Directive Principle and the Expressive Accommodation of Ideological Dissenters in the Indian Constitution

This presentation will argue, using India as a case study, that constitutional directives can be a useful tool for the expressive accommodation of ideological dissenters who would otherwise lose out in constitutional negotiation in deeply divided soceities. The strategy of expressive accommodation was tempered in the Indian case through containment and constitutional incrementalism. A calibrated expressive accommodation of ideological dissenters can give them enough (and  genuine) hope of future victories to keep them on board, without going so far that the majority rejects the accommodation or their ideological opponents in turn leave the constitutional negotiation table. By focussing on the accommodational needs of ideological dissenters this paper adds to existing literature on constitutional consensus building techniques which has largely focussed on political insurance for ethnocultural minorities.