Upendra Baxi is one of India’s leading legal scholars. His areas of expertise and his writings span the diverse areas of comparative constitutionalism, human rights and its futures, crises of the Indian legal system, and the sociology of Indian law and anthropogenic harm and justice.
In 2008, Professor Baxi spent time in Bangalore with the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) and the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) and spoke at length to a group of his former students, who are also among his closest interlocutors, on key issues affecting India and the world. This meeting was tape-recorded, transcribed and went on to become this monograph.
Of Law and Life produces a sweeping personal account of his engagements with over six decades of our modern history. The story moves from Baxi’s childhood and student years in Bombay, to his education and political activism in the anti-War movements in Berkeley to his years at Sydney, in Delhi at the Indian Law Institute, and later at the University of South Gujarat and Delhi as Vice-Chancellor.
He talks at length about several landmark interventions, including the open letter to judges on the Mathura rape case, which set a new precedent in both legal and social activism, the Bhopal gas tragedy, and his pioneering work on social action litigation in India. And much else.
Conversational in tone, deeply insightful, and occasionally light-hearted, this is the first book of its kind, covering Upendra Baxi’s remarkable career, highlighting facets of him as teacher, scholar, and activist.
Upendra Baxi is a legal scholar and Emeritus Professor at Warwick University, UK, and Delhi University. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University as well as the University of South Gujarat, Surat. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011 by the Government of India.
Arvind Narrain is a Visiting Faculty at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University and the National Law School of India University.
Lawrence Liang is Professor of Law, Ambedkar University.
Sitharamam Kakarala is Director of School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University.
Sruti Chaganti is a practising lawyer in Bangalore.
List of Plates List of Abbreviations From the Series Editors Acknowledgements
1. Early Life Bringing Philosophy to its Source Rajkot Impassioned Reading Habits Women in Enforced Temporary Exile Family as a ‘School of Morals’ Stories of Deprivation K. M. Munshi and Other Matters Love and Justice
2. Learning the Law Working with Scindia Steam Navigation Company Government Law College, Bombay Berkeley: Of Vietnam, Kelsen, and Others First Visit to Sydney: Stone and the German South West Africa Decision
3. The Indian Law Institute Authority Does Not Reside in a Mailbox A Thesis so Strained The Rule of Law Must Run with the Rule of Life
4. The Australian Interlude Teaching in Sydney Law School Experience of ‘Mild’ Racism Indigenous People’s Jurisprudence An Incipient Attempt at Public Interest Litigation Learning to Drive and Becoming a Father Writing for the Newspapers
5. Learning from the Australian Experience: Indigenous People’s Jurisprudence Comparative Indigenous People’s Jurisprudence What Can Indigenous Law Teach Us? How Can the Same Law that Oppresses Us be Turned against the Oppressors? Re-enchanting the World Not Land for Land, but a Running Brook for a Running Brook
6. Love, Suffering, and Justice Meeting Prema Link between Biography and Social Text Funded Thought vs Ab-original Thought To be Human Means to be Open to the Suffering Other When Bodily Pain Becomes Social Suffering Speaking For and With Others
7. Teaching, Activism, and the Imposition of Emergency Return to Delhi Teaching in Delhi Law Faculty, Law Centre 2 Challenging a Legislative Expulsion: The First Forensic Victory Declaration of Emergency Doing it with Your Hand Outlaw Evolutionary Social Change versus Revolutionary Change
8. Emergency, Collective Political Violence, and Balagopal Emergency as a Form of Commissariat Dictatorship The Emergency as a Regime of Biopolitics Emergency as an Assault on Traditions of Humiliation Feminising the Narrative of Partition The Foundational Violence of Partition The Descriptive Register of Violence: When is the Body in Pain? The Juridical Register of Violence: When is the Infliction of Pain Unjust? Thinking is a Paired Concept Lapsarian Violence versus Structural Violence Making Sense/Making Meaning A Word on Populism Between Reformism and Revolutionary Violence: Balagopal’s Thought
9. Marx, Law, and Justice Experience of Reading Marx Force of Phrases and Force without Phrases Idea of Rule of Law Poulantzas and a Theory of the State State and Regime The Scientific Marx and the Activist Marx Marx and Re-enchanting the World Why Should We Engage with Marx Today?
10. Constitutionalism, Human Rights Activism, and Their Futures Essentialising the ‘Human’ in Human Rights Gandhi and the Indian Constitution Governance, Legality, and Constitutionalism Seven Types of Constitutions and Three Forms of Constitutionalism Invention of C3: Mathura Open Letter Invention of C3: Social Action Litigation Blasphemy and Constitutional Love The Future of Human Rights Justice without Borders?
11. The Sociology of Indian Law Indian Legal Theory Indian Legal Historiography: A History of the Writing of Legal History Moving Beyond Legal History as Institutional History Sociology of Indian Law The Names of History The Types of History Law and Technology Genetic Activism and the Second Open Letter
12. Social Action Litigation, Judicial Accountability, and Bhopal Teachers, Students, Activists Responsible and Self-Reflexive Activism Epistolary and Bibliophilic Litigation The Phases of SAL: From the Charismatic to the Routine The Impact of SAL Judicial Accountability Civility and Protest The ‘Deep Mystery’ of Bhopal Settlement? An Excess of Love
13. Vice-Chancellorship and the Mandal Years Warwick Activism Oversleeping is a Crime against Humanity Feudalism and Academic Power Emergency Powers Mandal Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna A Russian Toast Concluding Thoughts on University Systems
14. Human Rights: Teaching, Education, and Theory Curricularisation of Human Rights The Jurisprudence of Human Rights Pedagogic Experiments Mimesis and Originality in Human Rights Thinking Epistemic Humility in Promoting Human Rights Cultures Against Epistemic Racism Normative Expectations and the Struggle against Injustice
References Index