ABSTRACT
The preamble to the Indian Constitution envisages a ‘sovereign, secular, socialist, democratic, republic’ and its 400 odd articles and 12 Schedules work together, and sometimes in contradiction, to achieve these five goals. One indigenous document gave the Indian Constitution its distinctive vision, identity and character, all of which would in turn be instrumental in building the foundations of the newly born nation state. The bold Justice Khanna who dissented was soon superseded from the post of Chief Justice of India, paving the path for the Executive to appoint a more pliant Chief Justice. This chapter examines how the federal structure has played out, along the multi-dimensional axes of retaining India’s national unity and integrity, while at the same time, securing its diversity and multiculturalism. There are certainly flaws in the constitutional model too, as seen from the discussion on India’s federal structure, but they are relatively less egregious than those in the realpolitik model of governance that pervades contemporary India.
