This conference, sponsored by the Theorizing Indian Democracy project at the Neubauer Collegium, explored conceptual dimensions of modern democratic politics through a focus on colonial and postcolonial India. The conference brought together political theorists, philosophers, historians, and legal scholars working on South Asian history, political theory, law, and postcolonial studies in a collaborative space. The goal of the conference was to advance the burgeoning interest in postcolonial and non-Western political thought. “Democratic Theory in India” was organized around three guiding themes: the intellectual history of political concepts in modern India; the social and cultural dimensions of democratic practices; and normative issues around citizenship and state institutions.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Welcome and Introduction

9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Anticolonialism and Popular Sovereignty

Karuna Mantena (Yale University): “Gandhian Satyagraha, Mass Struggle, and Democratic Politics”Nazmul Sultan (University of Chicago): “Anticolonial Federalism and the Times of Peoplehood”Discussant: Adom Getachew (University of Chicago)

11:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
The Evolution of Political Institutions in India

Cynthia Farid (University of Wisconsin): “High Politics in Low Places: Institutional Conflicts and Separation of Powers in Late 19th-Century Bengal”

Udit Bhatia (University of Oxford): “What’s the Party Like? The Normative Status of the Political Party in South Asia”

Discussant: Tejas Parasher (University of Chicago)

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Lunch Break

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Boundaries of Citizenship

Gopal Guru (Jawaharlal Nehru University): “Democracy as the Framework of Transgression: From Broken Men to Breaker”

Cricket Keating (University of Washington): “Toward a Decolonial Sexual Contract: Approaches to LGBTQ+ Politics in Multicultural Democracies”

Discussant: Kalyani Menon (DePaul University)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9

10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Breakfast

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Developmentalism and the Postcolonial Nation

Sayantan Saha Roy (University of Chicago): “Sovereignty through Destitution: On the Emergence of the Right to Life in India”

Rochona Majumdar (University of Chicago): “Temporalities and the Nation in Indian Cinema”Discussant: Inder Marwah (McMaster University)

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch Break

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Democracy and the Indian Experience: Methodological Questions

Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago)

Thomas Blom Hansen (Stanford University)

Moderator: Jennifer Pitts (University of Chicago)

3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Coffee Break

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Roundtable Discussion: Contemporary Democracy in India

Moderator: Rochona Majumdar (University of Chicago)