Center for the Advanced Study of India

Feb 26, 12pm: our Non-Resident Scholar Karen Coelho (Retired, MIDS) on "Remaking the Urban in the Margins: Peripheral Resettlement and Differential Inclusion in India" (partnering w/ Penn Anthro, Dept of South Asia Studies, @southasiacenter.bsky.social) Read more: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/karen...

…from a welfare state classic that predates NREGA by more than a decade to an ethnographic look at how the employment guarantee law worked at the grassroots level, as well as her own scholarly journey in studying the landmark legislation.

CASI Managing Editor @rohanvenkat.bsky.social an spoke to Aiyar about the books & papers that she chose…

Aiyar, author of "Lessons in State Capacity from Delhi Schools" (Oxford University Press, 2024), was previously president and chief executive of the Centre for Policy Research where she also set up the Accountability Initiative to study governance in social policy.

IiT asked Yamini Aiyar (Brown University) to put together a short reading list of key works for students and scholars to better understand NREGA and its role within India’s developing welfare state—including a recommendation of one of her own papers on the subject.

With observers & researchers setting out to understand how the new law will alter India’s rural economy it’s worth looking at the history of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act to understand the significance of this legislation & its impact on the Indian countryside.

In its place, the government introduced and passed the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act—shortened to VB-GRAMG—which it claimed would update and improve on the now-repealed law that Modi once termed a “monument” to his predecessors’ failures.

In Dec 2025, Indian PM Modi’s gov’t delivered a parliamentary surprise. With little notice & no public debate, the gov’t introduced a bill to repeal a pioneering two-decade old rural employment guarantee act that had acted as a vital social safety net for millions of Indians.

INDIA IN TRANSITION:
"CASI Reading List: MGNREGA, Employment Guarantees, and the Indian Welfare State" with @rohanvenkat.bsky.social in conversation with Yamini Aiyar (Brown University) casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/casi-rea...

Thrilled to announce our Spring 2026 Saluja Global Fellow Lecture with Actor, Filmmaker, Social Advocate Nandita Das! (In partnership with Penn CIMS, Penn SP2, South Asia Studies Dept). Come hear about her journey from social work to cinema! Read More & Register: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/nandi...

Don't miss our Feb 23 CASI book talk with historian & award-winning filmmaker Sam Dalrymple—with Penn professors Sara Kazmi & Gareth Nellis (in partnership with Penn South Asia Studies Dept & Penn Libraries Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections) Register: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/sam-d...

Next in line on Feb 19 at 12pm, we're excited to hear from our Spring Visiting Scholar Raju Chalwadi on "The Making of Land, Neighborhood, and Valmikis Bombay" (in partnership with @southasiacenter.bsky.social & the Dept of South Asia Studies) Read more: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/raju-...

Join us Feb 12 as our own Postdoc Shahana Sheikh discusses "Parties, Voters, and Campaigns in the Digital Age: Theory and Evidence from India" More: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/shaha... (in partnership w/ Political Science Dept, CIND Annenberg, @southasiacenter.bsky.social & Dept of South Asia Studies

CASI’s @rohanvenkat.bsky.social spoke to De & Shani about their book—why an Ikea chair is a better analogy for the document than a physical monument, how the public inserted itself into the constitution-making process & the relevance of this history to contemporary debates about the Indian state.

They foreground widespread constitutional politics occurring outside the Constituent Assembly, drawing on thousands of letters to the Assembly, constitution-drafting exercises in India’s Princely States and efforts by various associations & institutions to influence the document.

In “Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History”(Cambridge University Press, 2025), Rohit De & Ornit Shani fundamentally challenge this elite-centric understanding.

Crucially, most of these critiques, across the political spectrum, still endorse the core premise: that the constitution was prepared with minimal input from the Indian populace.

This heavily-contested account posits that, against immense odds, the members of India’s Constituent Assembly framed a document that would establish democratic roots in India’s feudal society and empower the uneducated masses in the post-colonial era.

The prevailing historical narrative casts the drafting of India’s constitution as a heroic achievement by a small group of elites, taking place amid the hurried British withdrawal and the violence of Partition.

INDIA IN TRANSITION:
In this CASI Deep Dive IiT Interview, Managing Editor @rohanvenkat.bsky.social speaks to Rohit De & Ornit Shani about their new co-authored book on "'Re-assembling' India’s Constitutional History" casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/casi-dee...

Launching our Spring 2026 Seminar Series Feb 5, 12pm w/ David Engerman (Yale)—"Apostles of Development: Six Economists and the World They Made"
More: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/david...
In partnership w/ @southasiacenter.bsky.social South Asia Studies Dept, PISM, Dept of Economics, Dept of History)

Mark those calendars and join us for a Spring 2026 semester of exciting & engaging seminars! (Read more: casi.sas.upenn.edu/events)

In partnership with: @southasiacenter.bsky.social, South Asia Studies, (PISM) Penn Economics, Penn History, Penn Political Science, Penn Anthropology, (CIND) Annenberg

INDIA IN TRANSITION:
In "Inoculating India’s Youth: Media Literacy as a Tool Against Misinformation" @priyadarshi-amar.bsky.social (#UC3M #IC3JM) examines whether teaching media literacy in classrooms can curb misinformation. casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/priyadar...

INDIA IN TRANSITION:
Now available in HINDI, BANGLA, and TAMIL

"The Politics of Entry vs. Authority: Women, Parties, and Proxy Power" by economist Soumya Bhowmick

HINDI: casi.sas.upenn.edu/hindi/iit/so...
BANGLA: casi.sas.upenn.edu/bangla/iit/s...
TAMIL: casi.sas.upenn.edu/tamil/iit/so...

2026-27 CASI Postdoctoral Fellowship Applications OPEN! Applicants from a wide range of disciplinary traditions & methodological orientations from the humanities & social sciences whose work focuses on contemporary India are encouraged to apply. Read More & Apply: casi.sas.upenn.edu/casi-postdoc...

...because party gatekeeping, dynastic “family pipelines,” and persistent proxy power can still determine who gets nominated and how independently women can govern.

In this issue of IiT, economist Soumya Bhowmick examines how India’s forthcoming women’s reservation rollout may increase women’s entry into legislatures without automatically shifting absolute authority...

INDIA IN TRANSITION:
"The Politics of Entry vs. Authority: Women, Parties, and Proxy Power" by economist Soumya Bhowmick casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/soumya-b...

TAMIL: casi.sas.upenn.edu/tamil/iit/ja...

BANGLA: casi.sas.upenn.edu/bangla/iit/j...