Indian Constitution: Crossing The Borders of Religion, Caste, Language and Culture

Abstract

India, a highly diverse society, is an endangered pluralist polity. India is now challenged by forces that threaten its fragile political consensus. This paper is divided into different sections. The first section offers an overview of India’s diversity, state forms and nationalisms in broad brushstrokes. The second focuses on a particular change experience: constitution-making in India (1946–49). Shifting to the present, the third section discusses sources of inclusion and exclusion in the Indian polity. Focusing on reservations, discrimination against Muslims, Hindu nationalism and violence, it outlines key dimensions of exclusion in India today. The final section summarizes key lessons from the Indian experience with pluralism which takes the country beyond borders of religion, caste, language and culture. In the case of the Indian Constitution, the problem was not with its approach as with the normative resources fashioned, which remained deficient for the accommodation of religious diversity, and cultural diversities. It may be noted that the provisions of the Indian Constitution regarding the right to religious liberty cover all the freedoms relating to religion set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris, on December 10, 1948.