Table Of ContentCONSTITUTIONAL FOUNDINGS IN SOUTH ASIA
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 constitu-
tions; 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.
Constitutionalism in Asia series
ii
Constitutional Foundings
in South Asia
Edited by
Kevin YL Tan
and
Ridwanul Hoque
HART PUBLISHING
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Names: Tan, Kevin, editor. | Hoque, Ridwanul, editor.
Title: Constitutional foundings in South Asia / edited by Kevin YL Tan and Ridwanul Hoque.
Description: Oxford, UK ; New York, NY : Hart Publishing, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. |
Series: Constitutionalism in Asia series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020038526 (print) | LCCN 2020038527 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781509930258 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509944033 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781509930265 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509930272 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Constitutional law—South Asia—History.
Classification: LCC KNC524 .C654 2021 (print) | LCC KNC524 (ebook) | DDC 342.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038526
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038527
ISBN: HB: 978-1-50993-025-8
ePDF: 978-1-50993-027-2
ePub: 978-1-50993-026-5
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Contents
List of Contributors �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix
1. South Asian Constitutional Foundings: Beyond History ���������������������������1
Kevin YL Tan and Ridwanul Hoque
Introduction ............................................................................................1
I. Why this Book? ............................................................................5
II. Constitutional History Matters ....................................................8
A. Constitutional Foundings ......................................................8
B. Conditions and Functions of Constitutional Foundings ........10
III. Factors Impacting Constitutional Foundings ................................12
A. Internal Factors ....................................................................12
B. Local Politics .......................................................................13
C. Socio-Economic Conditions .................................................13
D. External Factors ...................................................................14
IV. The Legacies of Constitutional Foundings ...................................16
V. A Note of Acknowledgement ......................................................18
2. India’s Constitutional Founding: An Enduring
but Mixed Legacy ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������19
Arun K Thiruvengadam
Introduction ..........................................................................................19
I. Constitutional Developments in Pre-Modern
India and During the Colonial Period (1550–1947) .......................24
A. The Mughals and the East India Company
(1550–1857) .........................................................................26
B. The British Raj and Colonial Forms of Constitutional
Government (1858–1947): A Bird’s Eye View .........................27
C. The Nationalist Movement and the Build-up of
Attempts at Constitution-Making (1885–1947):
A Worm’s Eye View ..............................................................33
II. Crafting a Constitution for Independent India:
The Work of the Constituent Assembly (1946–1949) ....................36
A. Background and Origin of the
Constituent Assembly ..........................................................36
B. The Ambient Atmosphere of Constitution-Making ..............38
vi Contents
C. Processes, Modes of Functioning, and Stages of
Constitution-Making in the Constituent Assembly ...............40
D. A Survey of Important Provisions and
Themes in the Text ..............................................................42
III. Brief Analysis of Evolution of the Post-Independence
Constitutional Order (1947–2019) ...............................................57
3. From Nation to State: Constitutional Founding in Pakistan ��������������������63
Sadaf Aziz and Moeen Cheema
Introduction ..........................................................................................63
I. Constituent Assemblies as the Site
of Constitutional Drafting ..........................................................64
II. Inchoate Visions of Nationhood ..................................................67
III. Competing Visions of Statehood .................................................74
IV. Compromise(d) Constitutionalism ..............................................84
V. Conclusion .................................................................................88
4. The Founding and Making of Bangladesh’s Constitution ������������������������91
Ridwanul Hoque
Introduction ...........................................................................................91
I. The Emergence of Bangladesh .....................................................92
A. Bangladesh and the 1947 Partition of British India ................93
B. Bangladesh as Part of Pakistan (1947 to 1971):
The Pre-independence Years of Constitution-making ............95
II. The Proclamation of Independence and
the Provisional Constitution: The First Foundings ......................100
A. The Proclamation of Independence: The First Interim
Constitution ......................................................................100
B. The Provisional Constitution Order: The Second Interim
Constitution ......................................................................102
III. The Making of Bangladesh’s Founding
Constitution: The Drafting Process ...........................................103
A. The Constituent Assembly and the Wider Political
Policy for Foundings ...........................................................103
B. The Constitution Drafting Committee ................................104
C. Adopting the Founding Constitution ..................................107
IV. The Constitution’s Four Identity Principles
and the Political Founding .........................................................107
A. Nationalism .......................................................................109
B. Socialism ...........................................................................109
C. Democracy ........................................................................110
D. Secularism .........................................................................111
V. The Foundings and the Problem of
Inclusive Constitutionalism .......................................................112
VI. External Influences on the Founding Constitution ......................113
Contents vii
VII. Post-1972 Developments and the Impact
of Constitutional Foundings ......................................................115
VIII. Conclusion ...............................................................................118
5. Dominion Status and Compromised Foundations: The Soulbury
Constitution and Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Responses
to the Founding of the Ceylonese State, 1931–1956 �������������������������������121
Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne
Introduction ........................................................................................121
I. The Colebrooke-Cameron Commission .....................................125
II. The Donoughmore Reforms ......................................................129
III. The Soulbury Commission
and the Dominion Constitution .................................................133
IV. Wither Elitism ...........................................................................140
V. Conclusion ...............................................................................147
6. Constitutional Foundings in Nepal: Experience
with Changing Parameters �������������������������������������������������������������������149
Bipin Adhikari
Introduction ........................................................................................149
I. The 1950–1951 Revolution and the Founding
Constitution of 1951 .................................................................151
II. The 1951 Interim Constitution and Constitutional
Foundings: The Point of Departure ...........................................154
III. Promulgation of the Foundational 1959 Constitution .................158
IV. The Panchayat Constitution of 1962:
Undoing the Founding? .............................................................161
V. The 1990 Constitution: Restoring the 1959 Foundings? ..............164
VI. The Maoist Armed Rebellion ....................................................168
VII. Constitution-Making By the People At Last? .............................170
A. The Interim Constitution 2007 ...........................................170
B. Constituent Assembly I ......................................................170
C. Constituent Assembly II .....................................................172
VIII. The 2015 Constitution ..............................................................172
IX. Conclusion ...............................................................................174
7. Making Bhutan’s Constitution: Institutionalising
a ‘Traditional’ Monarchy ���������������������������������������������������������������������177
Winnie Bothe
Introduction ........................................................................................177
I. Historical Trajectories of the Bhutanese Constitution ................178
II. The Constitutional Committee ..................................................181
III. Consulting the People ...............................................................184
A. Distributing the First Draft: Ceremony and Symbolism .......184
B. The Construction of Citizens as ‘Participants’ ....................186
viii Contents
IV. The Constitutional Debates ......................................................187
V. Discussions between the King and the People .............................189
VI. Adoption and Content of the Constitution ................................191
VII. The Traditionalisation of the Constitution ................................195
VIII. Conclusion ...............................................................................198
8. Towards a Maldivian Nation-State: The Constitutions
of 1932 and 1968 ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������199
Shamsul Falaah
Introduction ........................................................................................199
I. Historical Backdrop ..................................................................200
A. Maldives: Origins and a Brief History ................................200
B. An Historical Overview of the Legal System .......................203
II. The First Maldives Constitution (1932) ......................................204
A. The Quest for a Written Constitution and Driving Forces ....204
B. The Constitution Drafting Process .....................................207
C. Ratification of the First Constitution ..................................210
III. Main Features of the First Constitution .....................................211
A. Structure of the State and Separation of Powers ..................211
B. The Life and Death of the First Constitution ......................218
C. A Founding Constitution? ..................................................221
IV. Constitutional Developments 1934–1968 ...................................222
A. From Monarchy to Republic ...............................................222
B. Main Features of the 1953 Constitution ..............................223
V. The Second Republican Constitution: 1968–1998 .......................224
A. Resurgence of Republicanism .............................................224
B. Main Features of the Constitution of 1968 .........................225
VI. Legacy of the Constitutions of 1932 and 1968............................228
VII. Conclusion ...............................................................................229
9. Afghanistan: An Aborted Beginning �����������������������������������������������������231
Ebrahim Afsah
Introduction ........................................................................................231
I. A Contextual Prolegomenon .....................................................231
II. Introduction: Where to Begin? ...................................................235
III. Constitutionalism and Nation-Building .....................................238
IV. Locating the 1964 Constitution .................................................241
V. Tortuous Transplants and Religious Resistance ..........................243
VI. Constitutions as Tools for Consolidation
and Coordination .....................................................................249
VII. Contestation and Constitutional Compromise ...........................252
VIII. Process and Substance ...............................................................255
IX. Conclusion ...............................................................................259
Index ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������263
List of Contributors
Kevin YL TAN is one of Singapore’s leading constitutional law scholars and its
foremost legal historian. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the National
University of Singapore with an LLB (Hons) and obtained his LLM and JSD
from the Yale Law School. He specialises in constitutional and administrative
law, the Singapore legal system, law and society, legal history and human rights.
He is the author and editor of over 50 books on the law, history and politics
of Singapore, including Constitutionalism in Asia (Hart, 2014); The Singapore
Constitution: A Contextual Analysis (Hart, 2015); and Constitutional Foundings
in Southeast Asia (Hart, 2019). He is currently Adjunct Professor at the Faculty
of Law, National University of Singapore and Professor at the S Rajaratnam
School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. He is also
Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Comparative Law and Consulting
Editor of the Asian Yearbook of International Law.
Ridwanul HOQUE is a Professor of Law at the University of Dhaka and a
University Fellow at Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Australia.
He had earlier taught at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. He has
studied law at the Universities of Chittagong, Cambridge, and London and
has held visiting positions at Cornell Law School, Melbourne Law School, La
Trobe University, and National Law University, Delhi. Professor Hoque has been
recently awarded IASH-Alwaleed Research Fellowship at Edinburgh University
for January–March 2021, to do research on mass denationalisation. A leading
scholar of the Bangladeshi constitutional law, he specialises in South Asian and
comparative constitutional law. As a foreign law expert, he has written over a
dozen expert reports for the UK, US, and Australian courts on various issues
including citizenship and torts. He has an extensive experience of consultancy
in the areas of children’s rights, labour migration, and human trafficking. He
is the author of Judicial Activism in Bangladesh: A Golden Mean Approach
(Cambridge Scholars, UK, 2011).
CONTRIBUTORS
AFGHANISTAN—Ebrahim AFSAH is a Professor of Islamic law at the
Department of European, International and Comparative Law at the Faculty
of Law of the University of Vienna. He is currently on leave as an Associate
Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of
