Constitution of India’s Secular Credentials
This talk will be moderated by Alok Prasanna Kumar of Vidhi
While “secularism” remains present in the Preamble of the Constitution, as a principle, it has been tested in the past, and continues to be tested today. The 75th year of India’s independence provides an opportune moment to articulate and identify challenges to the idea of secularism, and develop an evolved vision of what it ought to mean. There is a need today, to be able to get across to the citizen the peculiarity of Indian secularism, and how that interacts with religious freedoms of both individuals as well as communities.
Kalpana Kannabiran
A Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi. Based in Hyderabad, she works and writes in the areas of gender studies, human rights, law, the constitution, indigenous rights and pluralism, among others. Recipient of the prestigious VKRV Rao prize for social science research in 2003 and the Amartya Sen Award for Distinguished Social Scientists in 2012, she has been a freelance human rights columnist since 2000, and has been a frequent contributor to The Hindu. Among her publications are ‘Tools of Justice: Non Discrimination and the Indian Constitution’ (Routledge 2012), ‘Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy: A Feminist Re-Reading of Puttaswamy vs Union of India’ (Zubaan 2021) and ‘Law, Justice and Human Rights: Short Reflections’ (OBS 2021 – with a foreword by Anand Teltumbde). Most recently she received the 2022 Impact Award from the International Network of Genocide Scholars and the Indira Gandhi Memorial Lectureship, 2021 from Asiatic Society, Kolkata.
Alok Prasanna Kumar
Alok Prasanna Kumar is Co-Founder and Lead of Vidhi Karnataka. His areas of research include Constitutional Law, urban development and law and technology. A graduate of NALSAR, Hyderabad, he has practiced in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi.
