Table of Contents

Introduction 1. "We the People?": Politics and the Conundrum of Framing a Constitution on the Eve of Decolonization 2. Conflict not Consensus: Towards a Political Economy of the Making of the Indian Constitution3. Pride and Prejudice in Austin’s Cornerstone: Passions in the Constituent Assembly of India 4. The Antecedents of Social Rights in India 5. The Conservative Constitution: Freedom of Speech and the Constituent Assembly Debates 6. Freedom of Speech in the Early Constitution: A Study of the Constitution (First Amendment) Bill 7. Between Inequality and Identity: The Indian Constituent Assembly Debates and Religious Difference, 1946-1950 8. ‘We the People’: Seamless Webs and Social Revolution in India’s Constituent Assembly Debates 9. India’s Republican Moment

About the Author

Udit Bhatia is Lecturer in Political Theory at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, UK. He is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford, and his research interests lie at the intersections of democratic theory, political representation and social epistemology. He is currently examining the normative case against exclusion of persons from democratic citizenship on the basis of epistemic inferiority.