Working a Democratic Constitution: A History of the Indian Experience

Working a Democratic Constitution tells a very human story of how the social, political and day-to-day lived realities of the Indian people has been reflected in, and in turn directed the course of, constitutional reforms in the country. Through the post independence euphoria to the turbulent years of Indira Gandhi's 'Emergency' and Rajiv Gandhi's brief period of power, the way in which the constitution has evolved to suit the changing needs of the times is an important indicator of India's successful experience with democracy.

Granville Austin is one of the world's leading experts on the Indian constitution. Since his classic work The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation (OUP, 1966), he has been working on this long-awaited book, which not only presents archival sources, but also first-hand interviews with and rare documentation by many of the key political and legal figures of the last fifty years. With its wide historical sweep, and meticulously detailed research, this is Austin's magnum opus described by Fali Nariman as a 'great and compassionate work'.

The clarity and elegance of Austin's writing makes this book not only a necessary but a pleasurable read for anyone interested in comparative constitutional law and the recent political history of India, and for students, teachers and researchers of the subject.

• This is the first history of constitutional development to be published
• The author is the world's leading expert on Indian constitutional law
• Provides an interesting background to the development of constitutional democracy in India
• Written in jargon-free, lively prose style

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Prologue

Part I: The Great Constitutional Themes Emerge, 1950-66
1:Settling into harness
2:Free Speech, Liberty, and Public Order
3:The Social Revolution and the First Amendment
4:The Rights and the Revolution: More Property Amendments
5:The Judiciary: 'Quite Untouchable'
6:Making and Preserving a Nation

Part II: The Great Constitutional Confrontation: Judicial versus Parliamentary Supremacy, 1967-73
7:Indira Gandhi: In Context and in Power
8:The Golak Nath Inheritance
9:Two Catalytic Defeats
10:Radical Constitutional Amendments
11:Redeeming The Web: The Kesavananda Bharati Case
12:A 'Grievous Blow': the Supersession of Judges

Part III: Democracy Rescued or the Constitution Subverted: The Emergency and the Forty-Second Amendment, 1975-77
13:26 June, 1975
14:Closing the Circle
15:The Judiciary under Pressure
16:Preparing for Constitutional Change
17:The forty-second Amendment: Sacrificing Democracy to Power

Part IV: The Janata Interlude
18:Janata forms Government
19:Restoring Federal Governance
20:Governing under the Constitution
21:The Punishment that Failed
22:A Government Dies

Part V: Indira Gandhi Returns
23:Ghosts of Governments Past
24:The Constitution Strengthened and Weakened
25:Judicial Reform or Harassment
26:The Villain in Federal Relations

Part VI: The Inseparable Twins: National Unity and Integrity and the Machinery of Federal Relations
27:Terminology and its merits
28:The Governors' acutely conscious role
29:New Delhi Long Hour
30:Constitutional Mechanisms how 'Federal'

Part VII: Conclusion
31:A Nation's progress
Bibliography
Index