The framing of India’s constitution was a critical event in the global history of both constitution-making and democracy. Conventionally it has been analysed as a founding moment. Its success against multiple odds has been explained as resulting from a vision and consensus among the elite over what would become a pedagogical text for an ‘ignorant’ and undemocratic public. This focus among academics on political elites, and an underlying assumption that constitutional details were beyond the public’s imagination, limited the scope of investigations largely to the Constituent Assembly debates. By directing the inquiry away from these debates towards hitherto unstudied documents, this article offers a paradigm shift in the method of research and understanding of India’s constitution-­making. It explores the constitution as it emerged from beyond the Constituent Assembly through engagement with its making among diverse publics. In doing so, it shows that the Indian constitution was not simply founded and granted from above, but came about through many smaller acts of assembly away from the Constitution Hall. It was the public who set normative expectations and tried to educate the members of the Constituent Assembly, and this was critical for the constitution’s future reception and endurance.

中文翻译：

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制定印度宪法：迈向新历史

印度宪法的制定是全球制宪和民主史上的一个关键事件。按照惯例，它被分析为一个创始时刻。它克服多重困难的成功被解释为精英之间的愿景和共识的结果，即什么将成为“无知”和不民主的公众的教学文本。学术界对政治精英的关注，以及宪法细节超出公众想象的潜在假设，将调查范围主要限制在制宪会议的辩论中。通过将调查从这些辩论转向迄今未研究的文件，本文提供了研究和理解印度制宪方法的范式转变。它通过参与不同公众的制定来探索制宪会议之外出现的宪法。这样做表明，印度宪法并非简单地由上而下制定和授予，而是通过宪法大厅以外的许多较小的集会行为产生的。正是公众设定了规范性期望并试图教育制宪会议的成员，这对于宪法未来的接受度和持久力至关重要。