For the last 10 years Gautam Bhatia has done an impossible amount of work helping people think about Indian constitutional law. This includes being involved (as part of a large team of senior and younger lawyers) in bringing a number of key cases before India’s Constitutional Court, such as the challenges to India’s national biometric ID system, called the Aadhaar, and section 377 of India’s Penal Code, the criminalization of consensual same-sex intercourse. His work and his writings have focused on individuals and their relationship with the state and the law in a constitutional democracy. In an interview on the South African law podcast, Just Us Under a Tree with host Elisha Kunene, Bhatia talks about subjects including his background, media, the law, the importance of his Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy blog and debates about legal activism and contemporary Indian politics. This is an excerpt focusing on their conversation about the experience of the Indian Constitutional Court for Africans, especially South Africans. Listen here.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.