We think of the Indian Constitution as a founding document embodying a moment of profound transformation from being ruled to becoming a nation of free and equal citizenship. Yet the working of the Constitution over the last seven decades has often failed to fulfil that transformative promise.

The Transformative Constitution by Gautam Bhatia draws on pre-Independence legal and political history to argue that the Constitution was intended to transform not merely the political status of Indians from subjects to citizens but also the social relationships on which legal and political structures rested.

Updated with a new Preface to the paperback edition it advances a novel vision of the Constitution and of constitutional interpretation which is faithful to its text structure and history and above all to its overarching commitment to political and social transformation.