India's Living Constitution: Ideas, Practices, Controversies

by Zoya Hasan (Editor)

An examination of the ideas, practices and controversies surrounding the Indian Constitution.

Genres: India

Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Aayush Raj]

'This gap between constitutional norms and social realities runs like a red tape through the past fifty years, and through the chapters of this volume.'

This book makes one wonder, the wonderful and the stream of thoughts that have never been explored or thought of. It helps one imagine the unimaginable; imagine beyond what the sense perceptions have to offer. It helps one cast in moulds that have hitherto been neither conceived nor used. It provides a perspective beyond the perceptible. The book is as reflective as it is instructive and it has much to offer in terms of what and how Neitzsche comments on the democratic form of government in his - On the Genealogy of Morality.

The book covers issues that not only reflect on the social dimensions but has much to offer on the politico-administrative dimensions as well. The overarching coverage of the book makes it more compelling and further adds to the overall need for these discussions to be brought into the academic domain, especially within the classrooms. Each essay has to offer a unique thought-provoking idea on how the Constitution can be read and further how it must be read in light of the then-existing social framework and the current frame, albeit not much has changed since. The book consciously bemoans the ideas which have always been praised in a much-unparalleled manner and as constituting the highest attainable paradigm for the constitutional scheme of any country.

A must-read for Indians.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I valued this book for glimpses of different ways of conceiving what makes a nation,  how a constitution works, how the different branches of government - especially the judiciary and the executive - can work in creative tension with each other to create space for democracy and the flourishing of individual lives (and how they can fail to do so).