THE TRANSFORMATIVE CONSTITUTION

A new way of reading the Constitution as India approaches the seventieth anniversary of its adoption

The Constitution of India embodies a moment of profound transformation—one in which the subjects of an alien, colonial regime became the free citizens of a republic. Yet, this is the story of constitutions the world over. The Indian Constitution was, however, transformative in a second sense as well: it sought a thorough reconstruction of State and society itself.

The Transformative Constitution is an attempt to understand—and to give primacy to—this original transformative vision of the Constitution. Gautam Bhatia interprets India’s founding document in a way which is faithful to its text, structure, and history, and above all to its overarching commitment to political and social transformation.

He picks out nine cases—and analyses their judgements in detail in the context of seven decades’ worth of jurisprudence—to show how they advance the core principles of equality, fraternity, and liberty enshrined in it. This is a treatise that presents a new way of reading the Constitution as India approaches the seventieth anniversary of its adoption.

Contemporary Relevance of the book:

In September 2018, in the space of a little over three weeks, the Supreme Court handed down four judgments that sent tremors through the country's legal, political, social, and cultural landscape. Same-sex relations were decriminalised. Adultery were decriminalised. The Sabarimala Temple's ban on the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 was struck down as unconstitutional. And Aadhaar - the government's national biometric identification programme - was upheld while its use was significantly curtailed. Six months later, the impact of these judgments is still only beginning to be felt, demonstrating once again the importance of the judiciary - as an institution - in India's public life.

Each of these judgments grappled with fundamental questions about what the Indian Constitution is about. Do the constitutional guarantees of equality and equal protection prohibit the government from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation? Is the criminalisation of adultery based upon outmoded notions of sexual subordination and women's lack of sexual agency? How does the Constitution navigate the complex terrain where the beliefs or traditions of religious groups clash with the desires of some of their members to express their faith? And what do the rights to liberty, privacy, and equality have to say about the pervasive adoption of centralised biometric technology in multiple spheres of society? As a marker of just how complex the questions were, two of the four judgments returned split verdicts, with judges penning fierce and eloquent dissents.

September 2018 reminded us of how the Constitution is indispensable to our lives as citizens of the Republic. The objective of The Transformative Constitution is to articulate a roadmap towards understanding what the founding document has to say about these fundamental moral and social questions of the day. By locating the Constitution within a long, historical tradition of Indian thought dealing with issues around rights, the individual, communities, and the State, The Transformative Constitution advances a vision of the document organised around the three words of the Preamble - liberty, equality, and fraternity - and argues that the purpose of our Constitution was not just to protect the individual against State power, but to undertake a thorough reconstruction of both State and society.  

Gautam Bhatia graduated from the National Law School of India University in 2011. He read for the BCL and the MPhil at the University of Oxford (on a Rhodes scholarship), and the LLM at Yale Law School. He practiced law for four years in New Delhi, was visiting faculty at various Law Schools, and is presently reading for a D.Phil in Law at the University of Oxford. He has been part of legal teams involved in contemporary constitutional cases, such as the right to privacy case, the Section 377 challenge, and the Aadhaar challenge.

Silicon States

The Power and Politics Of Big Tech And What It Means For Our Future

A Bracing Look at How Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, And Other Silicon Valley Power Players Are Using Their Influence Across the Globe to Encroach Upon Our Civil Landscape

In an era when faith in government and its institutions is quickly eroding, the businesses of Silicon Valley are stepping in to fill the gap. With outsize supplies of cash, talent, and ambition, a small group of corporations has been gradually seizing leadership—and consumer confidence— around the world.

In Silicon States, renowned futurist and celebrated international think-tank leader Lucie Greene offers an unparalleled look at the players, promises, and potential problems of Big Tech. Through interviews with corporate leaders, influential venture capitalists, scholars, journalists, activists, and more, Greene explores the tension inherent in Silicon Valley’s global influence. If these companies can invent a social network, how might they soon transform our political and health-care systems? If they can revolutionize the cell phone, what might they do for space travel, education, or the housing market? As Silicon Valley faces increased scrutiny over its mistreatment of women, cultural shortcomings, and its role in widespread Russian interference in the elections of other countries, we are learning where its interests truly lie, and about the great power these companies wield over an unsuspecting citizenry.

While the promise of technology is seductive, it is important to understand these corporations’ possible impacts on our political and socioeconomic institutions. Greene emphasizes that before we hand our future over to a rarefied group of companies, we should examine the world they might build and confront its benefits, prejudices, and inherent flaws. Silicon States pushes us to ask if, ultimately, this is the future we really want.

Lucie Greene is the worldwide director of The Innovation Group, J. Walter Thompson’s in-house creative think tank for the future. The Innovation Group’s work is frequently cited in publications including The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, WWD, USA Today, and The Times (London). She is a thought leadership columnist for Campaign, writes for the Financial Times on futures, and has spoken at conferences including TNW, WWD Digital Forum, SXSW, Web Summit, Cosmoprof, and Ad Week, discussing future trends across multiple lifestyle sectors. She has appeared on BBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV as an expert on the future.

KHOONI VAISAKHI

A Survivor’s Account of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

The great Punjabi writer Nanak Singh was present at Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April 1919 and twenty-two years old at the time. As the British troops opened fire on the unarmed gathering protesting against the Rowlatt Act, killing hundreds, Nanak Singh fainted and his unconscious body was piled up among the corpses. After going through the traumatic experience, he proceeded to write Khooni Vaisakhi, a long poem that narrates the political events in the run up to the massacre and its immediate aftermath. The poem was a scathing critique of the British Raj and was banned soon after its publication in May 1920.

After sixty long years, the poem was rediscovered; it has now been translated into English by the author’s grandson, Navdeep Suri, for the first time. Featuring the poem in translation and in original, the bilingual edition is accompanied by essays by Navdeep Suri, H.S. Bhatia and by Justin Rowlatt, whose great-grandfather, Sir Sydney Arthur Taylor Rowlatt, who drafted the Rowlatt Act.

Nanak Singh (1897-1971) is widely regarded as the father of the Punjabi novel. With little formal education beyond the fourth grade, he wrote an astounding fifty-nine books and recieved the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1962.

Navdeep Suri is an Indian diplomat who is currently India’s Ambassador to the UAE. He has translated into English the classic Punjabi novels Pavitra Paapi and Adh Kidhiya Phool written by his grandfather.