People cannot be taken for granted in democracy, says Rohit De's new book

Rohit De's carefully crafted history shows that the people and their awareness of their own rights cannot be taken for granted or ridden roughshod by the state and political parties

If any one book defines the society and politics of the republic of India, it is the Constitution. This tome was the product of debates and discussions among various sections of the national leadership that lasted for over three years. The Constitution is by no means a document that is cast in stone. It continues to be debated, contested, amended and even threatened. Amartya Sen’s celebrated argumentative Indian is constitutive of the Constitution of India.

The outstanding novelty of Rohit De’s book is the revelation that the debates and challenges that surrounded the Constitution from its very inception were not always