Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction: Outline of a Political Theory of

the Indian Constitution 1
Rajeev Bhargava
SECTION I
1. The Constitution as a Statement of Indian Identity 43
Bhikhu Parekh
2. Gandhi and the Constitution:
Parliamentary Swaraj and Village Swaraj 59
Thomas Pantham
3. Institutional Visions and Sociological Imaginations:
The Debate on Panchayati Raj 79
Peter Ronald deSouza
4. Outline of a 'Theory of Practice* of Indian Constitutionalism 92
Upendra Baxi
5. A Text Without Author:
Locating the Constituent Assembly as Event 119
Aditya Nigam
SECTION II
6. The Indian State: 143
Constitution and Beyond
Suhas Palshikar
7. Citizenship and the Indian Constitution 164
Valerian Rodrigues
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8. Citizenship and the Passive Revolution:

Interpreting the First Amendment 189
Nivedita Menon
9. Democracy and Constitutionalism 211
Sanjay Pabhikar
10. Constitutional Justice:
Positional and Cultural 230
Gopal Guru
SECTION III
11. Containing the Lower Castes:
The Constituent Assembly and the Reservation Policy 249
Christophejaffrelot
12. Affirmative Action for Disadvantaged Groups:
A Cross-constitutional Study of India and the US 267
Ashok Acharya
SECTION IV
13. Religion and the Indian Constitution:
Questions of Separation and Equality 297
Gurpreet Mahajan
14. Passion and Constraint:
Courts and the Regulation of Religious Meaning 311
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
15. Rights versus Representation
Defending Minority Interests in the Constituent Assembly 339
Shefalijha
16. Minority Representation and the Making of the Indian
Constitution 354
Rochana Bajpai
Notes on Contributors 392
Index 394