Continuing in this tradition, The Indian Constitution: A Conversation with Power brings a new lens to analyse the Constitution: as a document that creates, shapes, channels, and constrains power. Examining the history of Constitution-making, the debates in the Constituent Assembly, the Indian Constitution's design and structure, and the judicial decisions that have shaped it, this book argues that the Constitution has been a battleground upon which different visions of power have contested for supremacy. For the most part, this contest has been marked by a centralizing drift: that is, a drift towards a concentration of power within the union executive. Elements of this are embedded within the Constitution's design, but the drift has also been accelerated, at crucial historical moments, by Supreme Court judgments.

However, the centralizing drift is not inevitable. There have been moments of dissent and departure, which have illumined alternative possibilities. It is for the citizens of India to decide, ultimately, what vision(s) of constitutional power they want to adopt through their Constitution.

A timely and critical interrogation of the Indian Constitution through the lens of power, this book asks certain fundamental questions about the structures and institutions that the Constitution establishes and the webs of power that it creates. A must-read for all Indian citizens.