A well-known comprehensive text on India's constitution with a holistic approach • A revised and updated edition providing a cumulative account of the changing scene of politics with the fifteenth general elections of 2014 bringing about the decimation of the congress party and the triumph of BJP • Coverage of the new legislation regulating procedure for recommending new appointments to the Supreme Court of India

Katharine Adeney demonstrates that institutional design is the most important explanatory variable in understanding the different intensity and types of conflict in the two countries rather than the role of religion. Adeney examines the extent to which previous constitutional choices explain current day conflicts.

An Economist Best Book of the Year How India’s Constitution came into being and instituted democracy after independence from British rule. Britain’s justification for colonial rule in India stressed the impossibility of Indian self-government. And the empire did its best to ensure this was the case, impoverishing Indian subjects and doing little to improve their socioeconomic reality. So when independence came, the cultivation of democratic citizenship was a foremost challenge. Madhav Khosla explores the means India’s founders used to foster a democratic ethos. They knew the people would need to learn ways of citizenship, but the path to education did not lie in rule by a superior class of men, as the British insisted. Rather, it rested on the creation of a self-sustaining politics. The makers of the Indian Constitution instituted universal suffrage amid poverty, illiteracy, social heterogeneity, and centuries of tradition. They crafted a constitutional system that could respond to the problem of democratization under the most inhospitable conditions. On January 26, 1950, the Indian Constitution—the longest in the world—came into effect. More than half of the world’s constitutions have been written in the past three decades. Unlike the constitutional revolutions of the late eighteenth century, these contemporary revolutions have occurred in countries characterized by low levels of economic growth and education, where voting populations are deeply divided by race, religion, and ethnicity. And these countries have democratized at once, not gradually. The events and ideas of India’s Founding Moment offer a natural reference point for these nations where democracy and constitutionalism have arrived simultaneously, and they remind us of the promise and challenge of self-rule today.

Based on original historical data, this book shows that key changes in design can extend constitutional life.

Liberal democracies are based on principles of inclusion and tolerance. But how does the principle of tolerance work in practice in countries such as Germany, France, India, South Africa, and the United States, where an increasingly wide range of cultural groups holds often contradictory beliefs about appropriate social and family life practices? As these democracies expand to include peoples of vastly different cultural backgrounds, the limits of tolerance are being tested as never before. Engaging Cultural Differences explores how liberal democracies respond socially and legally to differences in the cultural and religious practices of their minority groups. Building on such examples, the contributors examine the role of tolerance in practical encounters between state officials and immigrants, and between members of longstanding majority groups and increasing numbers of minority groups. The volume also considers the theoretical implications of expanding the realm of tolerance. Some contributors are reluctant to broaden the scope of tolerance, while others insist that the notion of "tolerance" is itself potentially confining and demeaning and that modern nations should aspire to celebrate cultural differences. Coming to terms with ethnic diversity and cultural differences has become a major public policy concern in contemporary liberal democracies, as they struggle to adjust to burgeoning immigrant populations. Engaging Cultural Differences provides a compelling examination of the challenges of multiculturalism and reveals a deep understanding of the challenges democracies face as they seek to accommodate their citizens' diverse beliefs and practices.

India is rapidly becoming the world’s largest flailing democracy. India’s institutional framework has been systematically undermined, from within and without. In the tenth volume of the Rethinking India series, some of India’s most eminent persons write of how we can think of re-engineering India’s hardware (redressing structural flaws in India’s existing institutions, creating new institutions equipped to address fresh challenges and re-engaging all of India’s systems), as well as ensuring progressive forces radically re-invent their political strategies and operational methodologies to socialize Indians to constitutional values.

Migration and Decent Work: Challenges for the Global South takes a journey through nine countries in the global South—from Mexico to India to Argentina to Turkey—to explore the relationship between migration and work from a human rights perspective. Labor insertion is one of the most effective forms of integration because it allows migrants and refugees to enjoy more dignified living conditions, to contribute to the development of host communities, and to build relationships with the local population. But ensuring the right to work is a challenge for countries in the global South that have weak or developing economies and problems with job creation, which can force many people—not just migrants—to engage in precarious work and put themselves at risk of labor exploitation. Under these circumstances, advocating for migrants’ and refugees’ right to work is more urgent than ever. The recognition of decent work as a human right means that states may not pursue economic growth at the expense of the exploitation of migrants and refugees, but instead must seek to ensure opportunities and prosperity for all. In this regard, it is critical to foster discussions, such as the ones featured in this book, that facilitate the sharing of experiences and lessons learned on the labor conditions of migrants and refugees. The authors of the nine chapters in Migration and Decent Work are activists, academics, and members of civil society who have worked on the issue of migration from different angles and who address the challenge of migrants’ labor inclusion from an interdisciplinary and rights-based perspective. Their contributions offer an overview of migrants’ and refugees’ right to work in a range of countries in the global South based on an analysis of local contexts, public policies, and the everyday realities faced by these workers. In addition to offering local and global recommendations for ensuring the right to decent work for migrants and refugees, this book seeks to strengthen the human rights movement through collaboration and the sharing of experiences. The diversity of voices featured here offers a look at migration based on and intended for the global South. La diversidad de voces que reúne ofrece una mirada de la migración desde y para el Sur Global

Reveals and challenges the barriers to a truly international scholarship