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As the first major post-colonial constitution, the Indian Constitution holds particular importance for the study of constitutional law and constitutions. Providing a thorough historical and political grounding, this Handbook examines key debates and developments in Indian constitutionalism and creates a framework for further study.

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The Indian Constitution is one of the world´s longest and most important political texts. Its birth, over six decades ago, signalled the arrival of the first major post-colonial constitution and the world´s largest and arguably most daring democratic experiment. Apart from greater domestic focus on the Constitution and the institutional role of the Supreme Court within India´s democratic framework, recent years have also witnessed enormous comparative interest in
India´s constitutional experiment.

The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution is a wide-ranging, analytical reflection on the major themes and debates that surround India´s Constitution. The Handbook provides a comprehensive account of the developments and doctrinal features of India´s Constitution, as well as articulating frameworks and methodological approaches through which studies of Indian constitutionalism, and constitutionalism more generally, might proceed. Its contributions range from rigorous,
legal studies of provisions within the text to reflections upon historical trends and social practices. As such the Handbook is an essential reference point not merely for Indian and comparative constitutional scholars, but for students of Indian democracy more generally.

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While there are already some existing substantial pieces of work on the Indian Constitution, the volume by Khosla et al. is exhilarating for two reasons. Firstly, the book is comprehensive for its encyclopedic coverage of the various dimensions related to the Indian Constitution - its genesis, its evolution, and its political and social relevance to the Indian society. Secondly, the book enterprisingly brings together a multifaceted set of perspectives emanating from both varied disciplinary standpoints and intellectual concerns. ... The book is useful to any scholar interested in issues surrounding the Indian Constitution, and will equally prove to be a good reference text for students of Indian constitution and legal history of India. Meenakshi Sinha, Regional & Federal Studies

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Sujit Choudhry is Dean and I. Michael Heyman Professor of Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law. His books include The Migration of Constitutional Ideas (Cambridge, 2006) and Constitutional Design for Divided Societies: Integration or Accommodation (Oxford, 2008).


Madhav Khosla is a PhD candidate at the Department of Government, Harvard University. His books include The Indian Constitution (Oxford, 2012), Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers (Penguin, 2014) and Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia (with Mark Tushnet, Cambridge, 2015).

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. His books include The Burden of Democracy (Penguin, 2003), Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design (with Devesh Kapur, Oxford, 2005), and The Oxford Companion to Politics in India (with Niraja Gopal Jayal, Oxford, 2010).

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