About the Book: Assembling Indias Constitution: A New Democratic History
In this paradigm-shifting history, two leading historians of India re-examine
the making of the Indian constitution from the perspective of the countrys
people. In a departure from dominant approaches that foreground the framing of
the text within the Constituent Assembly, Ornit Shani and Rohit De instead
demonstrate how it was shaped by diverse publics across India and beyond. They
reveal multiple, parallel constitution-making processes underway across the
subcontinent, highlighting how individuals and groups transformed
constitutionalism into a medium of struggle and a tool for transformation. De
and Shani argue that the deep sense of ownership the public assumed