Madhav Khosla's guest appearances

Madhav Khosla

Grand Tamasha

Ideas of India

Barkha Dutt

Vinay Sitapati

Himanshu Jha

Adam Auerbach

Shoumitro Chatterjee

Scaachi Koul

Ruchir Sharma

Katherine Eban

Imran Khan

Narendra Modi

Tanvi Madan

Evan Feigenbaum

Shashi Tharoor

Ramachandra Guha

Madhuri Vijay

OwlTail

Welcome to Ideas of India, a podcast where we examine academic thinking that can propel India forward. My name is Shruti Rajagopalan. Today, my guest is Madhav Khosla, associate professor of political science at Ashoka University and the Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia Law School. His latest book, India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy, details the main ideas or traditions of thought that informed the Indian constitutional project and discusses how the framing of the Constitution changed India’s trajectory. In his book, Madhav talks about the decision of the framers to have a very long and codified Constitution as a pedagogical project. He argues that the framers centralized power to fight localism and parochialism. And we spoke about the framers’ idea of representation in a society fragmented by religion and caste, with the backdrop of Partition, and the relevance of those choices today. I had a chance to talk about these themes, the link between India’s founding and its constitutional troubles today, the framers of the Constitution, Madhav’s intellectual influences, and much more. This conversation was recorded in person in February, before the COVID pandemic. But Madhav’s book on the founding is unlikely to lose its relevance anytime soon.  Full transcript of this episode Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! 

Welcome to Ideas of India, a podcast where we examine academic thinking that can propel India forward. My name is Shruti Rajagopalan. Today, my guest is Madhav Khosla, <a href="https://www.ashoka.edu.in/faculty#!/madhav-khosla-1640" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">associate professor of political science at Ashoka University</a> and the <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/madhav-khosla" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia Law School</a>. His latest book, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674980877" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy</a>, details the main ideas or traditions of thought that informed the Indian constitutional project and discusses how the framing of the Constitution changed India’s trajectory. In his book, Madhav talks about the decision of the framers to have a very long and codified Constitution as a pedagogical project. He argues that the framers centralized power to fight localism and parochialism. And we spoke about the framers’ idea of representation in a society fragmented by religion and caste, with the backdrop of Partition, and the relevance of those choices today. I had a chance to talk about these themes, the link between India’s founding and its constitutional troubles today, the framers of the Constitution, Madhav’s intellectual influences, and much more. This conversation was recorded in person in February, before the COVID pandemic. But Madhav’s book on the founding is unlikely to lose its relevance anytime soon. <a href="https://www.discoursemagazine.com/politics/2020/08/20/ideas-of-india-constitutional-democracy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Full transcript of this episode</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ideasofindia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Follow us on Twitter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/srajagopalan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Follow Shruti on Twitter</a> Click <a href="https://www.mercatus.org/podcasts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox!

Madhav Khosla on the Framing of the Indian Constitution

On January 26, 2020—Republic Day—India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its landmark Constitution. This milestone comes at a time when India is engaged in an intense, contested, and sometimes violent, debate over India’s constitutional values and what it means to be truly Indian.It is for this reason that a new book by the scholar Madhav Khosla on the Indian Constitution could not have come at a more opportune time. Madhav’s new book, India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy, places the Indian Constitution under a microscope—drawing on insights from philosophy, political science, history, and legal scholarship. Madhav and Milan discuss the motivations behind India’s embrace of liberal democracy, the Indian roots of the Indian Constitution, and how to think about the pressing, modern-day questions around citizenship.  

On January 26, 2020—Republic Day—India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its landmark Constitution. This milestone comes at a time when India is engaged in an intense, contested, and sometimes violent, <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/01/23/narendra-modi-stokes-divisions-in-the-worlds-biggest-democracy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">debate</a> over India’s constitutional values and what it means to be truly Indian.It is for this reason that a new book by the scholar <a href="https://twitter.com/MadKhosla?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Madhav Khosla</a> on the Indian Constitution could not have come at a more opportune time. Madhav’s new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Indias-Founding-Moment-Constitution-Surprising/dp/0674980875" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy</a>, places the Indian Constitution under a microscope—drawing on insights from philosophy, political science, history, and legal scholarship. Madhav and Milan discuss the motivations behind India’s embrace of <a href="https://openthemagazine.com/cover-stories/constitution-vs-democracy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">liberal democracy</a>, the <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-india-s-founding-moment-by-madhav-khosla/story-BQpWSC5ewXx3Bx83RT3q8I.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Indian roots</a> of the Indian Constitution, and how to think about the pressing, modern-day questions around <a href="https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/the-document-that-defines-an-indian-citizen-11579844382508.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">citizenship</a>.

Republic Day Episode: Madhav Khosla on India’s Founding Moment