Minority Rights in the World’s Largest Democracy
The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) held a seminar on minority rights in the world’s largest democracy, India.
Sten Widmalm's presentation can be found here (pdf).
One of the defining features of the Indian democracy has been its safeguarding of minority rights. Some observers now suggest that such rights are being challenged. The seminar will provide perspectives on the state of minority rights in India. Why did India constitutionalize minority rights in the first place, who argued for it and how were the ideas justified? How has the debate changed over time? How robust are public institutions and public opinion in India concerning minority rights in international comparison?
Speakers:
Rochana Bajpai, Senior Lecturer in Politics at the SOAS, University of London
Sten Widmalm, Professor in political science at the Department of Government and researcher at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University
Moderator: Henrik Chetan Aspengren, Research Fellow at the Asia Program at UI and coordinator of the UI-SASNET South Asia Initiative.
This seminar was enabled by the financial support of SIDA through Forum Syd.