16: The Constitution at 70
On January 26, India marked the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution. The text represents the audaciousness of the drafters - for they dared to dream of a democracy with universal adult franchise and fundamental rights for citizens in a society which was deeply divided on identity lines and was marked by poverty and illiteracy. What drove them? How has the Constitution fared since? To discuss this, Madhav Khosla - who teaches at Columbia and Ashoka Universities and is the author of a remarkable new book, India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy - joins this edition of The Big Picture.