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On 30 June and 1 July 2026, the Department of Anthropology, School of Global Studies and Sussex Asia Centre are holding a workshop on Debating Democracy’s Tryst with Polarisation: Historical Trajectory and Contemporary Dynamics in World’s Largest Democracy (India)

Day 1:  Tuesday 30 June, 12 noon - 5.30pm (with optional dinner in the evening)

Day 2:  Wednesday 1 July, 10am - 3.40pm

Location:  Global Studies Resource Centre (C175, Arts C), University of Sussex Campus

Description: 

While concerns about polarisation in democracies frequently surface in television debates, newspaper articles, and social media discourse, polarisation, unlike populism, as an analytical category, remains under-explored in academic scholarship. Furthermore, much of the academic literature on polarisation primarily focuses on the United States. To address this gap, this workshop, drawing on existing studies on the United States and other Western democracies, seeks to investigate the historical trajectory and diverse manifestations of polarisation in India, including affective, ideological, identitarian, digital, and party-based fault lines. By examining the world’s largest democracy, this workshop aims to contribute to the conceptual and theoretical understanding of how polarisation operates in thriving and functioning electoral democracies. In doing so, it will engage with several key questions:

a)  To what extent and in what ways is polarisation in India a new development?
b)  What are the historical continuities and ruptures in how polarisation has evolved in India?
c)  What are the unique features and dynamics of the current form of polarisation in India?
d)  How can we compare the patterns of polarisation in India with those in the United States and other
democracies?
e)  Is polarisation necessarily a negative phenomenon, since rising polarisation might also be read as a reflection
of deepening democracy?

The workshop will be held in the Global Studies Resource Centre (C175, Arts C) and is sponsored by the British Academy. The first day beings with lunch at 12 noon and features discussions from a range of speakers from Sussex and beyond. The second day of the workshop starts at 10am and concludes with a networking sessions at 3.10pm. Full details, including the list of panellists and discussion topics, are available on the Workshop Brochure.

Programme:

Day 1 - 30th June

Welcome lunch: 12-12.50 PM

Words of Welcome: Geert De Neve (Head, School of Global Studies) 12.50-1 PM

Panel 1: HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY: 1-3 PM

Chairperson:  Magnus Marsden (Professor of Social Anthropology & Director, Asia Centre, University of
Sussex)
Speakers:  Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge) and Sumaira Nawaz (Independent Scholar): Patterns of Polarization in Bengali and Hindi Literature;
Saumya Nath (University of Birkbeck): Development as Division: Extractive Frontiers, Adivasi Sovereignties
and the Politics of Polarisation;
Satanik Pal (National University of Singapore): Understanding Premodern Polarizations: Hindus, Muslims, and
those in-between in Bengal (Online)

Coffee Break: 3-3.30 PM

Panel 2: IDENTITY DYNAMICS: 3.30-5.30 PM

Chairperson:  Maya Unnithan (Professor of Social and Medical Anthropology, University of Sussex)
Speakers:  Arvind Kumar (University of Hertfordshire) and Dishil Shrimankar (University of Manchester): Measuring
Caste-Based Affective Polarisation in India;
Shailesh Kumar (Royal Holloway, University of London) & Aruna Mahananda (University of Essex): Violence,
Social Power, and the Politics of Narrative Construction: A Case Study of An Indian Special (Criminal) Law;
Avishek Jha (Independent Researcher): Combative Frontiers: Carnivalesque Religiosity and Polarisation in
Contemporary India (Online)

Workshop Dinner: 7.30 PM

Day 2 - 1st July

Panel 3: IDEOLOGICAL FAULTLINES: 10 AM-12 PM

Chairperson:  Geert De Neve (Professor of Social Anthropology and South Asian Studies, University of Sussex)
Speakers:  Indrajit Roy (University of York, UK): Standing up to Authoritarian Populism: Hopeful Resistance in Brazil, India and Turkey;
Uday Chandra (Ashoka University, India): Between Two Armies: Indian Democracy in the Global Civil War;
Vignesh Karthik (KITLV-Leiden) & Dickens Leonard (IIT, Delhi): Polarisation as Process: De Jure and De Facto
Pathways against Tamil Minorities

Lunch Break 12-1 PM

Panel 4: DIGITAL DIVIDE: 1-3 PM

Chairperson:  Shruti Jain (Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex)
Speakers:  Sandhya Fuchs (University of Bristol): Vernacularising the Digital ‘other’: Cross-cultural Politics of Hate and
Democratic Exclusion in the British South Asian Diaspora;
Sudhir Selvaraj (University of Bradford): Framing Polarization: Hindutva, Online News and the Representation of
Christians in India;
Ambar Kumar Ghosh (YRN Fellow, European Partnership for Democracy, Brussels): Social Media as a Space for
Populist Polarisation in a Multiparty Democracy: A Case Study of West Bengal, India (online)

Vote of Thanks: 3-3.10 PM

Ayan Guha (British Academy International Fellow, University of Sussex)

Networking over Coffee: 3.10-3.40 PM

Workshop Close

Please contact Ayan Guha at ag928@sussex.ac.uk for any queries.

By: Amy Collyer
Last updated: Thursday, 18 June 2026