A political turn? New developments in Indian constitutional histories
In 2019, the Indian constitution suddenly exploded into the public sphere in ways that were never seen in the life of the postcolonial republic. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister openly bowed before an original copy of the Indian constitution after his reelection in 2019. Later in the year, however,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
History compass
Year: 2022, Volume: 20, Issue: 8 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In 2019, the Indian constitution suddenly exploded into the public sphere in ways that were never seen in the life of the postcolonial republic. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister openly bowed before an original copy of the Indian constitution after his reelection in 2019. Later in the year, however, large groups of people used the text and images of the constitution to protest controversial legislations passed by the Modi Government in streets across India. While these gestures of “deification” and vernacularization of the constitution, respectively, seemed novel, this essay argues that the provenance of these actions may well lie in the intertwined histories of the political and the constitutional in the subcontinent. By highlighting some recent works on the Indian constitution, the essay argues that this public appropriation of the constitution cannot be understood without writing political histories of the constitution. In making this claim, it also departs from conventional approaches that only seeks to write histories of the constitution as though it was always a normative document upholding ideas of fundamental rights and social justice at the expense of ignoring its embedded political power. Writing political histories, then, are important to uncover the intrinsic political power imbricated in the Indian constitution. |
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| ISSN: | 1478-0542 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: History compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/hic3.12746 |