On the afternoon of 2 April 2024, Dr. Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, gave an online lecture on the theme of "Indian Constitutionalism: Its History, Principles, and Future", moderated by Dr. Lei Dingkun, Assistant Professor at Institute for International and Area Studies, Tsinghua University (IIAS).
Professor Faisal Devji began his lecture by exploring the origins of the Constituent Assembly at the dawn of India's independence and the constitutional debates that followed, looking at the historical legacy of the colonial era, focusing on the core elements of the Queen Victoria’s Proclamation (1858) (also known as the Queen’s Proclamation) and the Government of India Act (1935), and detailing the far-reaching impact of these ideas on constitutional thinking and constitutional debates in post-independence India.
Professor Faisal Devji provided an interpretation of the promise of equality in the Queen Victoria’s Proclamation (1858) and the principle of the right to liberty in the Indian Constitution, and then drew out the debate on the priority of asserting the right to liberty or the right to equality at the outset of India's Independence and explores the impact of this debate on the development of Indian society in the post-independence period. In addition, Professor Devji further analyzed the constitutional structure of India, discussing the relationship between political interests and the right to property in Indian society, and the role of religion and caste in the formation of political identity. Finally, Professor Faisal Devji pointed out that to some extent, the current Indian Constitution was attempting to return to the demand for equality between social, religious and ethnic groups.
The lecture was followed by an interactive session with Prof. Faisal Devji among the students and faculty members, which was warm, positive and friendly.
Dr. Faisal Devji is Professor of Indian History at St Antony's College, Oxford. He focuses on issues related to constitutionalism in South Asia, and is the author of the following books: Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea, The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the His representative works include Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea, The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence, The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics, Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity, and Losing the Future. Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity, Losing the Present to History, End of the Postcolonial State, An Impossible Founding, The Childhood of Politics, and other monographs and related journal articles.
