I showcase here textual and visual gems of a geek mixed methods ethnography in political science and sociology, focusing mainly on educated youth, representation and political becoming in contemporary India. The repository gravitates around a monograph in preparation on campus activism and Indian democracy, and introduces the curated material of an archival exhibition on student politics. I have a growing interest in text analysis and the study of populist speeches. Content is open access.
§︎ Research foci
• Youth activism as political self-fashioning
• Political archives and the pamphleteers
• Populist style as political representation
• Political intermediaries, elites and subalterns
• Ethnography of political ambition in India
• Text analysis, speeches and lifeworlds
§︎ Contents
• Publications: articles · preprints · op-eds
• Collaborations: ceri · iiit-d · icas-mp
• Datasets: parcha · dips
• Curation: memories of change
• Syllabi: sciences po · king's · cemis
• Code: r · python
• Photography: fieldword photos
• E-library: nonfiction
This essay revisits the movement against the Constitution Amendment Act in India, exploring how it subverted the governement’s way to claim democratic representation through reappropriating its pervasive nationalist discourse.
Desde la reelección de Narendra Modi como primer ministro de India en mayo de 2019, su partido político y la maquinaria del Estado Central han acelerado la implementación de una agenda etno-nacionalista e hinducéntrica, para progresivamente redefinir…
Across India, an unprecedented student-led opposition has materialized, in particular in the aftermath of the violent police storming of two Muslim-dominated state-funded universities. We are questioning the relevance of campus spaces in leading…
This introduction questions the relevance of student politics as an object of inquiry by asking whether it truly constitutes a field that is autonomous from wider organized politics. Through interpreting student politics as political becoming…
Departing from essentialist approaches to student politics, this article outlines the processes by which campus spaces activate the formation of political attitudes among participants. I suggest that everyday political competition among student organizations…
Nivedita Menon is a feminist writer and activist. She’s currently a professor of political thought at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. This material is exhibited as part of the Memories of Change exhibition.
This is the most desperate generation of Indians since Independence’ (24). Set at the crossroads of journalism and ethnographic studies, Snigdha Poonam’s first book is a harrowing account of aspirational youth grappling with their…
Qualitative and quantitative evidence collected over the last four years (2014–18) at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus reaffirms the crucial contribution of the institution’s diverse and democratic base to Indian politics. The authors suggest…
Several recent studies propose that political choices of Indian youth can hardly be distinguished from those of their parents in many respects. Contrary to this well-established understanding, this article shows that when set apart…
In his Independence Day speeches, Narendra Modi has repeatedly used the words ‘sister’, ‘brother’ and ‘team’. The Prime Minister’s rhetorical technique is inherent in populism, a version of politics that crystallises when a leader…
Recovering those writings on the wall: this paper aims at providing new insights on youth Indian activism through presenting preliminary results of a textual study on campus politics. Through a lexicographic analysis of a…
A decade after its first round, the results of a survey on Indian youth attitudes, conducted jointly by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), prompted…
It was an eventful day in New Delhi as its sidewalks were filled with soldiers returning to the national capital after a victory in war with Pakistan. An early autumn cheered returning war heroes….