Constitutional Foundings in South Asia

Kevin YL Tan, Ridwanul Hoque, Kevin YL Tan, Ridwanul Hoque

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781509944033
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781509930272
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Comparative Law
• Index: Law

This volume addresses the idea of origins, how things are formed, and how they relate to their present and future in terms of 'constitution-making' which is a continuous process in South Asian states. It examines the drafting, nature, core values and roles of the first modern constitutions during the founding of the eight modern nation-states in South Asia.

The book looks at the constitutions of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It provides an explanatory description of the process and substantive inputs in the making of the first constitutions of these nations; it sets out to analyse the internal and external (including intra-regional) forces surrounding the making of these constitutions; and it sets out theoretical constructions of models to conceptualise the nature and role of the first constitutions (including constituent documents) in the founding of the modern nation-states and their subsequent impact on state-building in the region.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1. South Asian Constitutional Foundings: Beyond History
• 2. India's Constitutional Founding: An Enduring but Mixed Legacy
• 3. From Nation to State: Constitutional Founding in Pakistan
• 4. The Founding and Making of Bangladesh's Constitution
• 5. Dominion Status and Compromised Foundations: The Soulbury Constitution and Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Responses to the Founding of the Ceylonese State, 1931–1956
• 6. Constitutional Foundings in Nepal: Experience with Changing Parameters
• 7. Making Bhutan's Constitution: Institutionalising a 'Traditional' Monarchy
• 8. Towards a Maldivian Nation-State: The Constitutions of 1932 and 1968
• 9. Afghanistan: An Aborted Beginning
• Index