Prof. Rajeev Bhargava
Political theorist and Director, Institute of Indian Thought, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
A noted Indian political theorist, Prof. Bhargava has held professorships at several universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Delhi and since 2005, with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). He was also the Director of the Centre from 2007-14. He is an Honorary Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford. He has been a Fellow at Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Bristol, Institute of Advanced Studies, Jerusalem, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, and the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna. From 2014-18, he was a Professorial Fellow at ACU, Sydney and Berggruen Fellow at Stanford, NYU and Tsingua universties between 2015-2017.
He received his B.A. degree in economics from the University of Delhi, followed by M.Phil (Politics). and D.Phil. from Oxford University. Internationally renowned for his work on secularism and methodological individualism, some of his publications include Individualism in Social Science (1992), What is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It? (2010), and The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy (2010). He is on the advisory board of several national and international institutions, and was a consultant for the UNDP report on cultural liberty.