Foundation and Historical Evolution of Indian Constitutionalism

Abstract

Indian constitutionalism is embedded in the culture, geography, history, sociology, and politics of the country. The Western Modernity and Indian Tradition have uniquely fused to engender this construct that has gone into the mixed cultural and socio-economic formations and political ideological spectrum that is contemporary India. Its constitutional foundations and democratic developmental state as well as strategies of development have been predicated on a middle path between bourgeois democratic rights, socialistically inspired economic rights and ecologically sustainable capitalist development. It is a measure of the resilience of our constitutionalism that it has made possible the transitions from a predominantly parliamentary regime driven by the prime ministerial executive to divided coalition/minority governments with widest possible federal power-sharing under a judiciary-driven political system. It appears to be a far cry from the Westminster-inspired parliamentary-federalism in the White Commonwealth and is somewhat reminiscent of the US American constitutionalism premised on separation of powers and checks and balances. Our constitution is based on the ideals of liberalism, welfare state, parliamentary federal government with a strong Centre, electoral and multi-party democracy. These ideals are enshrined in our Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy. The constitution also delineates the separation of powers of the Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary. Constitutional values have been fortified by parliamentary amendments as well as by judicial interpretations and path breaking decisions on important issues like ‘basic structure of the constitution’ and powers of the Parliament to enact laws amending the constitution. However, this over-determinative federalizing effect on parliamentary component of government is aggravated due to party system decay, fragmentation, and regionalization. Collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers to the Parliament and individual accountability of ministers to the Prime Minister has become fragmented and transferred to the powerful chief ministers causing distortions. Party system reforms are imperative to reinvent authentic parliamentary-federal governance consistent with our constitution. It is also notable that a successful transition from state-led strategy of economic development to one with a gradually expanding role of the market forces—national and multinational—has also been made. Radical democratic decentralization of political power is making slow headway through constitutional amendments and grassroots and social movements.