John Rawls's Theory of Distributive Justice in India: Historical Adoption, Constitutional Embodiment, and Post-Liberalization Relevance

Abstract

This article examines the reception, embodiment, and contemporary relevance of John Rawls's theory of distributive justice within the Indian polity. It argues that the foundational architecture of the Indian Constitution, particularly through its Directive Principles of State Policy, implicitly adopts the core structure of Rawls's Justice as Fairness, including the lexical priority of liberty and the Difference Principle. The post-independence state's socialist-welfarist model (1950-1990) operationalized these principles through structural interventions like land reforms and bank nationalization, aligning with Rawls's preference for a Property-Owning Democracy over Welfare-State Capitalism. However, the 1991 economic liberalization marked a philosophical regression towards a Nozickian minimal state, jeopardizing constitutional distributive commitments. The Indian context, defined by ascriptive caste inequality, necessitated an adaptation of Rawlsian principles, evident in affirmative action policies refined by the judicial "creamy layer" doctrine to better target the "least advantaged." Despite neoliberal challenges, Rawls's framework remains an indispensable normative standard for evaluating policy and guiding structural reforms—such as wealth redistribution and data-driven welfare targeting—to fulfill India's enduring constitutional promise of social and economic justice.