On Violence and the Importance of India for Global Political Thought

Dr Shruti Kapila is an Associate Professor of Indian History and Global Political Thought at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Kapila's recent work focuses on twentieth century political thought and theory and the Indian rewriting of modern political languages notably sovereignty, democracy, violence and republicanism. Highlighted as a ‘featured book’ of the year by its publisher  Violent Fraternity in the Indian Age  (Princeton University Press, 2021) has received advanced praise as a ‘ground-breaking’ book that is tipped to ‘globalise’ the field of political thought.

Dr Kapila will be discussing the remarking of modern political concepts especially of sovereignty, enmity and fraternity that foregrounded India's anticolonial politics and the world's largest democratic republic. In this talk she will focus on how Gandhi and Ambedkar were not only influential actors but also consequential political thinkers and philosophers thus also pointing to new methods and approaches to the study of political thought and theory.

Chair: Dr Maitrayee Deka,

This seminar is part of an open webinar series, hosted by the Centre for Research in Economic Sociology and Innovation.