From Bandung to the Constitution: Post-Colonial Constitutional Values in Indonesia, India, and South Africa

Abstract

Post-colonial constitutionalism in Asia and Africa has often been analyzed through domestic constitutional transitions or global human rights frameworks, while the normative legacy of the 1955 Bandung Conference remains largely confined to diplomatic history and international relations. This separation has obscured the extent to which Bandung Principles—such as anti-colonialism, sovereign equality, non-intervention, and self-determination—have informed the internal normative architecture and constitutional identity of post-colonial states. This article aims to examine how these Bandung-inspired norms have been internalized as constitutional values within selected Asian and African constitutional systems. Employing a normative legal research design with statutory, comparative, and philosophical approaches, the study conducts a selective comparative analysis of Indonesia, India, and South Africa. The article offers a novel conceptual reframing of the Bandung Principles as post-colonial constitutional values rather than merely diplomatic or political commitments. It demonstrates that Bandung constitutes a shared normative reference that continues to shape constitutional ethos, identity, and interpretive orientation across divergent constitutional trajectories. The analysis reveals that while Indonesia reflects an ethos-based constitutionalization closely aligned with foundational constitutional narratives, India and South Africa exhibit distinct pathways mediated by judicial culture and institutional design. By bridging diplomatic history and constitutional theory, this study contributes to comparative constitutional law by advancing a Global South perspective that recognizes historical experience and normative plurality as sources of constitutional normativity. In doing so, the article responds to its research objective by establishing Bandung as an enduring constitutional framework that informs contemporary post-colonial constitutional development beyond historical commemoration.