Locating Indian Constitutionalism

Abstract This chapter explores the historical commitment to the idea of constitutionalism and how the framers understood India’s constitutional project. It begins with an overview of the concept of ‘constitutional morality’ as it relates to the Indian Constitution, along with the cosmopolitan character of Indian constitutionalism. It then considers some of the tensions that have characterised constitutional law in India, with particular emphasis on some of the sources of these tensions, for instance the debate between centralisation and decentralisation. It also discusses the major axes around which the normative and institutional imagination of the Indian Constitution is articulated and concludes by analysing the character of constitutional development in India and paying attention to the forces that have shaped its evolution.