Democracy, Caste and Hindu Nationalism | Talk by Gopal Guru

(Cosponsored event with India China Institute at The New School)

Professor Gopal Guru’s talk on Democracy, Caste and Hindu Nationalism will address issues of caste politics, capitalism and solidarity in India.
The discussion will be moderated by David Ludden  (Department of History, NYU).

Professor Gopal Guru is eminent political theorist and scholar and a highly regarded teacher based at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Earlier, he taught at the University of Delhi and the University of Pune. Later this year, he is scheduled to assume the editorship of one of India’s most respected academic journals, The Economic and Political Weekly. Guru’s numerous writings— on political theory, radical democracy, Dalit subjectivity and cultural political histories, experiences of casteism, and the philosophical basis of untouchability have been formative in South Asian Studies and the Indian public sphere. His writings include a large number of articles and books included a monograph Atrophy in Dalit Politics, the acclaimed volumes Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Theory and Experience  (co-authored), Oxford University Press, Delhi, and Humiliation: Claims and Context, (ed.) Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2009. In February 2016, Prof. Guru gave the inaugural teach-in lecture on nationalism at JNU at a time when the university was under attack from right-wing forces. The lectures have since been collected in a volume titled, What the Nation Needs to Know: The JNU Nationalism Lectures, Harper Collins India, 2017.
David Ludden is a Professor of History at New York University. His areas of research and interest include South Asia, Middle East, East Asia, world history, globalization, agrarian history and economic development.