Rochana Bajpai

Senior Lecturer in Politics at the SOAS, University of London

Multiculturalism in India: An Exception?

Friday, February 13th at 4pm
121 Bay State Rd. 1st Floor Lecture Room

India’s constitution (1950) has been hailed as a prescient model of multicultural accommodation, instituting minority group rights and affirmative action within a broadly liberal democratic framework. Its multinational federalism is often regarded as an exception to the unitary, centralized nation- state model adopted by many postcolonial states. This paper argues that claims of Indian exceptionalism need to be qualified. Diversity accommodation in India during constitution-making and since has faced challenges similar to those encountered in other post-colonial contexts. Crucially, in India’s constitutional vision, a normative deficit remained with regard to the protection of cultural difference and minority practices. This has been politically influential, with the differential treatment of minorities by the state viewed as an illegitimate concession, a line of critique exploited skilfully by a resurgent Hindu right.

Dr. Rochana Bajpai is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Politics at SOAS University of London. She received her graduate degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and the University of Oxford and has held research positions at Oxford. Her work has largely centered on India, and examined the politics of religion and caste with reference to constitutional and policy debates. Her first book Debating Difference: Group Rights and Liberal Democracy in India (2011, third impression 2014), demonstrated the importance of the practice of argument and debate in the context of demands of group equality and national unity. Bajpai’s current research funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2013-15), explores the theory and practice of political representation with particular reference to minority representation in Indian Parliament. She has also written on comparative affirmative action, with a focus on policy debates in India and Malaysia, as well as approaches to comparative political thought.

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