Chakrabarty, Bidyut
Constitutionalizing India: An Ideational Project
- ISBN 13:
- 9780199487622
- author:
- Chakrabarty, Bidyut
- format:
- Hardback
- publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- language:
- English
- Publication Year:
- 2018
- Pages:
- 328
- Dimensions:
- 22.4 x 14.8 x 3 centimetres (0.4
- Genre:
- Nonfiction, Law, Administrative Law & Regulatory
- Condition:
- New
- Availability:
- Item usually sent within 7 working days
Description
The 1950 Constitution of India was not simply a copy of the 1935 Government of India Act. Instead, it emerged from an ideational battle that began in the mid-eighteenth century with British rule in India. Edmund Burke's critique of Warren Hastings, the British ruler of India, marked the beginning of this process. He argued for governance based on Enlightenment values, a principle that successive British administrations in India followed. This influence eventually led Indian nationalists to adopt these values, as seen in the ideas of moderate extremist nationalists like Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar. Their vision for an independent India was shaped by the Enlightenment Philosophy, which had been transmitted while Britain administered India.