The chapter explores the Indian public’s proactive efforts to participate and insert themselves into the constitution-making process. This ran against the accepted wisdom at the time, which held that constitutions should be crafted by mature political elites and constitutional experts behind closed doors. Their insistence on having a say ultimately forced the Constituent Assembly to incorporate the public into its chambers and procedures, and it turned the constitution-making process into an open public affair. Newspapers, magazines, and radio programmes closely tracked the constitution-making process, and the draft constitution became a bestseller. The Indian public acted as unsolicited citizens, as sovereign-subjects, in their pursuit of their constitutional visions and aspirations. Even before the constitution arrived, the Indian public was busy working out its potential implications for their lives. Indians claimed ownership of the constitution, suggested amendments, translated it into vernacular languages, and they held the central and provincial governments to account on its basis. They, thus, legitimated the constitution even while it was being made.

During a negotiation, there is seldom the time or capacity for parties to reach a full and complete agreement on a comprehensive legal framework for postconflict governance. Instead, the parties often agree to a preliminary set of principles coupled with a general governing framework.They then set forth an agreed process for negotiating, designing, and implementing a national dialogue, the drafting or amending of a constitution, and elections. This chapter explores the puzzle of whether and how to address constitutional modification during peace negotiations in a manner that promotes a durable peace. It reviews the peace processes related to conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, East Timor, Guatemala, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Somalia, South Africa, Syria, and Yemen to explore whether and how to address constitutional modification during the peace process; the timing of determining and executing a postconflict constitution-drafting process; whether to draft an interim constitution; whether to accomplish constitutional reform through amendments or by drafting a full constitution; how to approve and finalize constitutional modifications; and whether and how to incorporate issues of human rights.