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
How and where is democracy “hacked”? By examining the political rhetoric of Narendra Modi on the digital platform Twitter, this article shows that populist communication is tailored to a particular audience profile rather than a particular social media.
The article proposes to explore populism diachronically as a political career. This ethnographic study of an Indian youth leader ‘entering populism’ helps to reconsider the phenomenon as an a-ideological attempt to become politically autonomous.
Through engaging with everyday practices among student activists in contemporary Indian campus politics, this ethnographic study examines the breadcrumb trail between the left and self-fashioning. It focuses on a performative modality of political representation…
Cet article s’attache à montrer comment des formes d’action collective consistant à occuper l’espace public ont permis un renversement temporaire et inattendu des mécanismes antiélitistes d’appel au peuple du gouvernement indien.
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…
As Indian public universities become both spaces for and subjects of political disputes, this podcast examines what it means for such universities to be “political”, especially in the face of increasing privatization of higher education.
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…
This exhibition on the legacies of campus politics in India was held at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre and the Institute of Economic Growth in November 2019. Access here the curatorial note and the material exhibited.
The initiative is committed to setting up a freely accessible platform for referencing material on different protest movements in the country. This digital library offers full searchable content to scholars, concerned individuals and activists.
The band Dastaa invites you to explore the harmonious continuum between student political participation and the classical music repertoire of Bihar. Songs include Hum dekhenge, written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz [1/3], Aise dastoor…
Ramashankar Yadav, commonly known as Vidrohi (the rebel) is considered by many as a mascot of left activism. Living as a vagrant poet in Jawaharlal Nehru University, he died suddenly at a protest site…
This event organised in Jawaharlal Nehru University campus recounts the engagement of JNU students with gender and feminist issues since the inception of the university. The list of speakers is as follows…