The state of Kerala in India is amongst a small set of social democracies in the Global South. The construction of a social democracy in what was an economically poor region has implications for social and political theory, especially for theory that seeks to illuminate postcolonial societies.
Agenda
- 18:00-18:15 Introduction to the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD)
- 18:15-18:45 Talk by Prof Nissim Mannathukkaren
- 18:45-19:15 Conversation between Prof Nissim Mannathukkaren and Prof Nitasha Kaul
- 19:15-19:45 Questions & Answers
- 19:45-21:00 Reception
About the Centre
The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), established in 1989, is based in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Westminster. At the Centre, academics working in politics and international relations undertake socially engaged, methodologically diverse and often interdisciplinary research that aims to address a range of critical political challenges in relation to democracy worldwide.
CSD has a longstanding international reputation for research excellence through a programme of publications, events and collaborations with academics, practitioners, policymakers, and activists. Research in Politics and International Studies at CSD was ranked 4th highest in the UK for impact in the Research Excellence Framework 2021.
The Centre has established numerous collaborations with scholars and universities around the world and has hosted encounters with public intellectuals including Luc Boltanski, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, Bruno Latour, Richard Rorty, Quentin Skinner, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Charles Taylor, James Tully, and Michael Walzer. The CR Parekh lecture, instituted by Lord Bhikhu Parekh, has included lectures by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arundhati Roy, and Ashis Nandy.
CSD recognises that responding to contemporary social and political challenges requires engagement beyond the academy, so actively welcomes dialogue and collaboration with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and activists around the world. The Centre is directed by Professor Nitasha Kaul.
About the speakers
Professor Nissim Mannathukkaren
Nissim Mannathukkaren is Professor, Department of International Development Studies, Dalhousie University, Canada. He has held visiting professorships at Roskilde University, the London School of Economics, the University of Wroclaw, and Leipzig University. Professor Mannathukkaren’s main research interests are focused on democracy and democratic backsliding, Hindu nationalism, post-truth, Left/communist movements, development, modernity, Marxism, postcolonial/decolonial theory and the politics of popular culture (especially cinema and cricket) with a geographical focus on India. He is the author of three books: Communism, Subaltern Studies, and Postcolonial Theory: The Left in South India (Routledge, 2021); The Rupture with Memory: Derrida and the Specters that Haunt Marxism (Navayana, 2006), and an edited collection, Hindu Nationalism in South India: The Rise of Saffron in Kerala (Routledge, 2024). His research has been published in journals such as Modern Asian Studies, Citizenship Studies, Journal of Peasant Studies, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Critical Realism, South Asian History and Culture, International Journal of the History of Sport, Economic and Political Weekly, Dialectical Anthropology, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, and Sikh Formations. Professor Mannathukkaren is a columnist in the Indian press, and he has authored 125 articles. These have appeared in The Hindu, The Wire, The Telegraph, The Indian Express, Frontline, Outlook, Scroll, The Quint, Deccan Chronicle, The Asian Age, Deccan Herald, Tehelka, Kafila, Kochi Post, The Polis Project, Newsclick, and in Malayalam in Mathrubhumi, Samakalika Malayalam, and Kalakaumudi. His writings have been translated into Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Portuguese, German, French and Italian.
Professor Nitasha Kaul
Professor Nitasha Kaul is a multidisciplinary academic, novelist, economist, poet, and public intellectual. She holds a Chair Professor in Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and is Director of Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), University of Westminster. She has published widely on themes relating to democracy, political economy, Hindutva/Indian politics, misogyny, technology/Artificial Intelligence, identity, rise of right-wing nationalism, feminist and postcolonial critiques, small states in geopolitics, regions of Bhutan, Kerala, and Kashmir. She is the author of over 150 publications, including 7 single-authored or edited scholarly and literary books, book chapters in numerous critical and ground-breaking edited collections, plus peer-reviewed original research articles in numerous journals across humanities and social science disciplines. Her books include the monograph Imagining Economics Otherwise: Encounters with identity/difference (Routledge, 2007), and political fiction telling the stories of conflict and identity, such as her novel Future Tense (Harper Collins, 2020) and the Man-Asian Literary Prize shortlisted novel Residue (Rainlight, 2014) that was the first novel in English by a Kashmiri woman author. Her interventions on politics, democracy, gender, and human rights have appeared in major international radio, televisual, and print media including BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, DW, France 24, Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Independent. See more details of her work or find her on X.
