Abstract

In this lecture, Professor Rajeev Bhargava considers the challenges that the re-emergence of Hindu nationalism has posed for secularism in the South Asian context. In doing so, the means to reimagine secularism in the face of such challenges so as to preserve the democratic and secular public sphere would be explored as well. Pre-readings relevant to the lecture will be sent to registered participants prior to the session. Participants are expected to engage with them before attending the lecture.

About the Speaker

Rajeev Bhargava is a Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi. He has been a Professor at the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and between 2001 and 2005 was Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Delhi. He is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Social Justice, ACU, Sydney and an Honorary Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. He has been a Fellow at Harvard University, University of Bristol, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, the Institute of Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He has also been a Distinguished Resident Scholar at the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, at Columbia University, and Asia Chair at Sciences Po, Paris. Bhargava has held visiting professorships at several universities, and his publications include Individualism in Social Science (1992), What is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It? (2010), and The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy (2010). His edited works are Secularism and Its Critics (1998) and Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution (2008). His work on secularism and methodological individualism is internationally acclaimed. He has contributed to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Oxford Handbook of Political Theory. Bhargava is on the advisory board of several national and international institutions, and was a consultant for the UNDP report on cultural liberty. He received his BA in economics from the University of Delhi, and MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University