ABSTRACT

Auto-ethnographic, 'subjective' work is crucial toward the project of cultivating an authentic vocabulary for use in a svarajist Indian political theory. Upendra Baxi's essay, 'The Justice of Human Rights in Indian Constitutionalism', challenges Indian political theory for neglecting to thematically address the problematics of justice within constitutional thought and praxis. Rajeev Bhargava suggests that there is a 'weak sense' of Indian political theory, which overlaps with the generation that he had described as engaged with recontextualization. Bhikhu Parekh has published 'The Poverty of Indian Political Theory' powerful and provocative essay related to the status of Indian political theory. He provides three main factors responsible for the under-development of Indian political theory: the status of the social sciences in Indian universities post-independence; the hegemony of Nehru's modernization paradigm that serves even now as the indisputable national political philosophy; and the inscrutability of the contemporary Indian political reality.