Revisiting Language Politics

September 19, 2025 (Friday)September 20, 2025 (Saturday)

Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics Blank Forum, 133 South 36th Street

Revisiting Language Politics

Historical Perspectives and Current Trends in India

Presented by The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy

Over the last few years, India has witnessed a resurgence of linguistic tensions nationally. Regional parties more frequently refer to linguistic identities to resist the centralization of political power and respond to India's delimitation plans. Language politics is now re-emerging on the national stage in ways that are both familiar and unfamiliar. This workshop examines language politics in contemporary India and our understanding of its postcolonial history.

Speakers include:

  • Akhil P. Veetil, Ph.D. Candidate in South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
  • Deepika Padmanabhan, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Weatherhead Scholars Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
  • Gregory Goulding, Associate Professor of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
  • Ketaki Jaywant, Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Chair, South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
  • Lisa Mitchell, Professor of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
  • Maya Tudor, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Oxford
  • Pritipuspa Mishra, Associate Professor of History, University of Southampton 
  • Rama Mantena, Professor of History, University of Illinois Chicago
  • Sumathi Ramaswamy, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of History, Duke University

Cosponsored by Penn's Department of South Asia Studies, Program in Comparative Literature & Literary Theory, Center for the Advanced Study of India, and Wolf Humanities Center.