Speaking Otherwise Episode 1: Secularism and Post-Secularism
Channel: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Date: 05/05/2021

Speaking Otherwise is an academic podcast on the Contemporary, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi.  In this podcast, we speak to well known scholars from the humanities and the social sciences on the critical questions of our times.

Episode 1.  Secularism and Post-Secularism

In this episode, Prathama Banerjee speaks to Rajeev Bhargava on the place of religion in contemporary public life.  The discussion revolves around practices of secularism in India, the relationship between religion and caste, ancient and medieval histories of religious conflict and co-existence in the subcontinent and the concept of post-secularism as a possible optic to understand our times.

Rajeev Bhargava is a political philosopher and intellectual historian of religion and secularism.  He earlier taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University.  Subsequently, he was Professor and is now an honorary fellow at CSDS.  He was instrumental in setting up the Parekh Institute of Indian Thought at CSDS, a program for the study of longer intellectual histories of India in light of contemporary political and social questions.  His publications are many, including Individualism in Social Science(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992); Secularism and its Critics, (edited, Oxford University Press, 1998);Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution (edited, OUP, 2008); What is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It? (OUP, Delhi, 2010); and Secular States and Religious Diversity (edited, UBC Press, Vancouver, 2013).  His recent thoughts on importance of classical ideas in the creation of an alternative political theory are available in Rajeev Bhargava, ‘The roots of Indian pluralism: A reading of Asokan edicts'. Philosophy & Social Criticism. 2015; 41(4-5):367-381.