डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Indian Constitutionalism: Law, Politics and History

Course Aims and Objectives

• To give a broad idea of constitutional history and debates, while focusing on key moments to understand the manner in which diverse constituencies and publics negotiate this terrain.
• The course will focus on key questions that have been central to the study of constitutional theory globally, thus aiming to contextualise the Indian experience within global and comparative developments
• Through this course, students will gain some familiarity with the Constitutional Assembly Debates, as well as important judgments of appellate courts.

Background Books

The following books provide useful overviews of the field, and the course draws upon portions of some of these books as part of the syllabus. Multiple copies of all of these books are available at AUD’s Karampura campus library.

• Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, (New Delhi: OUP, 2016)
• Granville Austin, Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience, (New Delhi: OUP, 2016)
• Madhav Khosla, The Indian Constitution: Oxford India Short Introductions (New Delhi: OUP, 2012)
• Sujit Choudhry, Pratap Bhanu Mehta & Madhav Khosla, The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, (New Delhi: OUP, 2016)

Syllabus with List of Readings

Module 1: Introduction and Key Questions

Topics to be Covered:

• What is Constitutionalism?
• Post independence Constitutional History in India
• Constitutional      Assembly      Debates,                            Indian Constitutionalism

Week 1: Introduction to Constitutionalism

• Martin Loughlin, “Constitutional Theory: A 25^th Anniversary Essay”, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2, (2005), pp. 183-202
• Hannah Arendt: On Revolution, Penguin Books, 1963, (selected extracts)
• Alexander de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840 (selected extracts)
• Bare Act of the Constitution of India: Mapping of the Indian Constitution

Weeks 2 & 3: Indian Constitutionalism

• Uday S. Mehta, The Social Question and the Absolutism of Politics, Seminar Issue #615, November 2010, Issue on the Constitution of India after 60 years 1950-2010
• Rohit De, “Constitutional Antecedents” in Sujit Choudhry et al., The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, New Delhi, OUP, 2016
• Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, OUP, New Delhi 2016, Chapter 1, “The Constituent Assembly: Microcosm in Action”
• Rajeev  Bhargava,  Introduction,  Politics  and

Ethics of the Indian Constitution, (New Delhi: OUP, 2008)

• Sadat Haasan Manto, The New Constitution
• Rohit De, “Beyond the Social Contract”, Seminar Issue #615, November 2010, Issue on the Constitution of India after 60 years 1950-2010

Additional Reading:

• Uday Singh Mehta, ‘Constitutionalism’ in Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (eds.), The Oxford Companion to Politics in India (Oxford University Press 2010)
• Upendra Baxi, Outline of a ‘Theory of Practice’ of Indian Constitutionalism in Rajeev Bhargava (ed.) Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, (New Delhi: OUP, 2008)
• Aditya Nigam, A Text Without an Author, Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 39, Issue No. 21, 22 May, 2004

Module    2:        Tensions within Constitutionalism

Topics to be Covered:

• Debates around the First Amendment, Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression
• Basic Structure Doctrine, Limits to Constitutional Amendments, Preventive Detention
• Separation of Powers, Public Interest Litigation

Weeks 4 & 5: Constitutional First Amendment

• Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, OUP, New Delhi 2016, Chapter 11: Amendment – The Flexible Federation
• Granville Austin, Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience, (New Delhi: OUP, 2016): Chapters 2 and 3
• K.G. Kannabiran, “Erosion of Constitutional Safeguards”, 20 ECON. & POL. WKLY. 786, 786 (1985)
• Romesh Thapar v State of Madras, AIR 1950

S.C. 126,

• Brij Bhushan v State of Delhi, AIR 1950 S.C. 129

• Gopalan v State of Madras AIR 1950 S.C. 27 (selected extracts)

Additional Reading:

• Nivedita Menon, Citizenship and the Passive Revolution: Interpreting the First Amendment, Economic and Political Weekly, 1 May 2004

Weeks 6, 7 & 8: Constitutionalism and Emergency Powers

• Government of India White Paper on Misuse of Mass Media During the Internal Emergency, August 1977 (selected extracts)
• Prashant Bhushan, A Case That Shook the Nation: The Verdict that Led to the Emergency, (New Delhi: Penguin, 2017): selected extracts
• H.R. Khanna, Neither Roses Nor Thorns, (New Delhi: Eastern Book Co., 2003): selected extracts
• Dilip D’souza, Fear and Forgetting: The 1962 Internment of Indian Chinese, Caravan Magazine, 1 November 2012
• Emma Tarlow, Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi, (University of California Press, 2002): selected chapters
• Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, (Vintage International, 1997) (selected extracts)
• ADM Jabalpur v. Shivakant Shukla, (1976) 2

S.C.C. 521(selected extracts)

• Kesavananda Bharati v Union of India (1973) 4

S.C.C. 225 (selected extracts)

• Raj Narain v Indira Gandhi (selected extracts)

Additional Reading:

• Kalyani              Ramnath,                           “ADM Jabalpur’s Antecedents: Political Emergencies, Civil Liberties, and Arguments from Colonial Continuities in India.” American University International Law Review 31:2 (2016), 209-51

Module 3: The Counter- Majoritarian Role of the Judiciary

Topics to be Covered:

• Public Interest Litigation, Judicial Activism
• Separation of Powers
• Reservations, Affirmative Action
• Minority Rights, Religious Freedom, Gender Equality

Week            9:            The Judicialisation of Politics

• Upendra Baxi, Courage, Craft and Contention: The Indian Supreme Court in the Eighties (N.M. Tripathi 1985) (selected extracts)
• S.P. Sathe, “Judicial Activism: The Indian Experience”, 6 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol’y 029 (2001) (selected extracts)
• Anuj Bhuvania, Courting the People: Public Interest Litigation in Post Emergency India, (New Delhi: CUP, 2016) (selected extracts)
• NJAC Judges Appointment Judgment (Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Association v Union of India, 2016) (selected extracts)

Additional Readings:

• Upendra Baxi, Taking Suffering Seriously: Social Action Litigation Before the Supreme Court of India in Upendra Baxi (ed.), Law and Poverty: Critical Essays, Bombay, N.M. Tripathi,

pp. 387-415 (1994) (selected extracts)

• Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “The Indian Supreme Court and the Art of Democratic Positioning” in Mark Tushnet & Madhav Khosla (eds.), Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia, CUP, 2015

Weeks 10, 11 & 12: Affirmative Action & Minority Rights

• Anupama Rao, The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009) :selected extracts
• B.R. Ambedkar, “Waiting for a Visa” in Ambedkar: The Attendant Details, (Navayana, 2017)
• Rochana Bajpai, Constitutional Assembly Debates and Minority Rights, Economic and Political Weekly, 27 May 2000
• Shefali Jha, Secularism in the Constitutional Assembly Debates, 1946-50, Economic and Political Weekly, 27 July 2002
• Indira Sahwney v UOI (selected extracts)
• Ashok Kumar Thakur v UOI (selected extracts)
• T. Sareetha v T. Venkatasubbiah, AIR 1983 AP 356 (selected extracts)
• Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors v State of Kerala, AIR 1987 SC 748 (selected extracts)

Additional Readings:

• K. Balagopal, “Justice for Dalits among Dalits”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, Issue No. 29, 16 July 2005
• Shabnam Tejani: Between Inequality and Identity: The Indian Constituent Assembly: Debates and Religious Differences 1946-50, in Udit Bhatia, The Indian Constitutional Assembly: Deliberations on Democracy (Routledge India 2017)
• Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, (OUP, New Delhi 2016): Chapter 12, “Language and the Constitution – The Half Hearted Compromise”