Arvind Elangovan, Ph.D.
Education:
PhD: History Department, The University of Chicago, 2012
MPhil: Center for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2003
Research Interests:
Political and Constitutional history of South Asia, 19th and 20th centuries, Nationalism, Colonialism, Comparative Decolonization, Postcolonial India, History of Political Thought, and Social Movements.
Publications:
Monograph
Norms and Politics: Sir Benegal Narsing Rau in the Making of the Indian Constitution, 1935-1950, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2019. https://india.oup.com/product/norms-and-politics-9780199491445?
Articles
"A Political Turn? New Developments in Indian Constitutional Histories", History Compass, Vol. 20, Issue 8. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12746
“Rethinking Indian Constitutional History” – an essay in honor of Prof. Dipesh Chakrabarty in Dipesh Chakrabarty and the Global South: Subaltern Studies, Postcolonial Perspectives and the Anthropocene, edited by Saurabh Dube, Sanjay Sheth, and Ajay Skaria, Routledge, London and New York, 2019, pp, 29-32.
"Constitutionalism as Discipline: Benegal Shiva Rao and the Forgotten Histories of the Indian Constitution" in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. Published online: August 02, 2018. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2018.1481596
" 'We the People?': Politics and the conundrum of framing a constitution on the eve of decolonisation" in Udit Bhatia ed. The Indian Constituent Assembly: Deliberations on Democracy, Routledge, London and New York, 2018, pp. 10-37.
"Social Movements in India, 1800 to the Present" in Stefan Berger and Holger Nehring (eds) The History of Social Movements in Global Perspective: A Survey, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017, pp. 265-295.
"Provincial Autonomy, Sir Benegal Narsing Rau and an Improbable Imagination of Constitutionalism in India, 1935-38" in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 36, No. 1, 2016, pp. 66-82.
"Constitutionalism, Political Exclusion, and Implications for Indian Constitutional History: The Case of Montagu Chelmsford Reforms (1919)" in South Asian History and Culture. Vol.7, Issue 03, 2016. pp. 271-288.
" 'The Road Not Taken': Sir Benegal Narsing Rau and the Indian Constitution," in Decolonization and the Politics of Transition in South Asia, edited by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Orient Blackswan Publishers, Hyderabad, 2016. pp. 141-159.
"The Making of the Indian Constitution: A Case for a Non-Nationalist Approach," History Compass, Vol. 12, Issue No. 1, 2014, pp. 1-10.
Podcast Interviews:
Ideas of India: Tensions with the Indian Constitution. Date Released: January 20th, 2022. (Interview by Shruti Rajagopalan, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
Road to Independence: The Years of Constitutionalism. Date Released: August 13th, 2022. (Interview by Prashant Jha, Hindustan Times)
Book Reviews
Climate Change and the Human Condition, A review of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2021; Delhi: Primus Books, 2021) in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol LVI No. 31, July 31, 2021, pp. 26-28.
A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2018) in Law and History Review, Vol. 37, Issue No. 04, 2019, pp. 961-963
Surkh Salam Communism in Pakistan: Politics and Class Activism, 1947-1972 (I B Tauris, London and New York, 2015) in chapatimystery.com, July 2016 - http://www.chapatimystery.com/archives/homistan/cm_roundtable_i_surkh_salam_elangovan.html
Die in Battle, Do Not Despair: The Indians on Gallipoli, 1915 (Hellon and Company) by Peter Stanley in The Journal of Military History, Vol. 80. No. 3, 2016 pp. 912-914.
The Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012) by Ananya Vajpeyi in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 72, Issue 02, May 2013, pp. 493-494.
His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle Against Empire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011) by Sugata Bose in Left History, 16.1, Spring/Summer 2012, pp. 143-144.
Caste, Colonialism and Counter Modernity: Notes on a Postcolonial Hermeneutic of Caste, (London: Routledge, 2005) by Debjani Ganguly in Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 12, 1, March 2009, pp. 131-135.
Miscellaneous
https://thewire.in/politics/the-constitution-and-the-wrath-of-we-the-people
https://lawandotherthings.com/2021/07/how-should-we-historicize-the-indi...
https://lawandotherthings.com/2020/11/samvidhaan-reflections-on-shyam-be... (November 30, 2020)
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bn-rau-an-idealist-and-a-staun... (January 21, 2020)
"Does the Indian Constitution Speak for a Nation?" a post on Kafila - http://kafila.org/2016/03/01/does-the-indian-constitution-speak-for-a-na...
"Freedom from fear and the fear of freedom: Ambedkar and the Constitution", Frontline, Vol. 32, Issue No. 09, May 15, 2015
"Granville Austin: Interpreter of a Constitution," An obituary, Frontline, Vol. 31, Issue No. 15, August 8, 2014.
"Race too, after all, along with Gender," a post on Kafila - http://kafila.org/2013/09/08/race-too-after-all-along-with-gender-arvind...
Teaching (selective)
Survey course on South Asia, 1500 to the present
M K Gandhi and the Modern World
Nationalism in the "Third World", 1800 to the present
Historical Methods (Senior Seminar)
Historiography (Graduate Course)
Modern Indian Political Thought, 19th and 20th centuries.
