Law and democracy in India zy Ramaswamy Sudarshan India is a multicultural polity which has adopted the institutional forms of constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law. These insti- tutional forms were developed in post- Enlightenment Europe and came to India through British colonial rule. It is not at all obvious how and why these transplanted insti- tutions should take root as they have, and it remains an issue whether these institutions actu- : I ally suit the ‘genius of the Pathologies pertaining to the functioning of these institutional forms pose serious problems even in those countries which inherited post-Enlighten- ment ideologies and philo- sophies, because primordial cultural and ethnic ident- ities of different groups are being revived and asserted. This implies that a dis- cussion of law and democ- racy in India could be rel- evant even to those countries which were initi- diverse peoples, ethnic and religious groups, cultures and sub-cultures is a positive force for creativity, innovation and change. zyx A major issue is how to fix the parameters of the framework of basic values and shared interests. When con- flicts inevitably arise on account of ethnic, racial, religious, linguistic, caste, or even gender differences, how is the state to deal with them? Such conflicts are often rooted in differences in people’ in India. cultural identities which are shaped by collec- Ramaswamy Sudarshan is a Senior Econ- omist at UNDP, 55 Lodi Estate, New Delhi, India. He has a Master’s degree from the Delhi School of Economics, and an M. Phil from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has done research on constitutional and economic legislation as Research Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge, UK. He has published several articles on the Indian judiciary. ally more homogeneous but which have become more multicultural in recent years with growing immigrant or refugee populations. ‘Unity in diversity’, an oft-repeated aspir- ation in India, seeks to accommodate differ- ences within a framework of shared basic values and common interests. Such a framework requires the conviction that unity is best fos- tive consciousness which colours interpretation of historical events. Are democracy and the rule of law capable of providing India with a framework of shared basic values and common interests? What are the limits of law and democracy in India? Constitutionalism and the rule of law: clarifying concepts The rule of law is largely a procedural principle, under which all actions of institutions of the state are required to have a form of legality. But often rule of law is used as a slogan to refer to all kinds of ideals which its users wish to uphold. One example of such inflation of meaning is the 1959 International Congress of Jurists’ New Delhi Declaration: values of society, and that interaction among ditions which will uphold the dignity of man as an ISSJ ISZ1997 zyxwvutsrqponm 0 UNESCO zyxwvutsrqpon 1997. Publrshed hy Blackwell Publisher% 108 Cowlcy Road, Oxford OX4 IJF, zyxwvu UK and 350 Main Street, Maiden, MA 0214X. IJSA.