This book provides an overview of the Indian Constitution by situating it within its larger socio-political context. It focuses on the overarching principles and the main institutions of constitutional governance that the world's longest written constitution inaugurated in 1950. The nine chapters of the book address the following topics: the pre-history of the constitution and its making; the structural features and actual operation of principal governance institutions including the executive and the parliament, the institutions of federalism and local government, the judiciary, and the set...