2020
Dr. Himanshu Jha’s book “Capturing Institutional Change” was among the top 10 books to read in 2020
Dr. Himanshu Jha’s book “Capturing Institutional Change” was among the top 10 books to read in 2020 according to the list published by The Print.
Ravinder Kaur's talk on "Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First Century India"
Ravinder Kaur, University of Copenhagen, will be delivering a lecture entitled "Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First Century India" on January 11, 2020 (Monday), 14:15 – 15:45 (CET), online - Via Zoom. Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3qXHmdH, Zoom id: 870 9105 7335, Zoom passcode: Kaur11 . More details here.
[VIDEO] Dr. Sanjay Ruparelia on " Struggling to see: how the politics of sight configures social welfare in contemporary India”
Dr. Sanjay Ruparelia, Ryerson University (Toronto) delivered a lecture entitled " Struggling to see: how the politics of sight configures social welfare in contemporary India”, on December 14, 2020 (Monday). View the entire lecture here.
Dr. Sanjay Ruparelia on " Struggling to see: how the politics of sight configures social welfare in contemporary India”
Dr. Sanjay Ruparelia, Ryerson University (Toronto), will be delivering a lecture entitled " Struggling to see: how the politics of sight configures social welfare in contemporary India”, on December 14, 2020 (Monday), 14:15 – 15:45 (CET), online - Via Zoom.
Zook link: https://bit.ly/37HQytX, Meeting id: 870 9105 7335, Meeting pass code: Ruparelia . More details here.
[VIDEO] Prof. John Harriss's lecture on "Is India still a 'Patronage Democracy'?”
Prof. John Harriss, Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), delivered a lecture entitled "Is India still a 'Patronage Democracy'?”, on November 16, 2020 (Monday). View the entire lecture here.
[VIDEO] “Changing Contours of Indian Democracy Challenges and Pitfalls"
Final Global India Training Network Meeting held on November 19-21, 2020. The panel discussion entitled "Changing Contours of Indian Democracy: Challenges and Pitfalls" held on November 20. View the entire discussion here.
[VIDEO] INAUGURAL SESSION : The inaugural session held on November 19. View the entire session here.
Dr. Himanshu Jha was interviewed by the Indo Asian News Agency
Dr. Himanshu Jha was interviewed by the Indo Asian News Agency (IANS- India’s largest newswire) where in the context of his recently published book entitled “Capturing Institutional Change: the case of the Right to Information Act in India” he discusses the status of Right to Information in India and the emerging research agenda. The interview is here.
The final global India training network meeting
The inaugural session of the final global India training network meeting will be held on November 19, 2020, 9:00-11:00 hrs (CET); 13:30-15:30 hrs (IST).
Zoom webinar link: https://bit.ly/35kBsLd
Zoom webinar id: 874 0582 1984, Zoom webinar passcode: GI19Nov
See details here.
The panel discussion entitled “Changing Contours of Indian Democracy: Challenges and Pitfalls“ will be held on November 20, 2020 (Friday), 15:00-17:00hrs (CET), 19.30-21.30 hrs (IST)
Zoom webinar link: https://bit.ly/38w2OzJ
Zoom webinar id: 820 8771 7705,
Zoom webinar passcode: GI20Nov
See details here.
Both events are organized as part of the Marie Curie-Global India Workshop, to be held from 19-20 Nov 2020.
Prof. John Harriss will be delivering a lecture on "Is India still a 'Patronage Democracy'?”
Prof. John Harriss, Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), will be delivering a lecture entitled "Is India still a 'Patronage Democracy'?”, on November 16, 2020 (Monday), 14:15 – 15:45, online - Via Zoom. Zoom link- https://bit.ly/35iIvUG, Meeting id: 870 9105 7335, Pass code: Harriss16. More details here.
Prof. Christophe Jaffrelot will be delivering a lecture on "Interpreting “The Emergency”
Prof. Christophe Jaffrelot, King’s India Institute (London), will be delivering a lecture entitled "Interpreting “The Emergency”, on November 9, 2020 (Monday), 14:00 – 16:00, Online - via Zoom. To register, please contact: Jai Shankar Prasad (jai.prasad@uni-heidelberg.de). See details here.
New book by Dr. Himanshu Jha
Dr. Himanshu Jha published a book “Capturing Institutional Change: the case of the Right to Information Act in India” by Oxford University Press. The first book in the Institutions and Development in South Asia series, this volume studies the information regime in India from an alternative historical institutional perspective. See details here.
New article by Prof. Rahul Mukherji
Prof. Rahul Mukherji has published an article on “Democracy vs. Covid: India’s Illiberal Remedy,” in the Journal of Democracy, (Vol. 31, issue.4). Read this article here.
Professor Rahul Mukherji on “Authoritarianism and Democracy in Times of the Pandemic”
Professor Rahul Mukherji recently delivered a talk entitled “Authoritarianism and Democracy in Times of the Pandemic”. This was part of a three days web-talk series, organized by the German Centre for Research and Innovation – DWIH New Delhi on ‘Social Impact of Covid-19, Indo German Perspectives’. View the lectuer here.
Professor Rahul Mukherji delivered the MS Gore lecture on India’s Economic Reforms at TISS
Professor Rahul Mukherji delivered a lecture entitled “Economic Reforms in India” on 15 September 2020. This talk was organized by SDS Public Policy, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. View the lecture here.
India’s Political Crisis
Prof. Dr. Rahul Mukherji, head of the department of political science, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University and Mr. Prashant Bhushan, public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India, discussed India’s political crisis. In this substantive discussion, they reviewed the attack on institutions, the crisis in the opposition and strategies to save the constitutional idea of India. View the discussion here.
Professor Rahul Mukherji will be delivering a lecture entitled “Economic Reforms in India”
Professor Rahul Mukherji will be delivering a lecture entitled “Economic Reforms in India” on 15 September 2020, 2:00PM - 4:00PM IST (Indian Standard time). This talk is organized by SDS Public Policy, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. Register in advance, go to this link here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the talk.
Professor Rahul Mukherji will be delivering a talk entitled “Authoritarianism and Democracy in Times of the Pandemic”
Professor Rahul Mukherji will be delivering a talk entitled “Authoritarianism and Democracy in Times of the Pandemic” on 15 September 2020, 5-6 pm IST (Indian Standard time). This is part of a three days web-talk series, organized by the German Centre for Research and Innovation – DWIH New Delhi on ‘Social Impact of Covid-19, Indo German Perspectives’. For registration see details here.
The Wochenblatt and the Heisenberg-Gymnasium published Professor Mukherji's lecture summary
Professor Rahul Mukherji delivered a lecture on “Covid 19 and democracy: How a virus can aid authoritarian propensities”. The talk was chaired by Henning Belle, DAAD-Freundeskreis Bonn. A summary of the talk was published by a German weekly the Wochenblatt and by the Heisenberg-Gymnasium . View the summery on the Wochenblatt here and on the Heisenberg-Gymnasium's homepage here.
Professor Rahul Mukherji will be delivering an online talk on “Covid 19 and democracy: How a virus can aid authoritarian propensities”
Professor Rahul Mukherji will be delivering an online talk on “Covid 19 and democracy: How a virus can aid authoritarian propensities”, on Friday, July 24, 2020, 7-9 pm German time (GMT/UTC + 2). This talk is organized by the DAAD Alumni network (https://www.daad-freundeskreis.de/en/ ). Interested are most invited to attend by registering through this email: fk-rhein-neckar@daad-alumni.de
Congratulations to Miss Tanvi V Deshpande on receiving the Baden-Württemberg Landesgraduiertenförderung (LGF) Programme (2020) completion grant
We congratulate our Marie Curie PhD fellow, Miss Tanvi V Deshpande on receiving the Baden-Württemberg Landesgraduiertenförderung (LGF) Programme (2020) completion grant. This grant enables doctoral candidates to complete their dissertation. Ms. Deshpande is working on ‘Examining urban governance and adaptation in the face of climate change: a case of Indian cities’ under the supervision of Professor Rahul Mukherji.
Book by Dr. Seyed Hossein Zarhani
Congratulations to Dr. Seyed Hossein Zarhani for the publication of the paperback edition of his book-Governance and Development in India - A Comparative Study on Andhra Pradesh and Bihar after Liberalization. The first edition of this book was published in 2018 . This significant work compares two Indian sub-national states, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.The book explores the black box of the multi-layered state of India and interactions among the Central Government, the states, regional leaders and other stakeholders. Further information of the book is available here.
New article by Prof. Rahul Mukherji and Dr. Seyed Hossein Zarhani
Prof. Rahul Mukherji and Dr. Seyed Hossein Zarhani have co-authored an article on "Governing India: Evolution of Programmatic Welfare in Andhra Pradesh" in the journal, Studies in Indian Politics (Vol. 8 Issue. 1). Read this article here.
New article by Prof. Rahul Mukherji, Jai Prasad and Dr. Seyed Hossein Zarhani
Prof. Rahul Mukherji, Jai Prasad and Dr. Seyed Hossein Zarhani have co-authored an article on “Can COVID-19 malign the idea of India?” in the latest issue of identitiesjournal. This article argues that COVID-19 management has undermined democratic governance central to the idea of India and close to the heart of founders of modern India. Read this article here.
Nachruf auf Dr. Michael Liebig
Mit tiefstem Bedauern und großer Betroffenheit haben wir vom Tod eines sehr geschätzten Kollegen und Freundes - Dr. Michael Liebig – am 15. April 2020 erfahren. Lesen Sie den vollständigen Nachruf hier.
Teaching Announcement for summer semester 2020
Classes at the Department of Political Science, South Asia Institute will begin on the 27th April 2020 (Monday). Please note the following
1. It is important for the students to write to the persons mentioned below to enroll in the course.
2. Students will then receive an enrollment key with which they can enroll on Moodle.
3. Classes will be held via heiCONF. Students will need the university id to log in. The teachers will share the room id with the enrolled students.
To enroll in the courses see details here.
Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics
We are delighted to re-launch the Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics (HPSACP). The inaugural paper of the new series is by Prof. Pranab Bardhan on “Governance Issues in Economic Development: A China-India Comparative perspective”. HPSACP is available online and can be downloaded here.
Asad Ahmad presented a paper at the Neighborliness in Global Perspective conference
Our MA student Mr. Asad Ahmad recently presented a paper at the Neighborliness in Global Perspective conference organized by Orient Institute Beirut - Max Weber Stiftung, held in Erfurt, Germany. Mr. Ahmad presented a paper on "Hijra Neighborhoods in Mohallas of Lahore: Paragons of safe spaces for vulnerable community." This paper highlights the contested categories of gender in the context of South Asia and emphasizes how the challenge to ‘fluidity’ of gender; perpetuated through colonial legacies gave rise to rejection of certain sexual minority communities in the region. Taking Hijra community of Lahore as the subject of exploration, it discusses how the process of controlling bodies rendered ‘Hijras’ or the ‘Third gender’ a highly vulnerable community to be restricted to enclaves for their survival in large urban spaces. Furthermore, it sheds light upon the multidimensional aspects of neighborliness through categories of class, gender, religion and family.
Dr. Suresh C. Chalise delivered a lecture
Dr. Suresh C. Chalise delivered a lecture on "Nepal's Peace Process and Involvement of the United Nations". Prof. Rahul Mukherji chaired the talk.
New article by Prof. Pralay Kanungo
Prof. Pralay Kanungo’s article on "'Ephemeral vs Eternal’: Modi's Comments Cross the Belur Math's Laxman Rekha" was published in the Wire. This article discusses Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent speech at Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s Belur Math in West Bengal especially in the context of Math’s apparent discomfort to the speech. Access the article here:
Prof. Rahul Mukherji's article published by Meine Welt
Prof. Rahul Mukherji's article on "The monk who shaped India’s secularism" , which originally published in the Hindu, was translated and published by Meine Welt (A german Magazine) . This article explores an important question : 'What is the kind of nationalism that one can associate with Hindu tradition?' See the article here.
Lecture on "Nepal's Peace Process and Involvement of the United Nations" by Dr. Suresh C. Chalise, Humboldt Visiting Scholar, on February 3, 2020 (Monday), 14:00 – 16:00 at CATS, EG SR 01 (010.00.21). See details here.
Prof. Rahul Mukherji's interview
Prof. Rahul Mukherji was recently interviewed in the Business Standard on the contemporary political and economic issues in India . Aditi Phadnis, a leading political writer took the interview. See the interview here.
A warm welcome to our visiting scholar Dr. Suresh C. Chalise
Dr. Suresh C. Chalise holds a research scholarship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) and will stay from January 7th – April 7th at the SAI. Suresh C. Chalise earned his Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University, India and undertook post-doctoral research at the Universities of Dortmund and Gießen, Germany. He served as ambassador of Nepal to the United States (2007-2008) and to the United Kingdom (2010-2014), and as foreign affairs adviser to prime minister of Nepal (2006-2007) and is affiliated with the GP Koirala Foundation for Democracy, Peace and Development in Kathmandu/Nepal, an independent think tank for the promotion of peace, democracy and development.
New article by Prof. Rahul Mukherji and Ronja Gottschling
Prof. Rahul Mukherji and Ronja Gottschling have co-authored an article on "Will India's economic downturn spur course correction, or will Hindu nationalism enable the decline to perpetuate itself?" in the Firstpost. In this article the authors argue that Hindutva can become more dangerous with a declining economy. Access the article here.
