Books by Harshan Kumarasingham
Cambridge University Press, 2023
Featuring contributions from leading scholars of history, law and politics, this path-breaking wo... more Featuring contributions from leading scholars of history, law and politics, this path-breaking work traces the development of the United Kingdom's constitution from Anglo-Saxon times and explores its role in the creation, exercise and control of public power. Chapters in Volume One, entitled 'Exploring the Constitution', approach the constitution and its history from various scholarly perspectives, and provide historically sensitive discussions of constitutional actors and institutions, and transformations of the constitution. Essays in Volume Two, entitled 'The Changing Constitution' examine the development of the constitution from the departure of the Romans up to the present day and beyond. This is the first, wide-ranging history of the constitution to be published for decades. By its cross-disciplinary approach, taking account of the latest legal, political and historical scholarship on the constitution, it fills a large gap in the literature of the constitution, and in political thought and British history.
Deepens understanding of the constitution as a legal, historical and political phenomenon, by bringing together perspectives of scholars of law, history and politics
Combines chronological accounts of the development of the constitution with thematic essays on various aspects of the constitution
The first wide-ranging account of United Kingdom's constitutional history to be published for more than fifty years
Explores the role and powers of the Crown during political crises in both the United Kingdom and... more Explores the role and powers of the Crown during political crises in both the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Chapters cover a range of states from almost every continent, united by their shared legacy of British colonialism and monarchical intervention in local politics Contributes to growing debate about the meanings and implications of the royal prerogative, highlighting the relevance of this historical research to crises of government in modern politics This book examines how the Crown has performed as Head of State across the UK and post war Commonwealth during times of political crisis. It explores the little-known relationships, powers and imperial legacies regarding modern heads of state in parliamentary regimes where so many decisions occur without parliamentary or public scrutiny. This original study highlights how the Queen's position has been replicated across continents with surprising results. It also shows the topicality and contemporary relevance of this historical research to interpret and understand crises of governance and the enduring legacy of monarchy and colonialism to modern politics. This collection uniquely brings together a diverse set of states including specific chapters on England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Brunei, Ghana,
Centre for Policy Alternatives (Colombo), 2019
As the first Ceylonese to be President of the local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1916, ... more As the first Ceylonese to be President of the local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1916, he sought, perhaps mindful of the ethos of the Athenaeum Club in London of which he was a long-time member, to encourage discussion, exchange, and the promotion of literary and scholarly excellence among the leaders of society. Just as Arunachalam in Cambridge or London never became a 'brown sahib' that digested Western ideas and styles unquestionably and over-enthusiastically, nor was he in Ceylon beguiled by Eastern philosophy and traditions to such a degree that other influences were not welcome. As Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer commented after Arunachalam's death, his mind had 'embedded in it much original thought' as someone 'to whom Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Tamil literature were equally open books'. * To this list Sinhala traditions and texts can also be added. Arunachalam was especially interested in the ancient 'great chronicle' the Mahavamsa, and also had the skill to see how the legend of King Vijaya recalled the adventures and life of Ulysses in the
Constitution Maker - Selected Writings of Sir Ivor Jennings
Sir Ivor Jennings (1903-65), Downing Professor of Law at Cambridge, was one of the 20th century's... more Sir Ivor Jennings (1903-65), Downing Professor of Law at Cambridge, was one of the 20th century's most famous and significant constitutional scholars and the author of numerous well-known texts. Beyond his prestigious roles in Britain, Jennings was also very influential internationally as an advisor on constitutional questions between the 1940s and 60s. This volume brings together for the first time previously unpublished letters, memoranda, diaries and confidential evaluations of constitutional issues, political elites and critical events in territories including Ceylon, Ethiopia, Gibraltar India, Malta, Malaya, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Rhodesia, Singapore, South Africa and Sudan. Also included are Jennings’ candid and forthright assessments on Britain's constitutional influence abroad and his direct experience of constitution making. The introduction provides a guide to this English Professor's remarkable international role and his scholarly value. This collection sheds light not only on Jennings' work and influence, but also on British ideas about democracy and on institutions across the globe during the climactic era of decolonisation.
A Political Legacy of the British Empire - Power and the Parliamentary System in Post-Colonial India and Sri Lanka
""As the British Empire receded, India and Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, preserved the ‘Westmi... more ""As the British Empire receded, India and Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, preserved the ‘Westminster’ political system left by their colonial rulers. Both South Asian countries became independent in the late 1940s, though in widely differing styles: India fought a violent campaign of mass political activism and would become a republic, while Sri Lanka negotiated independence by a gentlemen’s agreement among the indigenous elite and remained a realm. Both nations adopted the ‘Westminster’ political system of their colonial master, producing results and reactions that would shape each country profoundly.
Harshan Kumarasingham analyses the crucial first decade of independence, assessing the events, decisions and political environment of these ‘Eastminsters’.The impact of cultural conditions on the constitutional and political exercise of executive power gives an invaluable insight into how the ambiguous and flexible tenets of the Westminster system were interpreted in a local context, where the Western-educated elites were often at variance with the masses.The principles of cabinet government are explored to examine how successfully the purported checks and balances of the Westminster model operated in this crucial nation-building era, along with the critical role of political figures like Prime Ministers Nehru and Bandaranaike.This period also witnessed the early challenges of forging a modern state with major ethnic, linguistic, religious, class-based and regional tensions, which both India and Sri Lanka still wrestle with.
The adaptable Westminster system was an essential element in the political development of these South Asian nations. Understanding the legacy and influence of the Westminster system allows the reader to fully understand the politics, institutions and society of today’s India and Sri Lanka."
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Eastminster - The Westminster System in India and Sri Lanka
2. Mixed Messages? India's Responses to its British Legacy
3. The Indian Version of First Among Equals - The Battle for Executive
Ascendency
4. Indian Federalism - A Paramount Mechanism
5. 'Think of Ceylon as a little bit of England' - Sri Lanka and the British
Legacy
6. Unconventional Conventions - Power Partnerships in the Sri Lankan
Executive
7. Sri Lankan Communalism - A 'Canker' Ignored?
8. India and Sri Lanka's Eastminsters Compared
9. Conclusion
‘Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, this book presents an
interesting comparative discussion on how the Westminster system has worked
in India and Sri Lanka... Not much has been written so far on the political
history of these two nations in the early years of independence and this
book fills a major gap in the historical literature on decolonization in
South Asia.’
– PROFESSOR SEKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY, Victoria University of Wellington
‘This fine book deepens our understanding of what happens to the
Westminster model when it travels east... Harshan Kumarasingham has a gift
for making complex, exotic material intelligible and compelling to non-
specialists. I say this with conviction as a South Asia specialist, since
the story of ‘Eastminster’ in that region contains especially complex,
unfamiliar features which Kumarasingham understands and brilliantly
conveys. – PROFESSOR JAMES MANOR, University of London
‘An important and timely book...This book will be of enormous interest to
students and scholars with a comparative interest in decolonization,
democracy and the post-colonial state. It will also be of great value in
informing contemporary debates about how democracy in the Commonwealth can
best be nurtured and sustained.’
– PROFESSOR PHILIP MURPHY, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of
London
‘This is the first book to compare India’s and Sri Lanka’s experience of
the Westminster system, and how they reshaped their British parliamentary
legacy. Kumarasingham’s fascinating account will be of keen interest to
students of history, politics and constitutions.’
– PROFESSOR ROBERT HAZELL, CBE, University College London
Onward with Executive Power – Lessons from New Zealand 1947-57 includes new and exciting research... more Onward with Executive Power – Lessons from New Zealand 1947-57 includes new and exciting research on constitutional, political and policy developments during the late 1940s and 1950s, a critical stage in the evolution of New Zealand as a modern, independent state. The period was characterized by a significant evolution in New Zealand's relationship with Britain, the passing of the Statute of Westminster, the first transfer of power between Labour and National, the strong leadership styles of Fraser and Holland, the abolition of the Legislative Council, a landmark waterfront strike, and an ambivalent attitude towards full national independence. Importantly, too, the period had major ramifications for the conduct of politics during the remainder of the century, certainly until the recent era of proportional representation. In particular, it underscored and entrenched the 'elected dictatorship' available to post-war prime ministers and single-party governments. Onward assesses the lessons of the Fraser-Holland era for contemporary New Zealand politics and highlights how many of the central issues of the immediate post-war years remain with us and are still unresolved.
Papers by Harshan Kumarasingham
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2020
This article assesses the role and powers of the Queen as Head of State during the political cris... more This article assesses the role and powers of the Queen as Head of State during the political crises surrounding Brexit and the prorogation of parliament in 2019. These crises in Westminster highlighted the lack of contemporary awareness of the Queen's constitutional capacities and constraints in such tense political conditions. A consequence of this was widespread confusion and ignorance regarding the use of the prerogative powers by both the Queen as Head of State and the Prime Minister as Head of Government. It seeks to show the importance of understanding the Queen's position as a political actor rather than a purely ceremonial one by drawing on modern British and Commonwealth history.
Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2022
This article examines the constitutional nature of the Malaysian monarchies in their social conte... more This article examines the constitutional nature of the Malaysian monarchies in their social context. We discuss the evolution of the monarchies through pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history, and account for their survival despite several attempts to curb their powers, including restriction of the royal assent and sovereign immunity. It is argued that the powers of the monarchies respond to their historical role and social embeddedness of the monarchies, stretching the role of the Rulers beyond the Westminster norms as set out in constitutional texts. Moving to contemporary issues, we see the assertion of the right to uphold the Constitution in relation to prime-ministerial appointments, and acting on advice. Here, the monarchies reflect a braiding of both traditional elements and Westminster constitutional norms.
Indian Summer or Conservative Winter? Churchill’s Final Fall from Power
The Cambridge Companion to Winston Churchill, 2023
This chapter is concerned with the last period of Churchill’s premiership and leadership of the C... more This chapter is concerned with the last period of Churchill’s premiership and leadership of the Conservative Party. It focusses not just on the last part of his ‘Indian summer’ when back in office but also on the tempestuous moves and motives of the Conservatives to compel his retirement in an age before party leadership elections. It also examines Churchill’s manoeuvres to frustrate these ambitions and continue in power. While many studies have examined how British politicians gain the leadership of political parties, there has been less analysis of their inevitable fall. The chapter is written primarily from the Conservative perspective since, until the 1965 Douglas-Home Rules which established leadership elections and procedures, so-called customary processes existed to enable, largely without public knowledge (and even beyond the engagement of many Conservative politicians themselves), the emergence, and removal, of leaders ‘for the good of the party’.
The Malay Monarchies in Constitutional and Social Conception
Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2022
This article examines the constitutional nature of the Malaysian monarchies in their social conte... more This article examines the constitutional nature of the Malaysian monarchies in their social context. We discuss the evolution of the monarchies through pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history, and account for their survival despite several attempts to curb their powers, including restriction of the royal assent and sovereign immunity. It is argued that the powers of the monarchies respond to their historical role and social embeddedness of the monarchies, stretching the role of the Rulers beyond the Westminster norms as set out in constitutional texts. Moving to contemporary issues, we see the assertion of the right to uphold the Constitution in relation to prime-ministerial appointments, and acting on advice. Here, the monarchies reflect a braiding of both traditional elements and Westminster constitutional norms.
Liberty and the Rule of Law
A Cultural History of Democracy in the Modern Age, 2021
A Foreign Commission for Domestic Needs: The Constitutional Founding of Malaysia
The Role and Powers of the Queen in the 2019 Brexit Political Crises – Reflections from British and Commonwealth History
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2020
This article assesses the role and powers of the Queen as Head of State during the political cris... more This article assesses the role and powers of the Queen as Head of State during the political crises surrounding Brexit and the prorogation of parliament in 2019. These crises in Westminster highlighted the lack of contemporary awareness of the Queen’s constitutional capacities and constraints in such tense political conditions. A consequence of this was widespread confusion and ignorance regarding the use of the prerogative powers by both the Queen as Head of State and the Prime Minister as Head of Government. It seeks to show the importance of understanding the Queen’s position as a political actor rather than a purely ceremonial one by drawing on modern British and Commonwealth history.
UC Irvine Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law , 2017
Across first Asia and then Africa new states rose from colonial rule in the post-war era that sou... more Across first Asia and then Africa new states rose from colonial rule in the post-war era that sought to build New Westminster constitutions. The Westminster model was the transnational trend after 1945 in constitution-making for much of the world emerging from colonial rule and was promoted by the Colonial Office, Indigenous leaders and constitutional advisers such as the ubiquitous Sir Ivor Jennings. However, this flexible and ambiguous regime type caused many political and constitutional crises that questioned the wisdom of applying Westminster to these states. Jennings worked across Africa and Asia including in Ceylon, Nepal, Malaya, Singapore, the Maldives, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Africa, and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. It is Pakistan, however, that sticks out as Jennings’s most controversial role where he effectively, legally and politically, contentiously defended a “constitutional coup” by the Governor- General against the Constituent Assembly in 1954. The case also serves to demonstrate how the manipulation and divisive interpretations of Westminster conventions and institutions in the first decade of Pakistan led to the breakdown of democracy and laid conspicuous precedents for dictatorship and military rule, which have explanatory value in understanding the country’s prevalent fragility in embedding accountability and democracy.
Between Insignificance and Importance: The Commonwealth Headship in Contemporary History
Commonwealth History in the Twenty-First Century, 2020
Liberal Ideals and the Politics of Decolonisation
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2018
Written Differently - A Survey of Commonwealth Constitutional History in the Age of Decolonisation
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2018
This article provides a survey and definition of the field of Commonwealth constitutional history... more This article provides a survey and definition of the field of Commonwealth constitutional history since 1918, especially during and after global decolonisation. It asks what is Commonwealth constitutional history and how it differs from its English and Imperial counterparts. The article puts forward a working definition of Commonwealth constitutional history and introduces key and diverse writers who illustrate the range and potential of this history. The article provides an historiography and survey of constitutional history in the Pre-Commonwealth and Post-war Commonwealth periods while also assessing the opportunities of Post-British Commonwealth constitutional history. The objective of this article is to show how Commonwealth constitutional history can contribute to the historical study of state power and to see its worth to other disciplines and fields of history. Commonwealth constitutional history is a necessity to examine the politics, power and consequences of the British empire during the long age of decolonisation.
The World Today (Chatham House), 2018
Article on the Queen's position as Head of the Commonwealth in Chatham House's The World Today
Rhetoric of the Realm: Monarchy in New Zealand, Political Rhetoric and Adjusting to the End of Empire
Rhetorics of Empire - Languages of Colonial Conflict after 1900 - Edited by Martin Thomas and Richard Toye, Manchester: Manchester Press, 2017
Losing an Empire and Building a Role: The Queen, Geopolitics and the Construction of the Commonwealth Headship at the Lusaka Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, 1979
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2014
The queen’s role as the head of the commonwealth has evolved over the last 60 years. In this arti... more The queen’s role as the head of the commonwealth has evolved over the last 60 years. In this article, we explore the ways in which this position was constructed and negotiated through the queen’s presence (and absence) at commonwealth conferences. Utilising the example of the Lusaka Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979—a highly fraught meeting, the queen’s attendance at which was hotly contested—we examine narratives present in newspaper and oral history accounts surrounding the queen’s role. Placing this event in the context of the broader constitutional and political issues that have sur- rounded the headship since the creation of this ambiguous office in 1949, we explore the competing interpretations of the meaning of head of the commonwealth and the vexed question of who was responsible for advising the queen in this role. We argue that the example of the Lusaka summit shows that, far from being a crowned non-entity, the queen was an active agent, both shaping a constitutional role for herself that was separate from that as British monarch and becoming enrolled in broader geopolitical scripts.
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Books by Harshan Kumarasingham
Deepens understanding of the constitution as a legal, historical and political phenomenon, by bringing together perspectives of scholars of law, history and politics
Combines chronological accounts of the development of the constitution with thematic essays on various aspects of the constitution
The first wide-ranging account of United Kingdom's constitutional history to be published for more than fifty years
Harshan Kumarasingham analyses the crucial first decade of independence, assessing the events, decisions and political environment of these ‘Eastminsters’.The impact of cultural conditions on the constitutional and political exercise of executive power gives an invaluable insight into how the ambiguous and flexible tenets of the Westminster system were interpreted in a local context, where the Western-educated elites were often at variance with the masses.The principles of cabinet government are explored to examine how successfully the purported checks and balances of the Westminster model operated in this crucial nation-building era, along with the critical role of political figures like Prime Ministers Nehru and Bandaranaike.This period also witnessed the early challenges of forging a modern state with major ethnic, linguistic, religious, class-based and regional tensions, which both India and Sri Lanka still wrestle with.
The adaptable Westminster system was an essential element in the political development of these South Asian nations. Understanding the legacy and influence of the Westminster system allows the reader to fully understand the politics, institutions and society of today’s India and Sri Lanka."
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Eastminster - The Westminster System in India and Sri Lanka
2. Mixed Messages? India's Responses to its British Legacy
3. The Indian Version of First Among Equals - The Battle for Executive
Ascendency
4. Indian Federalism - A Paramount Mechanism
5. 'Think of Ceylon as a little bit of England' - Sri Lanka and the British
Legacy
6. Unconventional Conventions - Power Partnerships in the Sri Lankan
Executive
7. Sri Lankan Communalism - A 'Canker' Ignored?
8. India and Sri Lanka's Eastminsters Compared
9. Conclusion
‘Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, this book presents an
interesting comparative discussion on how the Westminster system has worked
in India and Sri Lanka... Not much has been written so far on the political
history of these two nations in the early years of independence and this
book fills a major gap in the historical literature on decolonization in
South Asia.’
– PROFESSOR SEKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY, Victoria University of Wellington
‘This fine book deepens our understanding of what happens to the
Westminster model when it travels east... Harshan Kumarasingham has a gift
for making complex, exotic material intelligible and compelling to non-
specialists. I say this with conviction as a South Asia specialist, since
the story of ‘Eastminster’ in that region contains especially complex,
unfamiliar features which Kumarasingham understands and brilliantly
conveys. – PROFESSOR JAMES MANOR, University of London
‘An important and timely book...This book will be of enormous interest to
students and scholars with a comparative interest in decolonization,
democracy and the post-colonial state. It will also be of great value in
informing contemporary debates about how democracy in the Commonwealth can
best be nurtured and sustained.’
– PROFESSOR PHILIP MURPHY, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of
London
‘This is the first book to compare India’s and Sri Lanka’s experience of
the Westminster system, and how they reshaped their British parliamentary
legacy. Kumarasingham’s fascinating account will be of keen interest to
students of history, politics and constitutions.’
– PROFESSOR ROBERT HAZELL, CBE, University College London
Papers by Harshan Kumarasingham