A People’s Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic

309 Pages·2018·17.1 MB·English

by  Rohit De

A People’s Constitution
Histories of Economic Life
Jeremy Adelman, Sunil Amrith,
and Emma Rothschild, Series Editors
Rohit De, A People’s Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the
Indian Republic
Fei- Hsien Wang, Copyright in Modern China: A Social History
Tariq Omar Ali, A Local History of Global Capital: Jute and Peasant Life
in the Bengal Delta
A People’s Constitution
The Everyday Life of Law in the
Indian Republic
Rohit De
Princeton University Press
Princeton & Oxford
Copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018948540
ISBN 978- 0- 691- 17443- 3
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Amanda Peery
Production Editorial: Kathleen Cioffi
Jacket Design: Layla MacRory
Jacket illustrations by author
Production: Erin Suydam
Publicity: Jodi Price
Copyeditor: Judith Antonelli
This book has been composed in Arno
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
The Constitution as Triumph 5
The Constitution as Illusion 7
The Republic of Writs 9
The Supreme Court of India: A Public and Secret Archive 15
Book Schema 18
Rethinking the People’s Constitution: The Constitution 20
Rethinking the People’s Constitution: The People 25
1 The Case of the Constable’s Nose: Policing Prohibition
in Bombay 32
Toward the Moral Nation: Prohibition and Nationalism 35
Constitutionalizing Prohibition 39
Creating Sober Citizens: Disciplining Drunkenness 41
The Fundamental Right to Drink: Balsara v. State of Bombay 47
The Test Case for the New Republic 51
Smelling Like a State: Procedural Justice under the
Law of Prohibition 58
The Public Interest, Private Interests, and Parsi Interests 63
Prohibition, Law, and the Question of Postcolonial Sovereignty 68
v
vi Contents
2 The Case of the Excess Baggage: Commodity Controls,
Market Governance, and the Making of Administrative Law 77
The Wartime System of Controls 80
Controls and Freedom in the New Republic 86
The New Economic Criminal 92
“The Marwari Occupants of the Lucknow Bogie”:
Caste, Criminality, and Constitutionalism 99
Marwaris and the New Regulatory Order 101
Criminal Law and Constitutional Strategies 106
Separating Powers in the Indian Republic 108
The Delhi Laws Act Problem 112
The Baglas in Court 112
The Arbitrary Administrator: The Shadow of the Bagla Case 114
The Rule of Law in a Planned Society: Controls
and the Birth of Administrative Law 117
The Trader as a Constitutional Actor 120
3 The Case of the Invisible Butchers: Economic Rites
and Religious Rights 123
From the Queen Empress to the Gau Maharani:
Cows, Community, and Sovereignty 125
From the Streets to the Courts: Imperial Constitutionalism
and Bovine Litigation 127
Constitutionalizing the Cow 130
Thinking Nationally, Acting Locally: Municipal Management
of Cow Slaughter 135
The Shield of Legislation: Cow Protection in the
Provincial Assembly 144
Taking Cows to the Supreme Court 148
Religion versus Profession 150
Economy versus Identity 153
Making Economic Policy in the Supreme Court 157
The New Bovine Order 163
Contents vii
4 The Case of the Honest Prostitute: Sex, Work,
and Freedom in the Indian Constitution 169
Constituting Women in the New Republic 171
The Birth of SITA: The Making of a Postcolonial
Prostitution Law 176
A Representative Prostitute: Husna Bai and Subaltern
Legal Mobilization 180
Living with Regulations: Alternatives to Constitutional Litigation 182
Reclassification as Resistance 185
The Prostitute as a Citizen: Disrupting Older Narratives 189
The Right to Practice the “World’s Oldest Profession” 191
The Geography of Freedom: Eviction and the
Freedom of Movement 196
From Husna Bai to Kaushalya Devi: The Legacy
of a Court Decision 203
Conclusion 209
Epilogue 215
Talking the State’s Language 217
Procedure over Substance 219
Constitutionalism from the Margins 222
A Constitution for Butchers? Markets, Circulation,
and the Origin of Rights 224
Acknowledgments 229
Notes 235
Selected Bibliography 277
Index 287

Abbreviations
AIR All India Reporter
ASMH Association for Social and Moral Hygiene
BPA Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949
CrLJ Criminal Law Journal
CSSAAME Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
CWMG Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
ESA Essential Supplies Act, 1946
ILR India Law Reports
IOR India Office Records
NAI National Archives of India
NMML Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
MSA Maharashtra State Archives
SC Supreme Court of India
SCR Supreme Court Reports
SCRR Supreme Court Record Room
SITA Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956
ix