Majoritarianism in India

Description

Whilst examining the new and strident nationalism in India, this book seeks to trace its roots in decisions made in the 1940s, particularly the partition and constitution making. India was poised to choose between liberty in terms of ‘one man one vote’ or equality, the equal political representation of minorities within a federal structure.

The Congress party chose liberty and partition, but today we are reaching a position where there is neither liberty nor equality, as India’s democracy is compromised and majoritarianism prevails. Partition divided two politically significant States, and elevated the ‘cow belt’; the social and economic factors pervasive in this new geographical configuration have seriously impeded India and the sub-continent’s progress by bringing communalism and casteism to the fore. It analyses the frailty of constitutional safeguards, the role of the judiciary, how federalism has been subverted as well as how history is being rewritten with an exclusionary intent and the futility of the quest for cultural purity in the 21st century.

It is also an interrogation of the myths created to sustain this nativist ideology, relating to the causes of partition, personal laws and the alleged privileging of minorities, citizenship and the externalisation of the Hindu-Muslim conflict.

Author(s)

Javed Gaya is a lawyer from Mumbai, specialising in commercial arbitration law. He studied Jurisprudence at Oxford University and has been teaching law at various colleges affiliated to Bombay University. He writes for a number of publications on various topics including constitutional law, history, foreign affairs and does book reviews.