ. Press, pp.1-16 Upendra Baxi, Outline of a 'Theory of Practice' of Indian Constitutionalism in Rajeev Bhargava, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, Oxford Univ Press, pp. 92-118 Bhikhu Parekh, The Constitution as a Statement of Indian Identity in Rajeev Bhargava, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, Oxford University Press, pp.43-59. Case Study : Uday Mehta and Constitutional Theory Uday Mehta, The Indian constitution: Articulation of a political vision in Dipesh Chakrabarty & Rochona Majumdar & Andrew Sartori, From the Colonial to the Postcolonial: India and Pakistan in Transition, Oxford University Press, pp.13-31 Uday Mehta, Indian Constitutionalism: Crisis, unity, and history in Sujit Choudhry & Madhav Khosla & Pratap Bhanu Mehta, The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, pp.38-54	James Tully, Chapter 3: The historical formation of modern constitutionalism: the empire of uniformity from Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity, pp. 58-91 Sujit Choudhry, How to Do Constitutional Law and Politics in South Asia in Mark Tushnet & Madhav Khosla, Unstable Constitutionalism, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 18-44 Uday Mehta, ‘Constitutionalism’ in Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (eds.), The Oxford Companion to Politics in India (Oxford University Press 2010)	Response Essay = 20 %
3 & 4	The Making of the Indian Constitution 1: Constitutionalism From Above	To closely look at the making of the Indian Constitution to understand the difference between legal, historical and political approaches to the constituent assembly debates	Rochana Bajpai, Minority Representation and the Making of the Indian Constitution in Rajeev Bhargava, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, Oxford University Press, pp. 354-391 Hanna Lerner, The Indian Founding: A Comparative Perspective, in Choudhry, Sujit, Madhav Khosla, and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, eds. The Oxford handbook of the Indian constitution. Oxford University Press, 2016 Gyan Prakash, Anxious Constitution-Making from Gyan Prakash & Nikhil Menon & Michael Laffan, The Postcolonial Moment in South and Southeast Asia, Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 141-162 Madhav Khosla, The Grammar of Constitutionalism in Chapter 1 India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy in Harvard Univ. Press, pp.27-71		Class submission and presentation (20 %)
	The Making of the Indian Constitution 1: Constitutionalism From Above	To understand the social history of the Constitution and what a subaltern perspective on constitutional means To compare and contrast it with the module on CAD	Saadat Hasan Manto, Naya Kanoon from Manto: Selected Stories Peter Irons, Introduction and Chapter 10: Mary Beth Tinker v. Des Moines, The Courage of Their Convictions, Free Press 2015. Rohit De, Introduction, Chapter 3 The Case of the Invisible Butchers and Chapter 4: The Case of the Honest Prostitute: Sex, Work, and Freedom in the Indian Constitution from A People’s Constitution:The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic, Princeton Univ. Press 2018. Ornit Sharni, The People and the Making of India’s Constitution, The Historical Journal (2022), 1–22
(Weeks 7-10)	Module 3: Thematics	To examine the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy in India. Discussion of sub themes including different disciplinary approaches to questions of institutions and process, emergency power in the Constitution and of religion the Constitution in India	Judith Butler, We the people: Thoughts on Freedom of Assembly in Alain Badiou et al., What Is a People? Columbia Univ. Press 2013 Sunil Khilnani, The Indian Constitution and democracy in ZOYA HASAN, India’s Living Constitution Ideas, Practices, Controversies Suhas Palshibar, The Indian State Constitution and Beyond, in Rajeev Bhargava, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, pp. 143-163 The Indian Constitution and democracy 2: Institutions & Process Readings Gurpreet Mahajan, Keeping the Faith: Legitimizing Democracy through Judicial Practices in India in Daniel Bonilla Maldonado, Constitutionalism of the Global South The Indian Constitution and democracy 3: Emergency Readings Gyan Prakash, Lawful Suspension of Law in Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy's Turning Point Jaya Nandita Kasibathla, Fortress-Text: The Democratic Constitution as a Global Genre in Constituting the state of Exception law and literature in postcolonial india The Indian Constitution and democracy 4: Constitutionalism, Religion and Public Life Readings Abhinav Chandrachud , Secularly Swearing in Republic of Religion: The Rise and Fall of Colonial Secularism in India Ronojoy Sen, Introduction and Chapter 2 of Articles of Faith: Religion, Secularism, and the Indian Supreme Court	Sanjay Palshikar, Democracy and Constitutionalism in Rajeev Bhargava, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, pp. 211-229 Nivedita Menon, Citizenship and the Passive Revolution: Interpreting the First Amendment in Rajeev Bhargava, Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, pp. 189-210 Shylashri Shankar, The Embedded Negotiators: India’s Higher Judiciary and Socioeconomic Rights in Daniel Bonilla Maldonado, Constitutionalism of the Global South Shruti Rajagopalan, Economic Analysis of Amendments to the Indian Constitution (Extracts from dissertation) Pratap Bhanu Mehta, The Inner Conflict of Constitutionalism : Judicial Review and the 'Basic Structure in ZOYA HASAN, India’s Living Constitution Ideas, Practices, Controversies, pp. 179-206 Bidyut Chakrabarty, Challenges to Constitutional identity: The doctrine of basic structure of the Constitution, Chapter 5 in India's Constitutional Identity: Ideological Beliefs and Preferences	Response Paper = 20%
10-12	Cultural and Ethnographic Approaches	Interventions from unlikely disciplines including cultural studies, literature and anthropology. Emerging approaches that open up new questions around constitutionalism	Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Constitutions and Culture Studies, 16 (2) Yale J. Law and Human133(1990) Jaya Nandita Kasibathla, Constituting the state of Exception law and literature in postcolonial India, Chapter 2 & 3, pp. 53-18 Anuj Bhuwania, The case that felled a city: A PIL with nine lives, From Courting the People: Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India, pp. pp.50-79 Future Directions NOMI CLAIRE LAZAR, Constitutional preambles and the uncertain future In Luigi Corrias & Lyana Francot, Temporal Boundaries of Law and Politics: Time Out of Joint	Introduction to Robert L. Tsai, America's Forgotten Constitutions, Harvard Univ. Press, 2014, pp.1-18 Emilios Christodoulidis and Andrew Schaap, Arendt’s Constitutional Question In Marco Goldoni & Christopher Mccorkindale, Hannah Arendt And The Law

Pedagogy:

Instructional strategies:

Special needs (facilities, requirements in terms of software, studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom/others instructional space; any other – please specify): classroom, projector, library
Expertise in AUD faculty or outside: SLGC faculty members are equipped to transact this course
Linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, hospital; any others): field interaction with practicing lawyers, legal aid projects, civil liberties organizations