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A People's Constitution : The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic / Rohit De.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Histories of Economic Life ; 18Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Description: 1 online resource (312 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691185132
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 342.54 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. The Case of the Constable's Nose: Policing Prohibition in Bombay -- 2. The Case of the Excess Baggage: Commodity Controls, Market Governance, and the Making of Administrative Law -- 3. The Case of the Invisible Butchers: Economic Rites and Religious Rights -- 4. The Case of the Honest Prostitute: Sex, Work, and Freedom in the Indian Constitution -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Talking the State's Language -- Procedure over Substance -- Constitutionalism from the Margins -- A Constitution for Butchers? Markets, Circulation, and the Origin of Rights -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index
Summary: It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India's greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A People's Constitution upends this narrative and shows how the Constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways. This remarkable legal process was led by individuals on the margins of society, and Rohit De looks at how drinkers, smugglers, petty vendors, butchers, and prostitutes-all despised minorities-shaped the constitutional culture.The Constitution came alive in the popular imagination so much that ordinary people attributed meaning to its existence, took recourse to it, and argued with it. Focusing on the use of constitutional remedies by citizens against new state regulations seeking to reshape the society and economy, De illustrates how laws and policies were frequently undone or renegotiated from below using the state's own procedures. De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist's contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty traders' challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchers' petition against cow protection laws, and sex workers' battle to protect their right to practice prostitution.Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A People's Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780691185132

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. The Case of the Constable's Nose: Policing Prohibition in Bombay -- 2. The Case of the Excess Baggage: Commodity Controls, Market Governance, and the Making of Administrative Law -- 3. The Case of the Invisible Butchers: Economic Rites and Religious Rights -- 4. The Case of the Honest Prostitute: Sex, Work, and Freedom in the Indian Constitution -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Talking the State's Language -- Procedure over Substance -- Constitutionalism from the Margins -- A Constitution for Butchers? Markets, Circulation, and the Origin of Rights -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

It has long been contended that the Indian Constitution of 1950, a document in English created by elite consensus, has had little influence on India's greater population. Drawing upon the previously unexplored records of the Supreme Court of India, A People's Constitution upends this narrative and shows how the Constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways. This remarkable legal process was led by individuals on the margins of society, and Rohit De looks at how drinkers, smugglers, petty vendors, butchers, and prostitutes-all despised minorities-shaped the constitutional culture.The Constitution came alive in the popular imagination so much that ordinary people attributed meaning to its existence, took recourse to it, and argued with it. Focusing on the use of constitutional remedies by citizens against new state regulations seeking to reshape the society and economy, De illustrates how laws and policies were frequently undone or renegotiated from below using the state's own procedures. De examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist's contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws, Marwari petty traders' challenge to the system of commodity control, Muslim butchers' petition against cow protection laws, and sex workers' battle to protect their right to practice prostitution.Exploring how the Indian Constitution of 1950 enfranchised the largest population in the world, A People's Constitution considers the ways that ordinary citizens produced, through litigation, alternative ethical models of citizenship.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 27. Sep 2021)