The Wheel of Law
India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
Ashoka's Wheel
IN 1994 THE United States Supreme Court considered the case of Gregory Johnson,
a young man whose fiery protest against the policies of the American government
became an occasion for reflection on the symbolic significance of the American
flag. The only thing that was certain about Johnson's defiant actions outside
the 1984 Republican Convention, however, was that a cloth representation of
some aspect of American identity was incinerated in front of a number of
passersby, including several who were visibly outraged. Concerning the larger
meaning of what was consumed in the flames that leapt from a Dallas, Texas,
sidewalk, much was left in doubt.
For some, including Justices William Rehnquist and John Paul Stevens,
dissenters in Texas v Johnson, the flag was emblematic of American
nationhood and national unity; its desecration was therefore actionable
regardless of any message Johnson may have intended to communicate thr ... read full excerpt from The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context ebook
