Ep 26: A People’s Constitution- Guftagu with Dr. Rohit De

India Colonised

Today in our second Guftagu we have with us Dr Rohit De Discussing with us his book the People's Constituion- Law and Everyday Life in the Indian Republic (Princeton University Press)
Rohit De is a lawyer and historian of modern South Asia and focuses on the legal history of the Indian subcontinent and the common law world. As a legal historian he moves beyond asking what the law was; to what actors thought law was and how this knowledge shaped their quotidian tactics, thoughts and actions. In recent years, this has enabled his research to move beyond the political borders to South Asia to uncover transnational legal geographies of commerce, migration and rights across Africa, Southeast Asia and the Carribean.
Professor De’s book A People’s Constitution: Law and Everyday Life in the Indian Republic (Princeton University Press) explores how the Indian constitution, despite its elite authorship and alien antecedents, came to be a part everyday life and imagination in India during its transition from a colonial state to a democratic republic. Mapping the use of constitutional language and procedure by diverse groups such as butchers and sex workers, street vendors and petty businessmen, journalists and women social workers, it offers a constitutional history from the lenses of the people . He continues to write on the social and intellectual foundations of constitutionalism in South Asia.
Prof De is also interested in comparative constitutional law and is an Associate Research Scholar in Law at the Yale Law School. He has assisted Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan of the Supreme Court of India and worked on constitution reform projects in Nepal and Sri Lanka. He writes on contemporary legal issues in South Asia. Prof De received his Ph.D from Princeton University, where he was elected to the Society of Woodrow Wilson Scholars. His dissertation won the Law and Society Association Prize for best representing outstanding work in law and society research in 2013. He was the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for History and Economics and a fellow of Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge before coming to Yale in 2014. Rohit received his law degrees from the Yale Law School and the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Rohit teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in South Asian history; postcolonial histories of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; on Indian constitutional culture and political thought, South Asian diasporas and migration as well as courses on global legal history, law and colonialism and the legal profession.
Here is our conversation on his intellectual journey and the journey of writing this book, including how we can engage with his work in relevance to today's world.Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter handle: @Indiacolonised or visit us on www.indiacolonised.com. Don’t forget to visit our website for book recommendations and a complete reading list if you want to read more on India’s Modern History!