NEW BOOK - OPEN ACCESS

 
 

JUST PUBLISHED: 4 JULY 2025

Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has governed India since 2014, marking a decade of challenges to various aspects of India’s democracy and constitutional system. While the last decade may not have left many conspicuous signs textually, the soul of India’s constitutional system has suffered several dents. The ruling government has launched, quite successfully, a project of redefining India, its constitutional identity, and its vision. This edited volume explores these multifaceted challenges and assesses the current state of Indian Constitutionalism.

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Demoptimism spoke with the editors, Anmol Jain and Tanja Herklotz:

“Between 2014 and 2024, India has undergone a decisive political and constitutional shift. Since Narendra Modi’s election as Prime Minister, the government has avoided major constitutional amendments but has relied on legal and socio-political tools to advance an authoritarian project. The change is primarily ideological, reshaping society within existing constitutional structures, capturing institutions, weakening opposition, and entrenching the BJP’s supremacy. This transformation has been pursued both overtly and by stealth, creating an environment of fear and insecurity among significant sections of the population. With the BJP securing a third consecutive term at the Union level and governing most states, the coming years are critical.

Indian Constitutionalism at Crossroads 2014–2024 brings together 17 chapters and an introduction by prominent scholars and practitioners to assess this pivotal decade. Combining insights from institutional design, rights discourse, political economy, and identity politics, it offers a rigorous, interdisciplinary account of what has been eroded—and what must be reclaimed.”

 
 

  • “Over a decade now, academics, politicians, judges, and members of civil society have been articulating concerns for the state of India’s Constitution. Given the absence of any significant formal amendments to undermine it, how could the Constitution be said to be under threat? A litany of excellent scholars grapple with different dimensions of this challenge in this rigorous, thought-provoking, and insightful collection. A must read not only for anyone interested in Indian constitutionalism, but also for scholars of constitutional democracy generally.”
    Tarunabh Khaitan, London School of Economics and Political Science

    “This interesting and timely collection explores the impact of successive Modi governments on constitutionalism in India over the decade from 2014, culminating in the federal election of 2024. As explained in the introduction by Tanja Herklotz and Anmol Jain, the book maps developments during this period against the values of the Indian Constitution and reflects on their significance for India’s constitutional identity. The essays span an extraordinary spectrum of developments as perceived by the contributing authors including, for example, the erosion of the functions of independent institutions; attacks on political opposition using the array of mechanisms at the disposal of an executive government; the erosion of fundamental rights, including free speech and equality; the effects of the rise of Hindu nationalism; the decline in the effectiveness of the legislature; and the centralisation of federal authority. The work as a whole engages with a wide range of contemporary constitutional debates, including the interaction of Constitutions with questions of gender and privacy, modes of constitutional amendment, citizenship, and knowledge institutions. It also, necessarily engages with authoritarian practices under the cover of a Constitution, democratic decay, resilience, and pushback. The book is a valuable resource on the Indian constitutional system, showcasing an array of current and emerging Indian scholars. It also makes a significant contribution to comparative constitutional law.”
    Cheryl Saunders, University of Melbourne

    • 1 - Indian Constitutionalism in the Last Decade: Introduction to the Edited Volume―Anmol Jain, Tania Herklotz

    • 2 - Subordination and Arbitrariness in Citizenship Law―Farrah Ahmed

    • 3 - Amending the Constitution Without Deliberation : The Contemporary Indian Constitutionalism Experience―Maansi Verma

    • 4 - Civil Society and its Engagement with the Constitution―Indira Jaising

    • 5 - Concerning State of Academic Freedom in India―Anmol Jain

    • 6 - Tech, State, and Social Media―Akriti Gaur

    • 7 - Selective, Reactive and Liminal : An Overview of India`s Migration Governance Over the Past Decade―S Irudaya Rajan, Anand Sreekumar

    • 8 - The Digital Public Square Meets the Digital Baton : Ten-Year Retrospective on Free Speech Law in India―Abhinav Sekhri

    • 9 - The Right to Education and Democratic Backsliding in India―Gaurav Mukherjee

    • 10 - The End of a Dream? : The Rise and Fall of India`s Secular Constitutionalism―Vrinda Narain

    • 11 - Gender, Equality and the Predicaments of Faith―Raina Kapur

    • 12 - Growing Authoritarianism and Gender Constitutionalism in India: 2014-2024―Surbhi Karwa

    • 13 - The Fabulous and the Fascist : LGBT Rights in Modi`s India―Saptarshi Mandal

    • 14 - India’s Push-and-Pull on Reproductive Rights―Gauri Pillai

    • 15 - A Mandate for a Democratic and Secular India?: The Results of the 2024 General Elections―Yogendra Yadav, Shreyas Sardesai, Rahul Shastri

    • 16 - Uniting the Indian Opposition―Anmol Jain

    • 17 - Towards a Broader Constitutionalism: External Perceptions of Indian Democracy, 2014-2024―Tom Gerald Daly

  • Tanja Herklotz is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).

    Anmol Jain is an Associated Editor at Verfassungsblog. He holds law degrees from Yale Law School and National Law University Jodhpur (India). He has been the 2023-24 Fox International Fellow at Melbourne Law School and currently teaches law at Jindal Global Law School.

 

TASTER TEXT

Introduction: Indian Constitutionalism in the Last Decade

Anmol Jain & Tania Herklotz

It isn’t hard to notice that Indian constitutionalism has been undergoing a phase of churning. Today, the foundational ideas upon which the Indian society was aspired to be reconstituted at the time of independence are under deep strain. While the last decade may not have left many conspicuous signs textually, the soul of India’s constitutional system has suffered several dents. The ruling government (…)

TASTER TEXT

Towards a Broader Constitutionalism: External Perceptions of Indian Democracy, 2014-2024

Tom Gerald Daly

In 2016 I was invited to write a piece for an international collection on democratic backsliding. Having submitted a piece including India as a case study, I received an editorial request to write a substitute case study on the basis that insufficient evidence existed for democratic regression. This was understandable: It was in the early years of the first Modi government after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) entry into government (…)