India Decides 2014: A Panel on the General Election

CASI Seminar
Neelanjan Sircar
CASI Visiting Dissertation Research Fellow
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

with
Devesh Kapur
Director, CASI
Madan Lal Sobti Professor for the Study of Contemporary India

Milan Vaishnav
Associate, South Asia Program
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The forthcoming Indian general election, scheduled to begin in mid-April, will be arguably the country’s most critical vote since 1977. An electorate of nearly 815 million heads to the polls in the midst of a stagnant economy, a rapidly changing regional security environment, increasing urbanization, and a burgeoning youth population. The precise character and makeup of India’s next governing coalition will play a critical role in determining India’s future trajectory on all of these fronts.

Results from a unique recent survey of voter attitudes will be presented at the event. CASI has been running this major panel survey on social attitudes in India with 68,500 respondents across 24 states with funding from the Lok Foundation. The research team includes CASI Director, Devesh Kapur, together with Neelanjan Sircar, CASI Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Megan Reed, CASI Research Coordinator and Milan Vaishnav, Associate in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Further information will be available through CASI’s new blog, IndiainTransition.com.

[Event Flyer]

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.