Popular politics in contemporary India gravitates around the articulation and aggregation of interests from a diversity of groups, communities and populations. Interests are articulated both through and in opposition to the state, and involves both democratic and non-democratic means. In this lecture Kenneth Bo Nielsen locates the current configuration of Indian popular politics in the context of the evolution of India’s democratic setup. Drawing on this own research on Muslim mobilisation in the state of West Bengal, and on the widespread opposition to forced land acquisition in the same state, Nielsen explores the interplay between contemporary forms of popular mobilisation, and the larger political and democratic structures within which they are embedded. The lecture includes the screening of Dayabati Roy and Partha Banerjee’s film "Unnayaner Name" (In the Name of Development).

The lecture takes place in Bulding 1483, Room 348