Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic

by Achyut Chetan

The book 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. It traces the genealogies of several constitutional provisions to argue that, without the interventions of these women framers, the Constitution would hardly have a much poorer 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, the book shows that the women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly were much more than the 'founding mothers' of a republic.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Published February 23, 2023

Reviews

[Pranay Borupothu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone knows or has heard about at least one of the founding fathers (the famous ones like Babasaheb, Nehru, Patel) of the Indian Constitution. Has anyone thought about how women members of the constituent assembly contributed to the authorship of the constitution? Don't we call them the "founding mothers" of the Indian constitution?

This great book covers the involvement of women members in making the country's supreme law and their participation in shaping the future of the nation in every possible way.

Achyut Chetan did amazing work by acknowledging the missing mothers of the Indian republic and not forgetting them.