Description
This book explores the contentious legacy of the First Amendment to the Constitution of India; the events leading up to it, the people who created it, the controversy it provoked and its consequences on Indian democracy.
About the Author
Tripurdaman Singh is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, UK. Born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, Tripurdaman read politics and international studies at the University of Warwick, and subsequently earned an MPhil in modern South Asian studies and a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge, UK. He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and an Indian Council of Historical Research Fellow in India. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, Tripurdaman's books include Imperial Sovereignty and Local Politics (2019) and Nehru (2022).
Reviews
'A page-turner' * Soutik Biswas, India Correspondent, BBC *
'Exhaustively researched... very readable...' * Open Magazine *
'A compelling read' * Firstpost *
'History written as thriller... exceptional' * LiveMint *
'A scintillating examination of the First Amendment... Brings the legacies of Nehru and Modi uncomfortably close...' * The Telegraph *
'Extremely well researched, beautifully written and qualitatively brilliant' * Comparative Constitutional Law and Administrative Law Journal *
'...simply written, yet riveting account will appeal to legal and academic scholars, as well as a wide readership of interested citizens' * South Asia Research *
This riveting book highlights Nehru's role in post-colonial India's first constitutional crisis. Singh's nuanced perspectives comprehensively capture the historical and legal contexts that defined the event. It is masterfully written-a book for anyone who wants to look behind the veil of the world's largest constitutional democracy. -- Adeel Hussain, Associate Professor of Legal Studies, New York University, USA
This book is dynamite. It will shock those who take a rosy view of the Constitution and the freedoms it grants to Indian citizens. This story, so far untold, should lead to a serious re-examination of the history and contents of the Constitution. -- Lord Meghnad Desai, Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics, UK
A long overdue study of the way in which the liberties guaranteed by India's constitution were sabotaged by the very government that had promulgated it, thus returning the newly independent state to its colonial origins. -- Professor Faisal Devji, University of Oxford, UK
This blow-by-blow account of the first amendment of the Indian Constitution-arguably the most far-reaching-upends many a comforting myth about the Indian republic. Singh's gripping account of this hitherto understudied and high-stakes political battle is at its provocative best when it challenges efforts at understanding the past through the lens of one-dimensional heroes and villains. -- Mrinalini Sinha, author of Spectres of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire
Book Information
ISBN 9781350384385
Author Tripurdaman Singh
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC