Durable foundation: The Constitution reflects India's founding values

Constitution remains a guarantor of Indian democracy despite the efforts of those who seek to undermine it

The flawless pageantry on display in the celebration of each Republic Day has a special resonance this year, which marks the 75th anniversary of the Indian Constitution coming into effect.  The existence of the Constitution as a dynamic and rambunctiously contested document deserves celebration for two reasons.  First, it reflects India’s survival as a united, vibrant, argumentative republic against all the odds and the dystopian predictions by Western commentators in the 1950s. Second, when set against the examples of American electoral practices and transfer of power, the Indian Constitution has proven a bulwark of democratic principles. For instance,