Law and Democracy in Contemporary India: Constitution, Contact Zone, and Performing Rights

Description

This book analyses legal orders, actors and democracy in contemporary India, with a particular focus on the everyday contexts and dynamics of human rights, citizenship and socio-economic rights and laws. The contributions explore both ‘institutionalization from above’, where the judiciary and legislative body aim to govern people, and ‘institutionalization from below’, where the governed attempt to expand their substantive rights embedded within their everyday lives. This analysis identifies contact zones between the two directions, which act as spaces for democratic participation and negotiation. Such a perspective should be useful to both those who are interested in Indian politics, and anthropologists and sociologists working on dynamics of laws and rights. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction (Tatsuya Yamamoto)....Pages 1-23 Inventing Rights in the Indian Context (Kazuhiro Itakura)....Pages 25-49 Who Appoints Judges? Judicial Independence and Democratisation of the Judiciary in India (Tomoaki Ueda)....Pages 51-83 Citizenship In-between: A Case Study of Tibetan Refugees in India (Tatsuya Yamamoto)....Pages 85-112 Rethinking the Reservation System in Contemporary India: A Local Point of View (Kenta Funahashi)....Pages 113-130 ‘The Right to Know Is the Right to Live’: The Right to Information Movement in India (Shinya Ishizaka)....Pages 131-145 Protesting the AFSPA in the Indian Periphery: The Anti-Militarization Movement in Northeast India (Makiko Kimura)....Pages 147-168 Justice and Human Rights at the Grassroots Level: Judicial Empowerment in Dalit Activism (Maya Suzuki)....Pages 169-189 The Right to Sacredness: Politics Surrounding Wind Power Development in the Thar Desert (Kodai Konishi)....Pages 191-210 Back Matter ....Pages 211-222