University of Bradford
22 June 2026
At this moment when democratic institutions across South Asia face pressures, and authoritarian tendencies are becoming increasingly normalised, there is an urgent need for collective reflection, dialogue, and engagement. We invite scholars working on democracy and authoritarianism in South Asia to this half-day workshop hosted by the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS) Democracy and Authoritarianism Study Group in the University of Bradford. The schedule for the workshop is as follows:
11:00-11:20 | Arrival
Location: Theatre in the Mill, University of Bradford (Mazemap link here)
11:30 – 12:45 | Using Theatre Practices to Teach Democracy: A Workshop Delivered by Dr Sudhir Selvaraj
Location: Theatre in the Mill
In this practical session, Dr Sudhir Selvaraj introduces his use of creative practices in teaching democracy. In particular, he will speak about his experiences using play readings of his self-scripted plays. The session will also include a reading of one of his plays.
Dr Sudhir Selvaraj is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Peace Studies and International Development at the University of Bradford. His research focuses on democratic decline, nationalism, and anti-minority violence, particularly in South Asia. He is also a playwright whose plays on conflicts and disasters in South Asia have been staged over 75 times in South Asia, the UK and the US.
13:00 – 13:45 | Lunch
Location: Richmond Eatery, University of Bradford (Mazemap link here)
14:00 – 14:15 Welcome and Introduction
Location: R0.01, Bright Building, University of Bradford (Mazemap link here)
14:15 – 15:30 | ‘Between Consolidation and Churning: Reading Recent Election Results in South Asia: A Discussion with Dr Vignesh Rajahmani
Chaired by Prof. Nayanika Mookherjee, University of Durham Location: R0.01, Bright Building | Also online (Link to Join)
In 2026, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu went to the polls in elections that appeared to confirm a familiar story of national equilibrium. The cycle tells a less tidy story. Taking the four verdicts as its pivot, this presentation reads 2026 as a moment of churning rather than settlement with overlaps and disjuncture vis-à-vis Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka: only Bengal is a clean acquisition for the BJP; Assam is regional grammar nested inside a national party; Kerala’s bipolar system rotated without opening a third door; and Tamil Nadu is seemingly a within-tradition succession assembled without the BJP in the room. Rather than advancing settled theses, the talk opens lines of thought — what happens to welfare politics when direct transfers bypass the regional broker; whether franchise-and-faction party architectures survive the unmaking of their arithmetic; and whether the federal axis is hardening into a durable grammar of resistance or simply the next terrain of consolidation.
Dr Vignesh Rajahmani is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Indian and Indonesian politics at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). He is the author of The Dravidian Pathway (2025), and editor of Caste and the Crisis of Dignity: Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Speaks (2025).
15:30-16:00 | Speed Networking Session Location: R0.01, Bright Building
16:00-17:30 | ‘Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: The Indian Emergency Revisited’: A Lecture Delivered by Dr Karthick Ram Manoharan Chaired by Prof. William Gould, University of Leeds
Location: R0.01, Bright Building | (Link to Join)
The Indian Emergency of 1975-77 remains one of the most consequential episodes in South Asian democratic history, yet its implications for political theory and for understanding resistance in the global south remain underexplored. Karthick Ram Manoharan examines the Emergency through the lens of political theory, engaging with the Schmittian tradition of sovereign exception to ask what the Emergency reveals about the fragility and resilience of constitutional democracy in postcolonial contexts. Rather than treating it as an aberration, this presentation reads the Emergency as a diagnostic moment; one that illuminates the structural tensions between constitutional form and political power, and forces a reckoning with what democracy requires beyond its formal institutions.
Dr Karthick Ram Manoharan is Smuts Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, and Assistant Professor at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He is the author of Periyar: A Study in Political Atheism (2022) and Frantz Fanon: Identity and Resistance (2019), the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Periyar (2025) and Rethinking Social Justice (2020).
18:00 onwards: Optional Networking Gathering (at own cost) Location: One of Bradford’s famed eateries (exact location TBC)
Please Note
- All sessions will be held at the University of Bradford campus with the afternoon sessions being online.
- Information about how to get to the University of Bradford, parking, and locations on campus can be found here.
- To Register, please complete this form.
- For any questions, please contact Dr Sudhir Selvaraj (selvaraj2@bradford.ac.uk)