Granville Austin loved the Constitution of India
More than six decades after India gained independence, the success of democracy in this tremendously diverse and populous nation remains a fascinating tale. But if there is one individual who did justice to the telling of that tale, it is Granville Austin. The 87-year-old American political historian who passed away on July 6 in Washington, DC, wrote The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, which is effectively a biography of the Constitution of India. It discusses how and why the members of the Constituent Assembly wrote the Constitution as they did and offers possibly the most fair and perceptive study of the historic document that laid the foundation upon which now stands the world's largest democracy. First published in 1966, The Indian Constitution has become not just the Bible for every scholar of constitutional law but is a must read for every judge, lawyer, historian and researcher. It is testimony to Granville Austin's exacting standards of scholarship, but it is also much more than just a dry analysis of facts and figures. To understand the gravity of Granville Austin's work, one must view The Indian Constitution together with its sequel, the equally grand and momentous Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience. Published in 2000, the latter studies the implementation of the Constitution as Indian democracy progressed and includes commentary on issues such as the Mandal-Masjid politics that redefined the discourse of Indian politics. Both works tell the human story of how the everyday socio-political realities of the Indian people reflected in the Constitution that they gave to themselves. Viewed together, they offer the most comprehensive reconstruction of India's recent constitutional past.
Granville Austin's masterpieces also bear relevance today as democracy is still a struggle for much of the developing world. African nations which gained independence around the same time as India have had only limited success. In South-East Asian nations like Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, democracy has repeatedly come under threat. In the Indian sub-continent, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri lanka, Myanmar and Maldives have had a tough time internalising democratic processes. The Arab uprising in West Asia has added another chapter to the discourse as countries like Egypt and Tunisia struggle with the challenges of democracy. The Indian experience can offer some valuable lessons here, and Granville Austin's seminal tome remains a great reference point.