International Forum for Democratic Studies Research Council Member

Ashutosh Varshney

Brown University

Ashutosh Varshney is the Sol Goldman Professor of the Social Sciences and International Studies and professor of political science at Brown University.  Before joining Brown, he taught at Harvard (1989-98) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2001-2008). His awards include the Guggenheim, Carnegie and Social Science Research Council-MacArthur fellowships and the Gregory Luebbert and the Daniel Lerner Prizes.

He has authored and edited nine books, including Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy (Penguin 2013 and 2014), Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (Yale University Press, 2002 and 2003), Democracy, Development and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India (Cambridge University Press, 1995 and 1998). 

His research and teaching cover three areas: Ethnicity and Nationalism; Political Economy of Development; and South Asian Politics and Political Economy. His academic papers have appeared in World PoliticsPerspectives on PoliticsComparative PoliticsDaedalusJournal of Development StudiesJournal of Asian StudiesJournal of DemocracyJournal of East Asian Studies, and Foreign Affairs. In addition to professional journals, he also contributes guest columns to newspapers and magazines.  He is a contributing editor of the Indian Express.

He is currently working on a multi-country project on cities and ethnic conflict, on urban governance and citizenship in India, and on the role of caste and religion in the era of high economic growth in India.

He served on the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Millennium Task Force on Poverty. He has also served as an adviser to the World Bank and UNDP. 


Forum Publications

“India’s Watershed Vote: Hindu Nationalism in Power?” Journal of Democracy (Oct. 2014)

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