Secularism, Democracy, Justice Implications of Rawlsian Principles in India

Secularism, Democracy, Justice undertakes the difficult task of applying to the Indian context the principles elaborated in John Rawl's Theory of Justice (1971). Nalini Rajan relies largely on Kantian notions of rationality and universality to combine a philosophical analysis of the Rawlsian framework with a defence of certain kinds of state policies in India. She discusses: secularism and the rationale for a uniform civil code; the necessity for greater democratic participation as well as its limits; the importance of positive discrimination to combat social backwardness; and the role of the self and of universality in realizing human agency.