Democracy and Economic Transformation in India

Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series
Professor Partha Chatterjee
Professor, Columbia University and Centre for the Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Logan Hall, 14 (Terrace Room) / 249 S. 36th St / University of Pennsylvania / Philadelphia

Professor Partha Chatterjee is working on a series of historical-anthropological studies entitled "Empire Against Terror." His book, A Princely Impostor? The Strange and Universal History of the Kumar of Bhawal, was published in 2003. It is a book on a court proceeding in Bengal in 1934-36 on establishing the identity of a person. The case offers several interesting problems regarding colonial assumptions on Indian identity, popular beliefs on political authority and personal morality and finally the techniques of the modern state to establish identity. The second project is a series of critical inquiries into the modern state as it has developed in the ex-colonial countries of Asia and Africa. It takes up questions such as national borders, sovereignty, citizenship, welfare and democracy. He is also actively engaged in the collective project of Subaltern Studies.

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.