The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University, USA and Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai are jointly organising two workshops from 8th to 11th August, 2026 at NLSIU, Bengaluru.

India has witnessed considerable upheaval in the relationship between state institutions, citizenship, and collective action in recent times. Political, economic, and social changes over the past three decades have reshaped the ways in which power is organized, identity and belonging is negotiated, and political claims are articulated. Understanding these developments requires attention to formal institutions and the law and to the diverse social forces that contest and reconfigure them.

The first workshop on August 8th-9th will feature panels across five broad themes: changing nature of governance and law, citizenship as a contested and evolving terrain, movements and identities, political economy of development, recent mobilisations and youth unrest rooted in the politics of inequality.

The second workshop on August 10th-11th is designed as an intensive interdisciplinary forum where doctoral researchers working on the above themes can develop their work through sustained engagement with leading scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. It aims to support participants in refining research questions, strengthening theoretical and methodological approaches, and navigating the intellectual and professional challenges of doctoral research.

Please find the details about the workshops and their agenda linked below.

August 8th-9th

Paper Workshop on ‘State, Citizenship and Mobilisations in Contemporary India’

August 10th-11th

PhD Workshop on ‘State, Citizenship and Mobilisations in Contemporary India’