State and Democracy in Modern India

The State and Democracy in Modern India research group is headed by Prof. Srirupa Roy since Sept. 2011. The research group draws upon methods and theories of political science, history, anthropology, sociology, and allied social scientific and humanistic disciplines to analyze the historical and contemporary dynamics of democratic politics in India. Research and teaching within this group is informed by two central aims. The first is to develop a comprehensive and fine-grained understanding of political and social change in India. The second is to develop original, comparative theoretical insights on equivalent patterns of political and social transformation unfolding in other world regions and on a wider, global scale.

Specific research foci include

Historical dynamics of Indian democracy
Capitalist development and democratic change; "new politics" in liberalising India
Democracy and inequality
Comparative nationalisms and the politics of identity
Media and politics
Intellectual and institutional histories of South Asian and Indian area studies in different world regions