| Summary/Abstract |
The interrelationships of the various, seemingly contradictory, uses of the public as a concept are best understood by relating the concept to sovereignty. The concept of the public thus gained particular structural meaning in colonial India through the state's efforts to legitimise its authority as the embodiment of a discourse of reason in the nineteenth century, with the courts serving as a critical model for the public. With the emergence of the concept of the sovereignty of the people in the twentieth century, the nature of the public was significantly transformed, and gained increasing significance as an arena for the open performance of the autonomous self.
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