Debating Difference
Group Rights and Liberal Democracy in India
Price: 595.00 INR
ISBN:
9780199453375
Publication date:
18/04/2016
Paperback
338 pages
Price: 595.00 INR
ISBN:
9780199453375
Publication date:
18/04/2016
Paperback
338 pages
Rochana Bajpai
How can inequalities between groups be addressed, while at the same time sustaining common citizenship? Debating Difference offers a new approach to this key question for liberal democracies, demonstrating that argument and debate is crucial for reconciling the demands of group equality and civic unity. Using constitutional and legislative debates on minority rights and quotas in Indian parliament, Rochana Bajpai develops a model for interpreting group rights around secularism, democracy, social justice, national unity, and development.
Rights: World Rights
Rochana Bajpai
Description
This ground-breaking study addresses a key question for contemporary liberal democracies—how can inequalities between groups be addressed, while sustaining common citizenship? It provides the first systematic analysis of the Indian Constituent Assembly debates (1946–9). Through a reconstruction of arguments in key legislative debates over minority rights and quotas, Bajpai develops a model for interpreting post-independence group rights, based on the interplay between a set of normative concepts—secularism, democracy, social justice, national unity, and development. This book also identifies the limits of Western-centric accounts of multiculturalism, and shows that liberal and democratic values have been more sophisticated and widely shared in the Indian polity than is commonly believed.
Rochana Bajpai
Table of contents
Preface
- Introduction
Part One – The Moment of Containment: The Constituent Assembly Debates, 1946–9
- Minority Rights in Colonial India and the Constituent Assembly – A Historical Background
- Nationalist Discourse and Group Rights – A Conceptual Approach
- From Minority to Backward – The Nationalist Resolution of the ‘Minorities Question’
Part Two – The Moment of Crisis: Preferential Policies—1986, 1990
- Secularism and Muslim Personal Law – The Shah Bano Case, 1986
- Social Justice and Quotas in Government Jobs for Other Backward Classes – The Mandal Debate, 1990
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Rochana Bajpai
Features
- Offers a new approach towards understanding the creation of common citizenship while addressing group inequities
- Identifies the limits of Western-centric accounts of multiculturalism
- Develops a model for interpreting group rights in India around secularism, democracy, social justice, national unity, and development.
Rochana Bajpai
Description
This ground-breaking study addresses a key question for contemporary liberal democracies—how can inequalities between groups be addressed, while sustaining common citizenship? It provides the first systematic analysis of the Indian Constituent Assembly debates (1946–9). Through a reconstruction of arguments in key legislative debates over minority rights and quotas, Bajpai develops a model for interpreting post-independence group rights, based on the interplay between a set of normative concepts—secularism, democracy, social justice, national unity, and development. This book also identifies the limits of Western-centric accounts of multiculturalism, and shows that liberal and democratic values have been more sophisticated and widely shared in the Indian polity than is commonly believed.
Read MoreTable of contents
Preface
- Introduction
Part One – The Moment of Containment: The Constituent Assembly Debates, 1946–9
- Minority Rights in Colonial India and the Constituent Assembly – A Historical Background
- Nationalist Discourse and Group Rights – A Conceptual Approach
- From Minority to Backward – The Nationalist Resolution of the ‘Minorities Question’
Part Two – The Moment of Crisis: Preferential Policies—1986, 1990
- Secularism and Muslim Personal Law – The Shah Bano Case, 1986
- Social Justice and Quotas in Government Jobs for Other Backward Classes – The Mandal Debate, 1990
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index Read More