We, the People, and Our Constitution

About This Book

The foundational ideas of Indian democracy—fraternity, equality, secularism, justice—are not alien concepts. As this book shows, from the earliest attempt with the ‘Constitution of India Bill’ in 1895, whose authorship is unknown, to the 1925 Commonwealth of India Bill, the Motilal Nehru Constitutional Draft of 1928 and various Congress resolutions to the Constituent Assembly of 1946, we see these basic ideas reiterated again and again. With the adoption of the Constitution, ‘we, the people’ merely affirmed our faith in an idea of freedom that thousands of Indians had fought and died for. Among the many distinguishing features of our Constitution is the role it has played in realizing the promises of the freedom struggle. We see how, creative interpretations by the judiciary aside, it has provided the blueprint for interventions by civil society to protect the citizen from both the brazenness of political power as well as the uncertainties of a developing economy. No wonder, then ....