Indian Government and Politics

5

Philosophies and Features of the Indian Constitution

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

While framing the Constitution of India, the Constituent Assembly needed to reconcile various influences: constitutional development during the British rule, which provided the backdrop for setting up political institutions based on liberal democracy and the rule of law; internal and national needs such as socio-religious reform, religious and gender rights, positive discrimination, and the Gandhian principles of the Panchayati Raj; and Western liberal and democratic ideas, such as individual rights, the principle of majority as the basis for government formation, and socialist and egalitarian philosophies.

All this has led to doubts regarding whether the Constitution ...