Book Review: Sunil Khilnani, Vikram Raghavan and Arun K. Thiruvengadam (eds), Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia, Maneesha Tikekar (ed.), Constitutionalism and Democracy in South Asia; Political Developments in India’s Neighbourhood and Mark Tushent and Madhav Khosla (eds), Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2321023017698274 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 99
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh saw the BJP performing well and winning 71 out of
80 seats. The party was successful among the upper castes and though it continued to trail the BSP
among the Dalits, the gap between the two parties narrowed to such an extent that it ensured victory. The
author specifies that the national results tallied with his argument, but that ‘the most significant discon-
tinuity came in Uttar Pradesh’ (p. 283). In the Afterword, Thachil attributes this to the weakening appeal
of the BSP’s ethnic patronage strategy of delivering benefits to its core cadre only, especially the Jatavs
(a Dalit caste), plus Modi’s popularity and the sharp polarization of voters on caste and communal lines.
He writes that the 2014 victory of BJP is best understood as ‘one produced by new factors (such as an
especially popular leader) building on the foundation laid by the past efforts’ (p. 284).
Though this book analyzes how the BJP used social services as an electoral strategy to win votes of
the Dalits and the Adivasis, it would be wrong to say that these services alone decide elections. This book
is a major contribution that addresses the critical question of elite parties and their strategy to win votes
of the poor. A major strength of this book lies in the fact that the author illustrates how several research
tools can be used together. The mix of methodologies has enabled the author to go beyond just showing
mere correlation between ‘services’ and ‘winning votes’.
Vibha Attri
Lokniti, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi
E-mail: vibhaattri@gmail.com
Sunil Khilnani, Vikram Raghavan and Arun K. Thiruvengadam (eds), Comparative Constitutionalism in
South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2013. 401 pages. ` 950.
Maneesha Tikekar (ed.), Constitutionalism and Democracy in South Asia; Political Developments in India’s
Neighbourhood. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2014. 181 pages. ` 675.
Mark Tushent and Madhav Khosla (eds), Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia.
New York: Cambridge University Press. 2015. 403 pages. US$ 35.99.
DOI: 10.1177/2321023017698274
Despite the fact that the roots of comparative constitutionalism can be traced as back as Aristotle, the
field has got invigorated since 1990s as a result of constitution-making and constitutional reforms in
many countries. Most of this literature emerged in African and post-Soviet context, eroding the hegem-
ony of literature on liberal constitutionalism that developed in the first-world countries. This literature
analyzes the interaction between societal variables (religion, ethnicity and gender) and constitutionalism
and moves beyond the framework dictated by liberal constitutionalism. Even in some South Asian coun-
tries, there emerged few country-specific studies on constitutionalism, but the three books under review
are the initiators of the field of comparative South Asian constitutionalism.
The editors of Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia emphasize the similarities in the consti-
tutions, political structures and legal systems of South Asian region. They are perturbed by the fact that
legal scholars and judges in these states have been in the habit of looking to the West. The first chapter
by Upendra Baxi challenges the formulation of South Asia which according to him was a ‘colonial
invention’. Therefore, he prefers to use the formulation of ‘Post-colonial constitutionalism’. The second
chapter by Sujit Choudhary explores the core question of the need and significance of comparative con-
stitutional law. He attempts to answer this by analyzing the landmark Naz Foundation judgment by the
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