On the 28th of May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new parliament building, which is part of the larger Central Vista project that is being revamped under the current BJP government. In his inaugural speech, the PM said that the new building represents the idea of a new India, and that the country was now shedding the “mentality of slavery".

So today, we take a look back at the old parliament, and trace its origins all the way back to a small room inside a governor's house in pre-independent India. And we do this to understand how it came to be, what it can tell us about the functioning of our legislature, and the extent to which we have shed our colonial past.

Guests: Chakshu Roy, parliamentary expert and the head of outreach at the PRS Legislative Research. And Indian Express’ Damini Nath, who reports on the parliamentary for the paper.

Hosted, written, and produced by Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar