Discussion on 'We, the People' and India's 2024 Lok Sabha Elections

SSAI is pleased to launch the Global edition of The People of India (Penguin, 2023), edited by Ravinder Kaur and Nayanika Mathur, and to use the launch as a platform for a mid-way discussion on India's on-going general elections.

About the book

‘The People’ and ‘New India’ are terms that are being invoked freely to both understand and govern India as she enters her 75th year of post-colonial nationhood. Yet, there is little clarity on who these people of India really are, what they do, their desires, histories and attachments to India. Similarly, the phrase ‘New India’ is used far too loosely to explain away a dangerously confounding politics.

In this book, some of the most respected scholars of South Asia come together to write about a person or a concept that holds particular sway in the politics of contemporary India. In doing so, they collectively open up an original understanding of what the politics at the heart of New India are-and how best we might come to analyse them.

Panel

• Ravinder Kaur, University of Copenhagen
• Nayanika Mathur, University of Oxford
• Louise Tillin, King's College, London
• Samath Subramanian, Independent scholar and journalist
• Subir Sinha, SOAS
• Yamini Aiyar, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

Image credit: Shashank Hudkar via unsplash