Scholarly Inauguration Of New Genre Of Biography | Vijay Kumar

BOOK REVIEW

Of Law And Life
by Upendra Baxi

in conversation with
Arvind Narrain, Lawrence Liang, Sitharamam Kakarala, Sruti Chaganti

Orient BlackSwan
2024
Pages 582 | Price Rs.2300/-

The Book: OF LAW AND LIFE: Upendra Baxi in conversation with Arvind Narrain, Lawrence Liang, Sitharamam Kakarala, Sruti Chaganti is a unique book. It has inaugurated radically new genre which straddles rich and varied forms. It is certainly not an autobiography; but it is not biography either. The four interlocutors records the memory down lane in lockstep with the exposition of Prof. Baxi on issues ranging from activism and protest against injustice to human rights to constitutionalism and jurisprudence.

The scholar’s works reveal only theoretical and conceptual exegesis of the person; the passion and fire that engenders academic accomplishment remains unknown. The energy and afflatus that informs the works can be discovered only through sketching of life of scholar. The interlocutors, in the beginning of the introduction itself, quoted Edward Said saying that “many ways, interviews are sustained act of discovery, not only for the person being interviewed but for even for well-prepared interviewer†(page 4). The interviewers further write in introduction that reading opens out the world beyond one’s direct experience (page 9). The interlocutors also describe in the introduction that “for Upen, a proper and adequate understanding of law requires an understanding of law both as a doctrine and as a lived experience†and “his approach to law in context is distinct in at least three important ways. First, inter-disciplinarity that his work presents is diverse; the second approach that defines his approach to law-in-context is his fascination with unique colonial experience of making law and the subject of law. The third dimension is grounded approach to analyzing the law’s lived experience in the global south.†(page 31).

The reminiscence of the lives brings to the fore instructive and visceral sense of protest of Prof. Baxi against sufferings and injustice. He joined the student’s protest against Vietnam War in Berkley University and the treatment of aboriginal in Australia. He played a pivotal role in inauguration of social action litigations by bringing the plight of suffering people to the notice of the Supreme Court. His protest against Bhopal Settlement is well known and needs to be recapitulated only for young generations. No wonder, William Twining describes Baxi as a protest theorist (page 29). Here the prescription of Prof. Baxi for representing the deprived people by ‘speaking with’ rather than ‘speaking fo’ on their behalf underscores his deep seated empathy with the sufferings of disadvantaged groups.

The range of discussions of Prof. Baxi in conversation with interlocutors is mind-bogglingly capacious. He dwells upon from human rights to constitutionalism to legal education. Prof. Baxi is not merely a constitutional scholar and exponent of jurisprudence, but he is simultaneously sociologist, political thinker, philosopher, activist and litterateur.

Some of his comments expressed in the Book under review may be familiar to those who have been reading his writing from long time. Yet, reiteration and summing up bewilderingly vast horizon of his jurisprudential corpus and linking it with contemporary ethos lend it with the essence of topicality. He stresses the importance of solidarity and describes it as an outcome of collectivization of energy (page 186). His notion of three-fold aspects of the Constitution as a text (C1), as interpretation (C2), and as a constitutionalism (C3) is well-known to Baxi’s readers. Prof. Baxi quotes Judith shklar to the effect that “rules is merely not a technical or mechanical matter, but is an ethical issue†(page 207). There is a discussion on thick and thin conception of right (pages 288-292). For Baxi, reading is an act of ‘manthan’ (churning). He quotes Derrida and Marx that “act of reading results in tracing unsaid in what get said†(page 308). For him, constitutionalism is a relationship between four Ideas : Rights, Justice, Governance and Development (page 325). He continues with assertion that overwhelming number of words in the Indian Constitution is devoted to governance compared to rights (page 326). He further relies on Sanford Levinson that “constitutionalism is a civic religion†(page 346). This is in a way consonance with the theory of ‘Constitutional Patriotism’ by Jurgen Habermus. Continuing in similar vein, Baxi argues that “principle function of legal education is the production of soldier of constitutional justice†(page 479).
Ever since his erudite critique of Golak Nath judgment in his prolix monographs: “Little done undone vast†, Prof.Baxi till he became Vice Chancellor of Delhi University in 1990, was the unrivaled critique of leading judgments of the Supreme Court and the implications surrounding it in 70’s and 80’s. The interviewers rightly write that “this issue of communicating the constitutional implications of a judgment is really about transmitting the social meaning of the Constitution and, in effect, fostering a constitutional consciousness founded on a respect for the inherent dignity of the human person†(page 24). It is this principled and scholarly critique of the Supreme Court judgment that established Prof. Baxi’s identity beyond the legal circle. But this practice considerably reduced when he became Vice Chancellor, and thereafter, when he went to Warwick. Prof. Baxi played a critical role, both as activist and scholar of the Supreme Court in post emergency phase in transformation, to borrow his own words, the Supreme Court of India into Supreme Court for Indians. There are many perceptive observers, including constitutional scholars, lawyers and other intellectuals, inside and outside the country, who have been maintaining that the Supreme Court has failed to interrogate the majoritarianism in the teeth of constitutional philosophy and silence of Prof. Baxi is puzzling. He has not critiqued either the majoritarian government or the Supreme Court. This aspect was not a part of the interview by the interlocutors, perhaps, because the interview was recorded in 2008, much before the advent of hegemony of ethno-religio politics since 2014.

It is true that identity politics, while concurring with Prof. Bhikhu Parekh, was excoriated by him in the Book under review (page 158), but it is fleabite in comparison to magnitude of this menace in present time. Prof. Baxi, however, spoke that civilization has been hijacked by the right wing groups for the purpose of ethnic solidarity in the service of oligarchy and endangering pluralism and diversity that has resulted in exclusion of others, particularly minorities (page 159). He further emphasizes that speaking with the people gives us different kinds of identity, whereas speaking for the people gives us identity politics (page 198).

Prof. Baxi has been a passionate and committed advocate for ‘Global South’, and has represented it’s interest in every possible fora. This significant aspect, too, is duly and deservedly covered in book under review.
That rich and varied conversation presented in the Book under review is at once descriptive and prescriptive. The growth of life trajectory is naturally descriptive, whereas his conception is prescriptive. As an exponent of jurisprudence, Prof.Baxi always believes in ‘ought’ and bending the law to further justice. His observation on power and influence is extremely useful. Power carries with it all the time its own vulnerability, whereas scholar can provide leadership through influence which is more lasting.

Great scholar’s life cannot be detached from his philosophy. In course of taking trip down memory lane, Prof.Baxi, through conversation with four interlocutors, enlightens us on the issues that are topical and that will confront the human minds in future. The summing up of book under review can most appropriately be wrapped up by series editors in their conclusions that “OF LAW AND LIFE Upendra Baxi in conversation with Arvind Narrain, Lawrence Liang, Sitharamam Kakarala, Sruti Chaganti is an epic re-telling : of a life of a person as much as it is of nation, a saga of India’s post independent legal history told from within†.

(Author: Vijay Kumar, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court Of India The Author Of Recent Book: “The Theory Of Basic Structure Saviour Of The Constitution And Democracy†)