Online Lecture Series on Constitutional Struggles for Equality in the United States and India

The Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair on Constitutional Law and Social Inclusion at NALSAR University of Law organised a five-part online lecture series titled “Constitutional Struggles for Equality: The American Experience and Contemporary Indian Debates.” The series brought together Professor Michael J. Klarman, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Dr. Anurag Bhaskar, Adjunct Professor of Law and Faculty Coordinator of the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair at NALSAR. 

Professor Klarman delivered five lectures examining the American constitutional experience, including slavery and the making of the United States Constitution, the Reconstruction Amendments, the entrenchment of white supremacy, the civil rights movement, Brown v. Board of Education, affirmative action, voting rights, gerrymandering and contemporary debates concerning voter suppression. 

Dr. Bhaskar offered comparative reflections from the Indian constitutional perspective. He examined the influence of the American civil rights struggle on the Indian Constituent Assembly, and contemporary Indian debates concerning equality, affirmative action and democracy. The lecture series witnessed enthusiastic participation from students, who raised thought-provoking questions on constitutional design, racial and caste inequality, affirmative action, judicial intervention, voting rights, and the continuing struggle to secure substantive equality. 

This first-of-its-kind initiative of the Ambedkar Chair placed the civil rights struggles of the United States and India in conversation with one another. It enabled students to examine how constitutional systems respond to entrenched structures of exclusion and how movements for equality have shaped constitutional interpretation and democratic institutions across jurisdictions.