75 Years of the Constitution of India 1950: A time for Decolonization?
75 Years of the Constitution of India 1950: A Time for Decolonization?
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Sudhir Krishnaswamy (National Law School of India University, Bangalore)
Date/ Location: 9.10.2025, 18.15, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zurich (RAA G 01, kleine Aula)
On 26th January 2025, India commemorated the 75th Anniversary of the Constitution of India 1950. Expectedly, the diamond jubilee has been celebrated extensively by the bar and bench, the government and civil society through public events and conferences. The occasion provoked several books: while the primary tone was celebratory there has emerged a significant strand of criticism of this ‘colonial’ constitution. In this paper I examine if the argument for decolonization rests on a historical or epistemological claim. First, I assess the arguments that the Constitution of India 1950 is a ‘colonial’ constitution and propose that it is better understood as a hybrid or creole constitution. Next, I show that claims about the colonial origins of the Indian constitution incorporate versions of postcolonial theory that rest on uncertain epistemic foundations. I conclude by showing that debates on decolonization of law in India illuminates the consequences of uncritically deploying postcolonial academic discourses on the future of democracy.