| Transformative Constitutionalism

What is a Transformative Constitution  or to put it another way, when is the constitution considered transformative?  Why would it be important for public policy students to engage with the idea of transformative constitutionalism?

An approach rooted in transformative constitutionalism is a progressive approach to constitutional interpretation rooted in Constitutional text, structure, judgments and the historical context in which the Constitution was framed. As such this means that the resources we need to go to in order to understand the Constitution include constitutional text, The Constituent Assembly Debates, judgments of the High Courts and Supreme Court as well as an understanding of the dimensions of the freedom struggle including both the struggle against racial and colonial domination and the struggle against caste and gender domination.

As eminent human rights lawyer, K.G. Kannabiran noted, the ‘constitution framed after a liberation struggle or a struggle for independence is like poetry, emotion recollected in tranquility…’ The dimension of the freedom struggle is of vital importance as the constitutional encoding of the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity emerge from the ideals which animated the freedom struggle.

However, we have to remember that the transformative dimension of the Indian Constitution was  not limited to the struggle against the colonial oppressor but also included the struggle for equality within India of women, adivasis and Dalits all of which find rich representation both in the struggle for independence as well as in the Constituent Assembly Debates.

A transformative Constitution is also about how the values of the Constitution take new meaning in our contemporary context. The values of liberty and dignity which are part of the Preamble of the Constitution become central to the articulation of the rights of the LGBT community as well as the rights of women, Dalits and the Adivasi community.

This course will seek to elucidate the Indian Constitution as a transformative document as thinking of the Constitution within this lens might provide us a way  of understanding how the injustices of the Indian social and economic order can be addressed from a constitutional lens.

By stressing on transformative constitutionalism as the approach, the aim is to understand more deeply the values on which the Constitution is based and how these values can  continue to play a role in further democratising both Indian society and the state.

It will be expected that students read the essential readings and come for the class so to benefit more fully from the class discussion. Questions for each reading have also been shared before each class to help the students to navigate the text.