Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic

4.1/5 ( ratings)

It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India's greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A People's 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 prostitutes--all despised minorities--shaped 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 state's own procedures. De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist's contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty traders' challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchers' petition against cow protection laws, and sex workers' battle to protect their right to practice prostitution.

Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A People's Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.

Pages: 312

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Release: November 27, 2018

ISBN: 0691174431

ISBN 13: 9780691174433

A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic

4.1/5 ( ratings)

It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India's greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A People's 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 prostitutes--all despised minorities--shaped 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 state's own procedures. De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist's contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty traders' challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchers' petition against cow protection laws, and sex workers' battle to protect their right to practice prostitution.

Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A People's Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.

Pages: 312

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Release: November 27, 2018

ISBN: 0691174431

ISBN 13: 9780691174433

More books from Jeremy Adelman

Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World, Volume Two: From 1000 CE to the Present

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the Modern World From the Mongol Empire to the Present

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World from the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective

The Essential Hirschman

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World, Volume 1: Beginnings Through the Fifteenth Century

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Sovereignty and Revolution in the Iberian Atlantic

3.5/5 ( ratings)

New Left Review 126

Republic of Capital: Buenos Aires and the Legal Transformation of the Atlantic World

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World, Volume B 600 to 1850

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?