Varshney: "Economic growth without sufficient job creation, and authoritarian repression of dissent, is insufficient for political legitimacy"

Why Politicians Choose Statist Solutions Over Economic Reforms

Varshney opines: If Modi continues to oppress Muslims, the government will fall

On June 4, results came in from the largest democratic election in history. Over 640 million people voted in India’s election, which took place at over one million polling places across the country over the course of six weeks.

Varshney: "Election results will be assessed by the democratic spaces they open up between polls"

In the past two decades India experienced an unprecedented expansion of rights-based welfare. This expansion cut across a range of sectors − education, employment, public health, poverty reduction − but was also accompanied by a...deepening of state institutions and a shift from patronage politics to citizen empowerment. In this paper [the authors argue] that India was a least likely case for welfare expansion and that contrary to what the traditional welfare state literature suggests, civil society...has played a significant role in institutionalizing reforms, especially at the local level.

In this episode, Nivedita Menon speaks about her new book, Secularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South (Duke University Press, 2024; Permanent Black, 2023).

Varshney: "Elections expressed a yearning for defence of constitutional values and citizen dignity"

Prof Ashutosh Varshney has recently visited UP. His understanding is that there is winds of change in the state.

In his Indian Express column, Professor Varshney writes that election travel often overlooks women's preferences, as evidenced by data showing they voted for Modi in larger proportions than men.

Prof Ashutosh Varshney discussed India’s high-stakes election on NPR/WBUR.

Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and Social Sciences at Brown University, discusses one of the most critical questions of our time. Is India still an electoral democracy?

Varshney: "Except for the regional parties allied with the BJP, most disagree with the idea. If the BJP passed a “one nation, one election” law in the next Parliament, it would push regional parties into a corner. A fundamental rearrangement of the polity should be based on a larger consensus, not on a brute majority."

In his Indian Express column, Professor Varshney writes about the larger democratic implications of the new political developments in India.

The idea of ‘one nation, one language’, which took shape in late 19th-century Europe, was challenged by Gandhiji, says Ashutosh Varshney, who spoke at an event in Bengaluru last week.

"This special issue began with a workshop at the Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University, in 2017. We gathered a small group of scholars from anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, literature, and political theory with the open-ended aim of investigating what a non-Eurocentric ‘global’ thought might look like, and what the stakes of such an endeavor may be."

Prof. Varshney discusses the impact of India's Prime Minister inaugurating a controversial Hindu temple on a former mosque site with NPR.

This essay draws a parallel between the political and social dynamics of Hindu nationalism in India under Narendra Modi and the policies of racial segregation of the Jim Crow era in the United States (from approximately 1880 to 1965). As with the marginalization of black Americans based on race during Jim Crow, Hindu nationalism aims to marginalize Muslim Indians based on religion. Methods similar to those used in the Jim Crow South—including exclusionary laws, segregation, and vigilante violence—are now being deployed in India to subdue Muslims.

Sethi will host study group on ragas for University students beginning in October

A controversy is making the rounds ahead of the upcoming G20 summit over the name of host country India. The debate centres on a possible shift from "India" to “Bharat”, a word dating back to ancient Hindu scriptures.

Weighing in on gender inequalities, Prof. Singh states, “You just have to look at the most basic indicators of women’s wellbeing to realize that India is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman, if you’re lucky enough to be born in the first place.”

In his recent article published in the Indian Express on June 27, 2023, titled "In a Sweet Spot" Ashutosh Varshney reflects on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States and discusses the primacy of geopolitics, specifically national security, over economics and democracy in international relations.

In his recent article published in the Indian Express on May 18, 2023, titled "What the outcome in Karnataka will achieve — and what it will not," Ashutosh Varshney offers insightful analysis on the political landscape of Karnataka. Varshney highlights that while the outcome of the recent elections in Karnataka holds significant implications, it is essential to recognize its limitations in terms of addressing larger structural challenges.

Tune into EP 2 Populism in the world's largest democracy — In an interview with OnPointRadio, Saxena Center's Director Ashutosh Varshney discussed India's political and civic climate.

In his April 8, 2023 Indian Express column, "A Different Ram Navami", Ashutosh Varshney and co-author Bhanu Joshi, discuss the communal riots during Ram Navami that India has experienced the past two years. Using the data set on Hindu-Muslim conflict that Varshney and Steven Wilkinson (Yale) created, they address the question, was Ram Navami associated with violence in the past, or is this a new emerging trend?

Read Ashutosh Varshney's latest column in the Indian Express, titled 'In 2024, an Uneven Field' which explores the implications of criminal probes and severe parliamentary expulsions for the fate of the indian democracy in general, and the 2024 national elections.

Read Prof.Varshney's latest personal column in the Indian Express- an Unexpected Kerala Sojourn which discusses his sudden medical journey in Kerala and the healthcare system which thrives in deep communal harmony

Rahul Gandhi's description of India as a union of states requires a Gandhian amendment. India is also a nation, but in a non-European sense.

Read Ashutosh Varshney's latest column for the Indian Express where he writes on the recent Adani Saga and the government relationship which is unlikely to help India's political economy.

Read Ashutosh Varshney's December column in the Indian Express on the topic "Where is China headed and what it means for India?".