Project title

Legalizing Sovereignty in South Asian Constitutionalism

Project description

Across the world, authoritarian and nationalist movements are claiming political power not by suspending constitutions but by working through them, translating their ideologies into the language of constitutionalism itself. Nowhere is this more visible than in contemporary South Asia, where the ethno-nationalist movement of Hindutva in India and the religious movement of Islamism in Pakistan have instrumentalised constitutional democracy to entrench their visions of law and sovereignty, despite having been at odds with the founding principles of both states.

Moiz Tundawala investigates this paradox by situating himself at the intersection of constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, and the history of political thought. He asks why Hindutva and Islamism, both historically averse to liberal constitutionalism, have chosen to work within constitutional frameworks rather than declare a state of exception; how juridical discourses and practices in India and Pakistan have accommodated these anti-constitutionalist forces; and what this reveals about the relationship between law and sovereignty in the current age of authoritarian populism. Drawing on the key texts of Hindu and Muslim constitutional thought, including the writings of V.D. Savarkar and Abul A’la Maududi, alongside constitutional debates, statutory enactments, and judicial decisions, he weaves together South Asian legal thought and juridical practice into a broader framework for understanding the conflict between constitutionalism and sovereignty in the modern world.

Selected publications

  • “Sovereignty Before Law.” Global Intellectual History (2023). (co-authored)
  • “Beyond Friend and Enemy: The Stranger as a Political Category in Colonial Modernity.” Indian Yearbook of Comparative Law (2023). (co-authored)
  • “A Case for Humanistic Theory.” Economic and Political Weekly 58:39 (2023): 69–72. (co-authored)
  • “Ambedkar’s Dhamma: A Counter-theology of Law for Indian Political Thought“, Political Theology 23:1–2 (2021)
  • “Ambedkar’s Liberty Concept in Comparative Constitutional Thought.” Indian Yearbook of Comparative Law (2016). (co-authored)
  • “On India’s Postcolonial Engagement with the Rule of Law”, NUJS Law Review, Volume 6, Issue 1, 11-37 (2013).
  • “Dignity – Post Script” in Mahendra P. Singh (ed.), Comparative Constitutional Law (Eastern Book Company: Lucknow) (2011).
  • “Invocation of Strict Scrutiny in India: Why the Opposition?”, NUJS Law Review, Volume 3, Issue 3, 465-483 (2010).
  • “Constitution: Amended it Stands?”, NUJS Law Review, Volume 1, 533-46 (with Souvik Kumar Guha) (2008).

 

Book Reviews

  • “What Happens to the National and Secular in India’s Communal Constitution.” World Comparative Law (October 2025)
  • “Why Not to Call the Constitution Colonial.” The NLS Blog (January 2024) 
  • “MP Singh and Niraj Kumar (eds), Indian Legal System. OUP, 2019.” Asian Journal of Comparative Law 15:2 (2020): 402–5

 

Accepted and Forthcoming

  • “The Ambivalence of Postcolonial Constitutional Theory.” Indian Law Review (forthcoming)
  • “Constituent Power Between Pluralism and Identity.” In Cambridge Handbook on Constituent Power and its Limits, eds. Raffael Fasel and Lars Vinx. Cambridge University Press (2026)
  • “The Foreignness of Law in India’s Constitutional Imagination.” In India at its Limits, ed. Atreyee Majumdar. Bloomsbury Academic (2026)