The Politics of Social Justice in India
Foyer of The McNeil Center for Early American Studies (MCEAS)
University of Pennsylvania
3355 Woodland Walk
(at 34th & Walnut Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Lecture – 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
The Stephanie Grauman Wolf Room at MCEAS
About the Speaker:
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is President of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, one of India’s most distinguished think tanks. He was previously Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University, and Associate Professor of Government and of Social Studies at Harvard University. He has also done extensive public policy work and was a Member-Convenor of the Prime Minister of India’s National Knowledge Commission. Dr. Mehta has published widely in political theory, intellectual history, constitutional law, and Indian politics. His most recent work includes TheBurden of Democracy (Penguin India, 2003), and was also co-editor of Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design (Oxford University Press, 2005), andThe Oxford Companion to Politics in India (Oxford University Press, 2010). Dr. Mehta is also a prolific contributor to public debates in India, and writes an influential column for the Indian Express. He was most recently awarded the Malcolm S. Adiseshiah Award for distinguished contributions to social sciences.
About the Lecture:
Dr. Mehta will examine the discourse of social justice in contemporary India and the ways in which it arises out of the intersection of caste and politics. He will also look into the historical origins of this discourse and the sense of self and moral psychology that underlies it, which argues that what is at stake is the meaning of India’s constitutional project.