CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT, who is a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (Centre for International Studies and Research) in Paris, has had a 25-year-long association with India. He offers courses in the modern history of India and the polity of South Asia at the prestigious Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po). His first book, on the growth of the Hindu nationalist movement, was published in the mid-1990s and is arguably one of the finest scholarly works on the subject. His research interests also include the politicisation of the lower castes and the Dalit movement. Of late, he has been looking at the question of Muslim identity in India.
He is a keen follower of South Asian affairs and has contributed to Indian news magazines on issues relating to contemporary South Asia. He spoke at length to Frontline while he was in Bangalore to deliver a lecture on “Muslims in Indian cities”, the theme of his forthcoming co-edited volume. Read the interview
Sangh Parivar and new contradictions
Interview with French social scientist Christophe Jaffrelot