Sunil Khilnani

Sunil Khilnani is a professor of politics and history at Ashoka University, India. Previously, he was a professor of politics and the Director of the King's College London India Institute. He is a scholar of Indian history and politics best known as the author of The Idea of India (1997). He was the presenter of a BBC Radio 4 series entitled Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, which was later published as a book in 2016.[1][2][3] He was a 2010 Berlin Prize Fellow, and he was also a recipient of the Indian government's 2005 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award.[4]

Career

Khilnani was born in New Delhi and grew up on the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia. He earned a first at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a PhD at King's College, Cambridge.[2]

He was Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies,[5] and Director of South Asia Studies.[6] He has also served on the Humanities and Social Sciences juries for the Infosys Prize from 2013 to 2015.[7] As of 2023, Khilnani is a Professor of Political Science and History at Ashoka University.[8] He is also the Dean of AshokaX, an initiative by the university that allows those not affiliated with Ashoka to take courses specially tailored for them.[9]

Personal life

He is married to the writer Katherine Boo.

Works

Books

• Khilnani, Sunil (1993). Arguing Revolution: the intellectual left in postwar France. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300057454.
• Khilnani, Sunil (1999). The Idea of India. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 9780374525910.
• Khilnani, Sunil; Kaviraj, Sudipta (2001). Civil Society: history and possibilities. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521002905.
• Khilnani, Sunil (2016). Incarnations: India in 50 Lives. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 9780241208229.

Chapters in books

• Khilnani, Sunil (2009), "Democracy and its Indian pasts", in Kanbur, Ravi; Basu, Kaushik (eds.), Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume II: Society, institutions and development, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 488–502, ISBN 9780199239979.

References

1. William Dalrymple, Incarnations: India in 50 Lives by Sunil Khilnani – review, The Guardian, 16 March 2016.
2. "King's College London - Professor Sunil Khilnani". Kcl.ac.uk. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
3. Roy, Amit (17 April 2011). "In UK pipeline: a new-India institute". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011.
4. "King's College London - Professor Sunil Khilnani". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
5. "Arguing Democracy: Intellectuals and Politics in Modern India | Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI)". Casi.ssc.upenn.edu. 30 April 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
6. "Johns Hopkins SAIS Academics | South Asia Studies | Faculty". Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
7. Humanities Jury, Infosys Science Foundation. "Infosys Prize - Jury 2015".
8. "Ashoka University: Leading Liberal Arts and Sciences University". www.ashoka.edu.in. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
9. "Ashoka X". AshokaX.

External links

• Esmt.org
• Thenation.com
• Foreignaffairs.com