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Comment by vmception | Hacker News Reader

My only rebuttal to this, and I don't know much about it and am only an outside observer from America, is that India has amended its constitution 104 times since 1951.

So from my perspective, anything can happen. Obviously if certain topics just don't have consensus due to the culture, then it won't, but that's my observation.

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> is that India has amended its constitution 104 times since 1951. So from my perspective, anything can happen.

This is unfortunately very true. India's states derive power from the Union, and not the other way round. And the dominance of a single political party at the federal and state level during certain phases has made it relatively easy to subvert and amend democratic safeguards in the constitution.

For those curious, India's first amendment to the constitution allowed legislators to make "reasonable" restrictions on free speech after some sections of the media started criticising the newly elected government of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister [1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_of_the_Constit...

Slightly off the topic, but from my limited knowledge, I think that amending the constitution is not as big a deal in parliamentary democracies as it is in the US. The UK doesn’t even have a codified constitution[1]. These living constitutions are much more flexible.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...

I seriously doubt that .. Land and house are "sacred" in India .. It is next to Gods in a way .. People worship their houses , to bring such a change is near to impossible

Sure thing , can happen (from federal or state). We had a communist reform in my state where implementation of the land act transferred land rights to the tillers in the 50's. So it is possible with an act of parliament or state law. Is that going to be simple to enact such a thing , absolutely doubt it.

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