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Populisms in India
History, Cases & Conundrums
Speakers
Populism in India wears many faces; sometimes divisive, sometimes empowering, often both at once.
In this event we bring together eminent scholars of Indian democracy and political history. Join Ashutosh Varshney and Mahesh Rangarajan, moderated by Sudhir Krishnaswamy, for a critical conversation on the book’s arguments, and implications, for how we understand populism, democracy, and political modernization in India today.
The conversation will centre political scientist Srikrishna Ayyangar’s new book, A Logic of Populism: India and its States (Cambridge University Press, 2025). Drawing from diverse state-level case studies, Ayyangar argues that populists in India operate not merely by claiming to speak for ‘the people’, but by dividing society in ways that claim to serve a broader common good. Through this lens, populism is not a singular ideology, but a political method. One that adapts itself to India’s democratic context in distinct, often surprising ways.
A Q&A with the audience will follow the discussion.
Tea will be served from 5 PM.
Presented by:
Speakers
Srikrishna Ayyangar
Srikrishna Ayyangar is Associate Professor at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru. He has taught at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, the University of the South – Sewanee, and the University of Hartford, and worked at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. His research has been published in journals including the Studies in International Comparative Development and Studies in Indian Politics.
Mahesh Rangarajan
Mahesh Rangarajan is professor of Environmental Studies and History at Ashoka University. He is the author of several books that include Fencing the Forest (OUP 1996), India’s Wildlife History (Permanent Black 2001) and Nature and Nation (Permanent Black 2015) among many other edited and coedited books. He has also been a commentator on current affairs with the audio-visual media in both English and Hindi. He was Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (2011-15) and has also served as Vice Chancellor, Krea University (2021-22).
Ashutosh Varshney
Ashutosh Varshney is Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Brown University, where he was also the Founding Director of the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia. Previously, he taught at Harvard (1989-98) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2001-2008).
His books include Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy, Collective Violence in Indonesia, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, India in the Era of Economic Reforms, and Democracy, Development and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India. The awards based on his research include the Guggenheim fellowship, the Carnegie Fellowship, the Gregory Luebbert Prize, and the Daniel Lerner Prize.
In addition to professional journals, he also contributes guest columns to newspapers and magazines and is currently a columnist for The Print.
Sudhir Krishnaswamy
Sudhir Krishnaswamy is the Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU, Bengaluru and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Consortium of National Law Universities. He is a Member of the Independent Oversight Board that makes content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram platforms. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize 2022 in the Humanities category.
He is the Co-founder and Managing Trustee of the Centre for Law and Policy Research that engages in law and policy research, social and governance interventions and strategic impact litigation; and the Founder of the Supreme Court Observer which is the most reliable guide to the work of the Indian Supreme Court.
His current research focuses on constitutional law, the empirical analysis of the legal, political and governance systems and the regulation of new and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and automated decision systems.
Vibha Swaminathan
Vibha Swaminathan graduated from the LL.B. (Hons) programme at NLSIU in 2025 and will read for the BCL on the Rhodes Scholarship. At Oxford University, she is interested in examining the political and legal fragilities of citizenship, generated along intersectional axes of class, gender and religion.
