Oct 18 2025 to Oct 18 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

The Constitution promises freedom, but really,  how free are we under its design?

In 2025, India’s Constitution turned seventy-five: a remarkable testament to endurance and adaptability. Yet, beneath its promise of liberty lies a constant negotiation of power. Gautam Bhatia examines the Constitution not just as a legal document, but as a dynamic terrain where visions of authority clash, intersect, and contend for supremacy.

Central to this story is the drift toward centralisation: power increasingly concentrated in the union executive. While certain elements of this concentration are embedded in the Constitution’s design, landmark Supreme Court judgments have, at key moments, accelerated the trend. This talk explores how these structures shape, channel, and sometimes constrain the possibilities for emancipation.

Through a careful reading of the Constitution’s text, history, and interpretations, Bhatia sheds light on the subtle (and often contested) mechanisms that govern India’s democracy.

A Q&A will follow, giving audiences a chance to engage with these questions of power, freedom, and the ongoing relevance of India’s constitutional experiment.

The Vijay Nambisan Trust:
The Vijay Nambisan Trust was formed to perpetuate the cause of Humanities in its many spheres. The Vijay Memorial Lecture to be held every year is the first event to be sponsored by the Trust in partnership with the Bangalore International Centre.

About Vijay Nambisan:
One of the best poet-writers of his generation, Vijay Nambisan is known as much for his poetry and prose, as he is for his reclusiveness. He dropped out of IIT Madras in his fourth year of engineering to pursue his love for the written word. He won the first All India British Council Poetry Prize in 1988, worked for a number of years in the literary section of The Hindu and published collections of poetry and prose in his inimitable style. He was married to surgeon and novelist, Kavery Nambisan.

Speaker

Gautam Bhatia
Constitutional Lawyer & Scholar
Gautam Bhatia is a constitutional lawyer and scholar whose work bridges rigorous legal analysis and imaginative inquiry. He has argued in landmark cases, including challenges to the abrogation of Article 370, the electoral bonds case, and the right to privacy case. He is the author of The Transformative Constitution (2019), Unsealed Covers (2023), and The Indian Constitution: A Conversation with Power (2025). Beyond law, Gautam writes science fiction, exploring society, governance, and human possibility with the same depth and creativity he brings to the courtroom.