Pratap Bhanu Mehta

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Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Image:Pratap Bhanu Mehta.jpg
Residence	India
Nationality	Indian
Fields	Political Science
Institutions	Centre for Policy Research
Alma mater	Princeton University

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is an Indian political scientist, constitutional expert and commentator. He is currently the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. He was previously Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University and Associate Professor of Government and of Social Studies at Harvard. He was also Professor of Philosophy and Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has published widely in reputed national and international journals in a variety of fields including, political philosophy, intellectual history, constitutional law, international politics, society and politics in India. His most recent book are The Burden of Democracy and Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design. He has been a prolific contributor to public debates and his columns have regularly appeared in The New Republic, Foreign Policy, The Hindu, Indian Express, Telegraph, Yale Global, and numerous other papers. He has served as Editorial Consultant to the Indian Express. He is co-editor of The Oxford Companion to Politics in India (forthcoming), and serves on the editorial board of numerous journals. He has lectured widely in universities in the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Europe and Japan.

Dr. Mehta obtained a B.A. from St. John's College, Oxford where he read PPE and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.

He has been a columnist for, among others, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, The Hindu, and the Calcutta Telegraph and has served as an editorial consultant for the Indian Express.

He resigned from the National Knowledge Commission following a disagreement over reservations for socially disadvantaged sections of society.

[edit] Current Research

Pratap Bhanu Mehta's current research projects center around four themes. The first is understanding India's Great Transformation, the profound social, political and economic changes of the last two decades, and the trajectory they are likely to take in the future. This will result in a book. The second project looks at the role of law in Indian society. It will specifically focus on the justiciability of social and economic rights, and whether judicial intervention is a good means of achieving those objectives. This project will result in a series of papers. The third project - a collaborative project-related to the first two is on Globalization and the Indian State, that looks at the legitimacy challenges facing the Indian State in an era of globalization. The fourth project continues his long standing interest in philosophical ethics and explores what it means to lead an examined life. In addition Mehta continues to perform the role of loyal opposition and engage the public and government through columns on topical issues.

[edit] Selected Works

The Oxford Companion to Politics in India edited by Niraja Jayal & Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press (forthcoming)

Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design edited by Devesh Kapur & Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press (2005)

Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: An Omnibus Comprising The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in India; The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India; The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India Introduction by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press (2004)