The Alladi Memorial Trust was founded in 1983 by Alladi Kuppuswami, to commemorate the birth centenary of his father, the late Dr Alladi Krishnaswamy. The objects of the Trust include holding lectures and seminars on issues relating to the Indian Constitution, which are intended to apprise the general public of the various debates concerning constitutional law. The essays in this volume comprise the texts of fourteen such lectures – including the Alladi Memorial Lectures and the Umamaheswaram Memorial Lectures – and some seminar papers. The essays included here, dating back to 1989, are by eminent jurists, academicians and social/human rights activists. They include distinguished members of the Bench like Justice M. Hidayatullah, Justice S. Ranganathan, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, Justice P.C. Rao, Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy and Justice M.N. Rao; leading members of the Bar like K.G. Kannabiran (also a well-known human rights activist), P.P. Rao and Prashant Bhushan; eminent academicians like Prof. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao, Prof K. Seshadri and Prof Javeed Alam; and committed activist–academicians like Prof Kalpana Kannabiran and Dr Asghar Ali Engineer. The topics covered by these essays are very relevant in today’s context. They include basic features of, and the use and abuse of the Constitution; the judicial process; uniform civil code; right to conversion; secularism and minority rights; formation of the Hindu religious consciousness; failure of laws to contain communalism; need for jurisprudence of women’s rights; intellectual property rights; and parliamentary democracy.