the more I thought about his (K G Kannabiran) work and reflected on it and immersed myself in his arguments and his notes, the more I realised that what I was trying to understand was indeed “the Speaking Constitution” – not just a black letter text, but one that was guided by the most expansive idea of justice in the here and now, from case to case, in every court and with every government...The institutional collapse, the climate of capitulation, mob violence on the streets and criminal intimidation is so overpowering and real that it requires enormous collective courage and commitment to turn the tide. There was an undermining of constitutional values in the past as well; this is not the first time. The Speaking Constitution has several instances of state violence and arbitrariness. But there was the space to organise and resist. ..
.. the rise in the theocratic framework in constitutional jurisprudence under the current political regime and the steady normalisation of Hindu majoritarianism in the Bar and Bench, as Professor Mohan Gopal pointed out in a recent lecture, is particularly cause for concern. And when it is accompanied by state power that pushes towards the establishment of a Hindu rashtra, the touchstone of constitutionalism fades from view. It is not only the case of the higher judiciary. I think one of the key points Kannabiran makes in The Speaking Constitution is that courts of every jurisdiction have acted both to enforce the Constitution and to undermine it. ..
