It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on IndiaÆs greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A PeopleÆs Constitution upends this narrative and shows how the Constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways. This remarkable legal process was led by individuals on the margins of society, and Rohit De looks at how drinkers, smugglers, petty vendors, butchers, and prostitutesùall despised minoritiesùshaped the constitutional culture. The Constitution came alive in the popular imagination so much that ordinary people attributed meaning to its existence, took recourse to it, and argued with it. Focusing on the use of constitutional remedies by citizens against new state regulations seeking to reshape the society and economy, De illustrates how laws and policies were frequently undone or renegotiated from below using the stateÆs own procedures. De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalistÆs contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty tradersÆ challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchersÆ petition against cow protection laws, and sex workersÆ battle to protect their right to practice prostitution. Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A PeopleÆs Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.
- | Author: Rohit De
- | Publisher: Princeton University Press
- | Publication Date: Nov 27, 2018
- | Number of Pages: 312 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Hardcover/History
- | ISBN-10: 0691174431
- | ISBN-13: 9780691174433