S06E05: Muku­li­ka Baner­jee on the Cul­ti­va­tion of Democ­ra­cy in India 

This episode explores what makes repub­li­can val­ues and prac­tices impor­tant to the sur­vival of any democ­ra­cy, as well as the role of social­i­ty in cul­ti­vat­ing of a com­mon sense of pur­pose, mutu­al inter­de­pen­dence, and col­lec­tive engage­ment. What makes the agrar­i­an ethos of Indi­an vil­lage com­mu­ni­ties res­onate with the spir­it of demo­c­ra­t­ic repub­li­can­ism and how does the rur­al India vote trans­form polit­i­cal consciousness?

Guests fea­tured in this episode:

Muku­li­ka Baner­jee, Pro­fes­sor of Anthro­pol­o­gy at the Lon­don School of Eco­nom­ics and Polit­i­cal Sci­ence where she was also the inau­gur­al direc­tor of its South Asia Cen­tre from 2015 to 2020. Work­ing at the inter­sec­tion of social anthro­pol­o­gy, pol­i­tics, and his­to­ry, Muku­li­ka has pub­lished wide­ly on South Asia. She edits also the excel­lent Rout­ledge series, explor­ing the polit­i­cal in South Asia. Her most rel­e­vant pub­li­ca­tions to this episode are;  Why India Votes [2014]  and Cul­ti­vat­ing Democ­ra­cy, Pol­i­tics and Cit­i­zen­ship in Agrar­i­an India [2021].