Among the different research areas CSH spotlights, several budgeted projects implying top scholars and institutions worldwide have been entrusted with its expertise. These projects have in common to contribute to an in-depth comprehension of the contemporary stakes of India's and other emerging countries development.

FUNDED PROJECTS AT CSH:

Gender Inequalities in Higher Education and Scientific Careers: Examples from Engineering and Medicine in India:

This project, led by Prof. Odile Henry, has been chosen by the "Women and Science" Chair at the University of Paris Dauphine-PSL. The project involves collaboration with Prof. Pradeep Kumar Choudhury (Assistant Professor of Economics, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, JNU, Delhi), Prof. Seema Singh (Associate Professor in Economics & Head, Department of Humanities, Delhi Technological University, Delhi), and Dr. Aprajita Sarcar, a postdoctoral researcher at the Laureate Centre for History and Population, University of New South Wales, Australia). Yogita Suresh (Shiv Nadar University) worked as Research Assistant for this project.

Taking stock of electoral innovations at the local level, 1993-2023:

This project, led by Stephanie Tawa Lama and supported by the Max Weber Forum and LabEx TEPSIS, focuses on documenting electoral reform processes across seven diverse Indian states. It aims to capture the varied objectives, procedural approaches, and stakeholders involved in these reforms. Key components include compiling amendments to each state's Panchayati Raj Act and Municipalities Act, conducting field interviews during seven separate trips, and compiling a dataset of court cases related to local electoral reforms. Deshdeep Dhankar, a Research Assistant at CSH, is assisting Stephanie with the project.

Palanpur Survey:

Palanpur, a small village in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district, has been surveyed periodically since the 1950s. The re-survey of Palanpur village, part of the 'Extreme poverty-building evidence for effective action' project, was completed in 2022, with analysis and paper writing finalised in 2023. The findings, co-authored by Prof. Himanshu and Prof. Peter Lanjouw, have been submitted to the University of Copenhagen and will soon be publicly available. The research was presented at several major conferences, including the India Policy Forum 2023 in New Delhi, the Winter School at IFP Pondicherry, and at the Free University, Amsterdam. A conference is planned for November 2024, in collaboration with CNRS, IFP, and MIDS, to discuss findings from various village surveys in India, featuring both Indian and international participants.

This semester, CSH publications have been featured in prominent academic publications (Journals/ academic press) and international newspapers and magazines, underscoring our significant contributions to the field of social sciences.

SELECTION FROM RESEARCHERS:

LAURENCE GAUTIER

Laurence Gautier's first monograph "Between Nation and 'Community': Muslim Universities and Indian Politics after Partition" was published by Cambridge University Press in April 2024. This book proposes a political history of Muslim universities in post-independence India, from 1947 to the 1990s. Based on a wide range of sources in English and Urdu, it highlights the central role that these educational institutions played in the debates on national integration, secularism, minority rights and Muslim backwardness.

Excerpts from her book were featured in The Wire newspaper entitled "AMU Is No Stranger to How Student's Protests Are Co-Opted for Political Gains", on 12th May 2024. The excerpt highlighted the historical context and contemporary relevance of student protests at Aligarh Muslim University.

JOEL CABALION

Joel Cabalion and Julien Jugand's article titled Bhim Geet and the Ambedkarite Movement: The Genesis of a Cultural Field of Protest" explores Bhim Geet, an artistic music genre dedicated to Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, examining its cultural and societal significance. The study sheds light on the cultural challenges faced by Dalits in Maharashtra, highlighting the role of music and artistic expression in portraying these struggles. It was first published online in the South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal as part of a special issue on Art and Activism in South Asia in December 2023.

His other article "Enjeux et defis du Kisan Andolan, mouvement social de 2020-21 (Issues and Challenges of the Kisan Andolan, 2020-21 Social Movement)" published in Lundimatin in February 2024 reflects on the origins and significance of the large-scale Indian peasant protests of 2020-2021, offering insights into a global resistance movement confronting the complexities of neoliberalism.

STEPHANIE TAWA LAMA

Stephanie Tawa Lama's recent article on "Elections indiennes : le << pouvoir de la femme>> attendra encore (Indian Elections: The "Power of Women" Will Have to Wait)" was published in The Conversation in June 2024. It highlights the ongoing challenge of increasing women's representation in Indian politics.

SELECTION FROM ASSOCIATE RESEARCHERS:

BERENICE GIRARD

Berenice Girard edited a special issue on Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition with Shayan Shokrgozar (University of Bergen) and Siddharth Sareen (University of Stavanger). They authored an article titled "Governing Renewable Energy Rollouts in Financially Constrained Contexts". It addresses the governance dynamics and challenges of renewable energy rollouts in financially constrained contexts. It seeks to identify and analyse key obstacles and emergent risks such as utility-scale bias, extractivism, and ecological degradation. Girard, Shokrgozar and Sareen also wrote the Introduction to this Special Issue.

Girard also co-authored a paper with Siddharth Sareen, entitled "Change everything so that (almost) nothing changes? Investigating the territorial distribution of solar energy subsidies in rural India" published in Environmental Sociology in June 2024. The paper draws on extensive fieldwork in Rajasthan and Bihar to analytically characterise the solar rollout in contemporary India and advance the existing understanding of the territorial distribution of public solar energy funding.

BINA AGARWAL

Bina Agarwal's paper titled "Farmer Cooperation in England: Exploring its Extent, Forms and Impact Over Time" was published in July 2024 as a CRPR Working Paper. The paper focuses on cooperation in production, and traces the history of farmer cooperation in England, the varied forms it has taken over time, its extent, expected benefits, and observed impact.

Bina Agarwal published another article with Shruthi Naik (Hertie School, Berlin). Their article titled "Do Courts Grant Women Their Inheritance Shares? An Analysis of Case Law in India" investigate how women utilise the courts to assert their coparcenary rights by exploring regional patterns, types of contested property, case durations, judicial outcomes favouring women, and the presence of gender stereotypes in judicial language. It was published in World Development in July 2024.

BRUNO DORIN

Bruno Dorin, along with co-authors Thierry Brunelle, Raja Chakir, Alain Carpentier, Daniel Goll, Nicolas Guilpart, Federico Maggi, David Makowski, Thomas Nesme, Jutta Roosen, and Fiona H. M. Tang published an article titled "Reducing Chemical Inputs in Agriculture Requires a System Change" in Communications Earth & Environment in July 2024 that addresses the primary challenges of reducing chemical inputs in agriculture and suggests potential solutions. The authors advocate for a combined approach using various policy instruments-such as standards, taxes, and subsidies in a streamlined and cohesive manner to enhance effectiveness and improve coordination in adopting sustainable practices.

NICOLAS BELORGEY

Nicolas Belorgey's article titled "Aadhaar. En Inde, un identifiant numerique omnipresent menace la democratie (Aadhaar: In India, an Ubiquitous Digital Identifier Threatens Democracy)" published in Le Grand Continent in May 2024 examines how Aadhaar's extensive data aggregation and tracking capabilities could impact electoral processes and political stability, potentially affecting electoral targeting and voter suppression.

CSH organised several seminars, workshops, and film screenings this semester on various social, political, and cultural issues in contemporary India. These events offered opportunities for learning and discussion. Highlights included expert-led sessions, CSH-CPR workshops, and Indie talkies film screenings.

We are also pleased to present the CSH Seminar Academic Calendar for the second half of 2024 (September-December). Click here.

CSH SEMINAR

The CSH seminar takes place once every month. It offers researchers from different disciplines across social sciences an opportunity to present their upcoming or recently published work. A discussion with another scholar and a Q/A session with the audience follows the presentations.

JANUARY - APRIL 2024

Vikas Kumar (Azim Premji University) "Number as Political Allies: The Census in Jammu and Kashmir". [January,2024]

Veena Naregal (Institute of Economic Growth) "Monolingual States in a Polyglot Setting? The Long History of Linguistic Territorial Reorganisation in India 1905-1950s". [March, 2024]

Vidya Subramaniam (Jindal University) "Channelling compassion towards change: elite volunteerism, corporate philanthropy and education reform in urban India". [April, 2024]

MAY-AUGUST 2024

Odile Henry, Director of the CSH Delhi and professor at Paris 8 University, presented her research in a seminar titled "What Does My IITian Tag Actually Mean? The Relationship between Academic Titles and Job Positions." The seminar explored the enduring impact of caste dynamics within the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). [May 2024].

Laurence Gautier presented in a seminar, followed by a book launch of her latest Cambridge publication, "Between Nation and Community: Muslim Universities and Indian Politics after Partition." The book explores the roles of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia Islamia in post-independence India.[June 2024].

CSH WORKSHOPS

CSH workshops are a platform for researchers at CSH to present and discuss their current, forthcoming, and recently published research. These workshops foster a collaborative and intellectually stimulating environment where scholars can present their work, receive constructive feedback, and engage in meaningful dialogue with their peers.

Hugo Dones, a Visiting Doctoral student at CSH explored the evolving political dynamics among student organisations in Indian universities. This workshop aimed to shed light on contemporary transformations in the Indian student movement, providing insights into the various forms of student politics within the university environment. Politics, Identity, and Mobilization: An Ethnography of Student Movements in India [June 2024]

Roma Casamitjana, a Visiting Doctoral student at CSH presented her research in a closed workshop entitled "To Provide Services and Bring Development: Daily Challenges and Practices of MLAs in Northeast India" in August 2024. Her presentation analysed the influence of both individual variables (such as the MLA's socio-economic profile, career, and partisan affiliation) and contextual variables (related to the political culture and particularities of Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura) to explain the different ways in which MLAs negotiate, coordinate, and distribute welfare goods and services.

Amelie Chalivet, a CSH Visiting Doctoral student, presented her work in a closed workshop titled "The Role of Think-tanks in the Constitution of Strategic Subcultures in India (1998-2024)" in August 2024. Her talk explored how think tank positions, influenced by their affiliations and mobilisation capacities, may have influenced strategic subcultures in India between 1998 and 2024.

CSH-CPR URBAN WORKSHOPS

CSH organises a series of Urban Workshops in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to enrich public discussion on the citys development issues and address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society and politics.

In her workshop, Marianne Hillion, Senior Lecturer at the University of Strasbourg, explored the shifts in urban literature published in India since the 2000s, focusing on Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Hillion discussed how urban literature reflects the complexities of uneven development through two contrasting aesthetic modes: the "epic," which highlights the grand narrative of urban modernization, and the "ordinary," which addresses local historical processes. The presentation also placed these literary works within broader global South cultural and academic discussions, exploring their challenge to dominant narratives about post-liberalization Indian cities. Between the Epic and the Ordinary: The Politics of Contemporary Indian Urban Writing in English [May, 2024].

Indivar Jonnalagadda, Assistant Professor at Miami University, examined the dynamics of the real estate markets in Hyderabad's slum settlements. Slumlands are areas viewed as "locked up" and as distortions to real estate markets. Slum dwellers' access to markets is restricted by the state and local governments' underestimation of their economic potential. The processes of unreal estate assembly and exchange within the slum economy are examined in this session, along with the constraints that these activities place on the individuals engaged. Unreal Estate in a Global City: Slums in Hyderabad as Auto-constructed Property Markets [June, 2024].

Aradhna Aggarwal, Senior Advisor to the Trade, Technology, and Skills Team at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, and Ankita Garg, Research Associate for the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, analysed the socio-economic impacts of large-scale land conversion in Sri City, South India, focusing on households affected by the SEZ Act 2005. The study emphasizes the importance of project-specific factors, land acquisition strategies, and leadership approaches in shaping socially sustainable outcomes. Socioeconomic Effects of Land Industrialisation: Lessons from Sri City [July 2024].

Rohit Lahoti, a Consultant with the Urban Development Department of the Government of Maharashtra, explored the concept of tenure security in low-income settlements, focusing on Mumbai and Jaipur. It examines how perceived security, shaped by lived experiences and contextual factors, extends beyond legal titles. The study aims to identify indicators influencing tenure perceptions and advocates for incremental housing solutions over mere titling. Method to 'Measure' Perceived Tenure Security in Low-income Settlements in India (August 2024).

Indie Talkies

The Centre de Sciences Humaines in Delhi is organising a series of screenings in 2024 to showcase Indian independent cinema. This initiative is to spotlight films that are not easily accessible to the general public. Punctuated by debates, these screenings will also provide an opportunity for collective discussion on independent cinema in contemporary India. Read more about Indie Talkies.

Turup by Ektara Collective [May 2024]

In Bhopal, where chess is a popular pastime dominated by men, the lives of a domestic worker, a young woman in love, and a journalist are intertwined. Turup narrates their fight against communalism, casteism, and gender inequalities.

Cities of Sleep by Shaunak Sen [August, 2024]

Cities of Sleep is a luminous and poetic documentary that follows Shakeel, a homeless man on a daily quest for a place to sleep in Old Delhi. The director, Shaunak Sen, received the Oeil d'Or award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for his documentary All That Breathes.

Ad Hoc Special Screening

Survey City by Tarini Manchanda, Matthew Birkinshaw, and Sanjay Srivastava
[August, 2024]

CSH and Alliance Francaise de Delhi hosted a special screening of Survey City, a compelling documentary that explores the intriguing tale of Delhi's Border Basti, uncovering the journey from lost documents to their rediscovery within a government office. It delves into the complex relationships between government records and the local community, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of bureaucracy and personal histories.

CSH members have been actively involved in several important events outside of our own activities.

RESEARCHERS

Laurence Gautier was invited by the Centre for Studies of Plural Society (CSPS) on 22nd May 2024 and Indian Diaspora Washington DC Metro on 25th May 2024 to discuss her latest book, "Between Nation and 'Community': Muslim Universities and Indian Politics after Partition". Laurence officially launched of her book on 28th August 2024, at the India International Centre.

Stephanie Tawa Lama, participated in a panel discussion on "Super Election year 2024: The Central Role of Youth in Participatory Democracy in India", organised by the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) on 28th June 2024. She was also featured in an interview with French radio for "Entretien pour France Culture sur Indira Gandhi." broadcasted in July 2024. This interview explored her expertise and perspectives on Indira Gandhi's impact and legacy.

Hugo Ribadeau Dumas, a doctoral researcher at EHESS-Paris and CSH, presented at the Max Weber Forum Seminar Series on 23rd August 2024. His talk, titled "A Space of One's Own: Friendship in the Time of Fading Public Spaces," examined how personal connections evolve in response to shrinking public spaces.

Deshdeep Dhankar, a research assistant at CSH, presented a paper titled "Digital Strategies for Resisting Power: Protest Movements in New India" in the Political Mobilization and Identity session at the Delhi School on Political Communication Workshop, on 23rd August 2024 at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

ASSOCIATE RESEARCHERS

Bina Agarwal delivered a keynote address on "Rethinking Agriculture" at the Annual Conference on Economics and Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global University on 6th June 2024. She also spoke on a plenary panel on Gender and Agrifood Systems at the 34th Conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economics, held in Delhi. Her presentation, titled "Beyond Family Farming: The Transformative Potential of Women's Group Farming," took place on 6th August 2024. On 7th August 2024, at the same conference, she presented a contributed paper titled Does the Landowner's Gender Affect Self-Cultivation and Farm Productivity: An Analysis for India?"

Bina Agarwal won the First Global Inequality Research Award from The World Inequality Lab (WIL) and Sciences Po's Center for Research on Social Inequalities (CRIS), France for 'groundbreaking work in the field of social and environmental inequalities'. She will receive it in person in early 2025.

Agarwal also won the Kenneth E. Boulding Award for Ecological Economics 2023. The award ceremony was held at a special ISEE 2023 Biennial Conference session in Santa Marta, Colombia.

Pierre PFISTER, a PhD scholar in History and Civilisation at EHESS/ED286 PARIS. He is working on his thesis entitled "Adventures and conflicts of power in non-gallant India: the crisis of the Mughal Empire and the fortunes of General Sombre or Samru, a nabob of Sardhana (18th century)" under the supervision of the director, Alessandro Stanziani and co-director, Corinne Lefevre. Read More

Amelie CHALIVET, a PhD scholar in political science at the Universite Paris Pantheon-Assas et UQAM. Her thesis is "The Influence of India's Strategic Culture on its Hedging Strategy". Her research activities aim at understanding how India's strategic culture influences its behaviour on the international stage and to what extent India's strategic culture may explain its strategy. Read More

Iva CAPOVA, is a post-doc researcher at CNRS and a teaching assistant at Sciences Po Toulouse. She will conduct a qualitative survey in several working-class districts of Delhi and study the structural factors involved in the upward social mobility of the working classes through education in India.

Lola Cindric, a doctoral fellow, was awarded the "Islamology grant" funded by MEAE and hosted by the CSH. She is a PhD candidate at EHESS-CESAH Paris. Her research title is "From a prestigious craft to the prestige of craftsmanship. Issues at stake in the 'pietra dura' between Agra, India and Florence Italy". Read More

Sahib Singh, a PhD student in Anthropology at University College London (UCL), His doctoral research focuses on the cultural and political articulations of an indigenous environmental movement in India, value transformations, and traditional ecological knowledge, along with exploring notions of self-determination and how they intersect with the politics of representation and indigeneity as a concept. Read More

Chanderkiran Thakur, a research assistant currently working in the "TransIndianDiary ANR Project" headed by Marie Derville, with state data on spending toward agricultural transition and natural farming. He holds a Masters in Design and Citizenship from Glasgow School of Art and a Bachelors in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. Read More

Berenice GIRARD, is an associate researcher at CSH and a researcher fellow at IRD. Her research focuses on the governance of India's transition to solar energy. She is particularly interested in the role of various private and public actors in shaping the transition to renewable energy at different scales in India since the 1980s. Read More

Marie Derville is an agro-economist, and associate Professor at the French National Superior School for Agricultural Training (ENSFEA) since 2012. She developed a mesoeconomic framework to support the transformation of agricultural and food systems in France, Europe (Germany) and Asia (Bhutan, India, Afghanistan). Read More

Katerina Jobst is a PhD student in German cultural studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Her thesis, entitled "The 'Oriental dancer,' Representation, Imaginaries and Myths of India in German-speaking Countries (1st half of the 20th century)", analyses the perceptions of Indian dancers in Europe (and especially Germany) leading to the rise of the so-called "Oriental" dancer. Read More

Takeru d'Everlange is a Master 2 Geography student at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Takeru d'Everlange is working on the subject "Smart Cities 100 Program" under the supervision of Marie - Helene Zerah (IRD-CESSMA UMR245). This study mainly aims to characterise and assess the relationship between participatory processes and Smart City Project implementation, as well as the assessment of the implementation of environmental and energy-related measures. Read More

Tim Pivet, is a third-year student at Sciences Po Lyon. After studying for one semester at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, he did a 4-month internship under Joel Cabalion a Researcher at the CSH. His work focuses on the question of forest management and wildlife encounters. Read More

Hugo Dones, is a PhD candidate in Political Anthropology at EHESS (Centre d'Etudes Sud-Asiatiques et Himalayennes). He has also been awarded an "Islamology grant" from MEAE, hosted by the CSH. His research interests encompass social movements and student political activism in India at three different campuses in Delhi and Hyderabad. Read More

Naomi Hazarika, is a PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is currently conducting fieldwork for her doctoral project in India funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She examines the redevelopment policy called "In-Situ Slum Redevelopment and Rehabilitation on Public-Private Partnership Model 2019" implemented by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Read More

The CSH Library serves the entire scientific community of Delhi by offering crucial bibliographical resources for both research and teaching. The library holds a collection of 7,700 titles in French and English, including books, theses, and reports. This extensive collection features unique and rare works, with 10% of the titles being out of print, making it a valuable resource not available in other libraries in New Delhi.

The library covers a wide range of fields, including economic development, health, labor, education, urban dynamics, environment, religion, gender studies, and political science. It also boasts complete hardcover collections of periodicals from India, France, and other countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

For more information on the CSH library services, membership, and catalogue click here.

For more info contact:

Centre de Sciences Humaines

2, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi - 110011

csh-delhi.com