Formal changes to the text of the Constitution made by Parliament under Article 368, by special majority and, for provisions affecting the federal structure, with ratification by at least half the state legislatures.
The framers wanted a Constitution that was neither as rigid as the American one, where amendments are rare, nor as flexible as the British, where Parliament can change anything by ordinary law. Article 368 strikes a middle path. Most provisions can be changed by Parliament alone with a special majority, while provisions that define the federal bargain also need the consent of the states. A small set of matters, such as creating new states or abolishing Legislative Councils, can be changed by a simple majority through ordinary law and are explicitly not treated as amendments under Article 368.
The history of amendments is, in many ways, the political history of the Republic. The early amendments protected land reforms from court challenges. The 1970s brought a struggle between Parliament and the Supreme Court over whether Parliament's power had limits, ending with the basic structure doctrine. Later amendments reshaped local government, education rights, taxation and representation. By the 2020s more than a hundred amendment Acts had been passed, a sign of a living document rather than a fragile one.
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