DURING THE SITTING of the ceremonial bench for the former Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’) B.R. Gavai, the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, said, addressing CJI Gavai, “After your taking over and with Justice Surya Kant, a fresh breeze of Indianness in our Jurisprudence has started flowing in.”
In response to that, CJI Gavai stated that in the Presidential Reference case on the Powers of the Governor and President, the Constitution Bench had chosen to employ a ‘Swadeshi’ interpretation and did not rely on a single foreign judgment. The same week on which the former Chief Justice spoke of a ‘Swadeshi’ Jurisprudence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivering the Sixth Ramnath Goenka Lecture, spoke of a national pledge “to free ourselves from the colonial mindset” in the next ten years.
This could be merely a coincidence. But history teaches us that even coincidences have historical contexts. In this case, the necessary context lies in the many manifestations of decolonization. A silent battle is being waged for the meaning and soul of decolonization in India.
