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"Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic begins with the momentous task of demolishing the prejudices attached with the phrase 'founding fathers' that has held an immense sway over constitutional interpretation. It shows that women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly had painstakingly co-authored a Constitution that embodied a moral imagination developed by years of feminist politics. This book traces the genealogies of several constitutional provisions to argue that, without the interventions of these women framers, the Constitution would have been much lesser than the celebrated document of rights and statecraft that it is. Situating these interventions in the larger trajectory of Indian feminism in which they are rooted, in the nationalist discourse with which they perpetually negotiated, and in the larger human rights discourse of the 1940s, it shows that the women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly were much more than the 'founding mothers' of a republic"--
List of contents
Abbreviations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Epigraph; Introduction: Towards a feminist reading of the making of the Constitution; 1. Against the shadow of the founding fathers: A minority report; 2. In search of the missing mothers; 3. Women's moral imaginary and constitutional politics: 1927-1946; 4. Patterns of participation: women members in the Constituent Assembly; 5. Writing the rights: Inscribing constitutional morality; 6. Reformulating the 'woman's question': Challenging customs and traditions; 7. After the framing; Conclusion: Remembering the founding mothers; Appendix: Texts and contexts of the framing: A timeline; Bibliography; Index.
Summary
It shows that women members of the Constituent Assembly contributed significantly to shaping the moral imagination enshrined in the Constitution of India. By showcasing the immense debt owed by several of its articles to these women it breaks new ground in the fields of modern Indian history, women's history, and constitutional studies.
