Event Archives - Page 2 of 40 - National Law School of India University

Book Talk | ‘Tareekh Pe Justice: Reforms for India’s District Courts’ by LSC

The Legal Services Clinic is organising a book talk on ‘Tareekh Pe Justice: Reforms for India’s District Courts‘ with authors Prashant Reddy T (NLS BA LLB 2008) and Chitrakshi Jain (Author and Researcher). The session will be moderated by Varsha Aithala, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU.

About the session

The book presents a rare, evidence-based analysis of India’s district judiciary, tracing its colonial legacy, systemic shortcomings, and urgent reforms. As a legal aid body engaged with access to justice, LSC hosts this conversation to reflect on institutional reform at the grassroots. For a deeper look into the book’s core themes, please find the official introduction attached to this email. The session will begin with a presentation by the authors, followed by a panel discussion and an interactive Q&A with the audience.

Muse@NLS Library | Seminar on ‘Fiction, Justice and the Law’

NLSIU’s Library Committee organised a seminar on ‘Fiction, Justice and the Law’ by debut novelist Sonali Prasad on Saturday, August 23, 2025.

Drawing on Sonali’s ‘Glass Bottom,’ the seminar examined the consequences of environmental harm, the persecution of environmental defenders, the state’s power over the individual, and catastrophes that push beyond existing legal frameworks. Framing the planetary crisis as a crisis of conscience, and engaging with the tensions between natural law and human law, participants explored how literature and law together illuminate the boundaries of justice.

The seminar took place in the NLSIU Library Basement at 11 AM. Attendees were invited to bring a legal case or ruling that resonates with these themes and to contribute to a live, collaborative discussion that bridges jurisprudence, ethics and storytelling. NLS student Niveditha Prasad (Vth year BA LLB) moderated the event.

About the Author

Sonali Prasad was born and raised in New Delhi, India. Her journalism has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, Hakai Magazine, Quartz, and Esquire Singapore. She has been awarded a Pulitzer Travelling Fellowship, Global TED Fellowship, MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship, Logan Science Journalism Fellowship and a Jan Michalski Writing Residency, among other grants and honours. Her debut novel, Glass Bottom, was published with Picador India (2024) as their “literary debut of the year”. It was listed in Telegraph India’s ‘The page turners of 2024: Fiction’ among esteemed writers such as Samantha Harvey, Jhumpa Lahiri and Percival Everett, and was shortlisted for the Kalinga Literary Festival Book Award in the category ‘Debut (English)’.

NLS Faculty Seminar | Reconciling Conflicts Between Fundamental Principles Of Public Law And Of Private Law Within Private Law Adjudication

In this week’s faculty seminar, Dr. Niamh Connolly, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Laws at University College London (UCL), presented her paper titled “Reconciling conflicts between fundamental principles of public law and of private law within private law adjudication.” The seminar was held on August 20, at 2:30 pm, in the Ground Floor Conference Hall at NLSIU’s Training Centre.

Abstract

How should private law respond when a legal dispute involves a conflict between important principles that originate in public law and private law respectively? This paper proposes an approach that involves, at its core, attaching due weight to the considerations of both public and private law. Neither sort of principle should be viewed as categorically more important. Nor are public law principles somehow beyond comprehension for those engaged in private law adjudication. Private law judges are fully capable in engaging in reasoning that takes into account rules governing the use of public power. It might seem that the fundamental principles and policies at issue are incommensurable and cannot be weighed against each other. However, it becomes possible to attach due weight to them when we focus on how each principle is actually engaged on the facts of each case. Just as we all make judgments that balance incommensurable considerations every day, the common law regularly balances competing principles and policies. There are several techniques that the law uses to achieve the appropriate compromises between competing considerations. Sometimes it constructs a route map of rules and exceptions that enables us to plot a path that takes due account of a range of salient factors. Sometimes, instead, the law allows judges to engage in evaluative decision-making that responds organically to the facts of each case. Either technique might enable us to achieving a balance between conflicting public law and private law considerations.

Gallery

Bangalore Little Theatre’s ‘The Prophet and the Poet’ | Performance at the NLS Campus

We are delighted to announce that Bangalore Little Theatre, the city’s oldest English-language theatre group, will be performing their acclaimed play ‘The Prophet and the Poet’. The performance is being organised by NLSIU’s Student Bar Association as part of this year’s Independence Day celebrations on campus.

Synopsis

The Prophet and the Poet is based on the exchange of letters and articles between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore over a 25 year period, with the Indian freedom struggle as the backdrop. The letters reveal how the two personalities differed significantly on the form and content of the freedom movement with their differences widening over the years. However, the depth of their personalities maintained genuine respect for each other in spite of deep differences on ideological grounds, reflecting the political maturity of those times in India.

Attendees are expected to be seated by 5:50 pm. Theatre etiquette will be followed, so all attendees are requested to keep their phones on silent mode and avoid disruptions once the performance begins.

With this performance, the University hopes to make this the start of a vibrant culture of theatre & drama at NLS!

Workshop on ‘Inequality and Governance’ | By NLSIU & Brown University

The Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion at NLSIU, in collaboration with Brown University, is hosting a workshop on ‘Inequality and Governance’ on August 14, 2025.

About the Workshop

This one day workshop will bring together a group scholars working on themes of inequality, development and governance to share ongoing research at various stages. These could be research proposals, article drafts and chapters from a book project. The workshop is being organised around two panels with four papers and a discussant assigned to each. Each presenter will have up to 20 minutes to present their work. This will be followed by 15 minutes for comments from the discussant and Q&A from other participants. In the final session, there will be a discussion on next steps for putting together a series of such workshops over the next two years, ideas for publications and other ideas for institutional collaborations.

Caste and Development

The articulation of caste has played a critical role in shaping the development trajectory of modern and contemporary India. Far from being a static remnant of a premodern social order, caste is now increasingly recognised as a dynamic and enduring structure that interacts with, and often underpins, key aspects of India’s political economy. It is pertinent to note that caste should not be viewed as antithetical to capitalist modernity or the functioning of modern market economies. Rather, it remains a salient force that intersects with class, labour, and institutional arrangements in complex and historically contingent ways.

Recent scholarship has significantly expanded the understanding of caste beyond its conventional framing within discourses of exclusion, discrimination, protest, and social reform. Contemporary studies have begun to examine caste as an active agent in India’s development experience—shaping and being shaped by processes such as capitalist modernisation, the expansion of welfare schemes, and the evolution of democratic governance. These works demonstrate how caste structures mediate access to state resources, economic mobility, and public representation, thereby influencing patterns of inclusion and inequality in the context of development. Moreover, this body of research situates caste within the broader historical frameworks of colonial rule and postcolonial state formation, analysing how institutional arrangements—from colonial bureaucracies to constitutional mandates—have both challenged and reinforced caste hierarchies. It also brings to light the ways in which caste continues to inform labour relations, patterns of employment, and market participation, particularly in informal and agrarian economies.

By reorienting the study of caste toward its entanglements with development, capitalism, and institutional governance, these contributions offer a more comprehensive and empirically grounded account of how social stratification persists and transforms in contemporary India. This expanded analytical approach enables a deeper understanding of how caste operates not simply as a cultural or social identity, but as a key axis of political economy and governance.

The workshop invites papers that explore the enduring influence of caste in shaping the trajectory of development and social policy in contemporary India. It especially encourages papers focussed on empirically grounded studies, which examines how caste operates across rural and urban contexts, development programmes, and state interventions and across sectors such as education, health, employment, land, and welfare.

Governance and Local Democracy

Over the past three decades, India has undergone profound transformations in its governance architecture, marked by significant attempts at democratic deepening, social policy expansion, and reconfiguring of centre-state dynamics. This panel explores the evolving landscape of governance and democracy in India through the lens of decentralisation, fiscal federalism, and rights-based development, while grappling with contemporary challenges such as climate change and socioeconomic inequality.

The decentralisation reforms of the 1990s sought to institutionalise grassroots democracy through the Panchayati Raj system and urban local bodies. However their outcomes remain uneven, shaped by varying state capacities, elite capture, and the complexities of federal governance. The rights-based social policies of the early 2000s directed significant funds and functionaries downwards, introduced new platforms for citizen oversight and grievance redress and have been accompanied by expanding financial inclusion infrastructure and large-scale digitalisation. This has increased the institutional presence of the local state and state-citizen interactions in myriad new ways. Fiscal federalism has played a central role in mediating these transformations, especially as demands on state and local governments have increased in the context of decentralisation and welfare delivery. The evolving role of institutions such as the Finance Commission and centrally sponsored schemes reflects ongoing tensions over resource sharing, autonomy, and accountability between the Centre and states. These challenges are further compounded by the climate crisis, which demands coordinated but locally embedded responses.

The papers in this panel study how complex interplays of routine and exception emerge amidst the institutional reforms and expanding terrain of formal entitlements alongside persistent inequalities and thriving informal structures of mediation. The papers will address the governance challenges and encounters between the state and citizens through the lens of a specific social policy or set of policies or a cross-cutting institutional reform. Papers are also encouraged to pay particular attention to how governance structures respond to both social and ecological vulnerabilities. This panel invites papers that examine linkages between institutional reform and democratic deepening. How did decentralisation alter political competition and the exercise of citizenship at the local level? To what extent did fiscal federalism enable states and local governments to adapt social policy to local needs? Did rights-based social policies reinforce or bypass local democratic institutions? What is the evolving role of local governments in an era of increasing centralisation and digital governance

Faculty Co-organisers

Dr. Aniket Nandan, Centre for the Study Social Inclusion, NLSIU
Dr. Anindita Adhikari, Assistant Professor of Social Science, NLSIU
Prof. Patrick Heller, Centre for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University

Agenda

Panel 1: Caste and Development | 10:15 AM to 1 PM

Paper title: ‘Old Problem in a New Place: Redlining of Ex-Untouchable Ghettos’
Presenter: Dr. Jusmeet Sihra, University of Cambridge
Discussant: Dr. Sushmita Pati, NLSIU
Paper title: ‘Music as Political: Rethinking anti-caste politics through a cultural interface’
Presenter: Dr. K Kalyani, Azim Premji University
Discussant: Dr. Karthikeyan Damodaran, NLSIU
Paper title: ‘Entrepreneurship and marginalised social identities in India’
Presenter: Dr. Angarika Rakshit, NLSIU
Discussant: Dr. Aniket Nandan, NLSIU
Paper title: ‘Caste and Development: Tracking Dalit social mobility within the realm of Dravidian social justice’
Presenter: Dr. Karthikeyen Damodaran, NLSIU
Discussant: Dr. Swati Narayan, NLSIU

Panel 2: Governance and Local Democracy | 3 PM to 5 PM

Paper title: ‘The Political Economy of Federalism: Regional inequality and fiscal transfers in India’
Presenter: Dr. A Kalaiyarasan, Madras Institute of Development Studies
Discussant: Dr. Srikrishna Ayyangar, NLSIU
Paper title: ‘Planetary Temporalities: Framing ‘Urgency’ in Disaster Management’
Presenter: Dr. Sudheesh RC, NLSIU
Discussant: Dr. Anindita Adhikari, NLSIU
Paper title: ‘Forest rights, displacement and political economy of development: A qualitative analysis of relocated tribals from Satpura Tiger Reserve’
Presenter: Dr. Shiuli Vanaja, NLSIU
Discussant: Radhika Chitkara, NSLIU
Paper title: ‘Learning to Lead: The uneven advance of power-sharing in the panchayat’
Presenter: Dr. Anisha George, Azim Premji University
Discussant: Prof. Patrick Heller, Brown University

NLSIU hosted a panel discussion with Prof. Patrick Heller, Prof. Ashutosh Varshney and Dr. Siddharth Swaminathan from Brown University, United States, in which they presented the findings from their latest report titled ‘Citizenship, Inequality and Urban Governance: A Study of Indian Cities.’

About the Report

Published by the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, the report presents the results of a comparative study of 14 cities (and 31803 households) where it probes in detail two kinds of contemporary urban experiences in India. First, it explores how India’s urban citizens relate to the state and how the state provides basic public services to them, and second, how citizens interact with one another, whether their social interactions extend beyond their own caste and religious communities, their patterns of participation, and how they view issues of citizen equality and freedom.

Read the Report

About the Speakers

Panellists:

Prof. Patrick Heller, Professor of International and Public Affairs and Sociology, Brown University
Prof. Ashutosh Varshney, Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, Brown University
Dr. Siddharth Swaminathan, Visiting Research Associate, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University

Discussants:

Dr. Sushmita Pati, Associate Professor, Social Science, NLSIU
Dr. Angarika Rakshit, Assistant Professor, Social Science, NLSIU

Agenda

Welcome Remarks | 5 PM
Panel 1: Basic Service Delivery, Segregation and Inequality | 5:05 PM – 6:20 PM
- Presentation by the Panellists (40 mins)
- Comments by the Discussant: Dr. Angarika Rakshit, Assistant Professor, Social Science, NLSIU (20 mins)
- Q&A (15 mins)
Tea/Coffee Break (10 mins)
Panel 2: Participation, Social Interactions and Governance | 6:30 PM – 8 PM
- Presentation by the Panellists (40 mins)
- Comments by the Discussant: Dr. Sushmita Pati, Associate Professor, Social Science, NLSIU (20 mins)
- Q&A (15 mins)
Closing remarks (10 minus)

SLR Reading Circle | ‘Trials of Sovereignty’ by Alastair McClure

NLSIU’s Socio-Legal Review (SLR), an open-access, student-run journal, is organising the second iteration of the SLR Reading Circle. This trimester, through the course of four sessions, we will be closely reading and engaging with Alastair McClure’s recent book, ‘Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence, and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857–1922.’

Sessions

Session 1: August 13, 2025 | 4:30 to 5: 30 PM
Speaker: Dr. Samyak Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Social Science, NLSIU
This session will dive deep into chapter 1 of the book

Session 2: August 20, 2025 | 4 PM to 5 PM
Speaker: Dr. Mrinal Satish, Professor of Law & Dean – Research, NLSIU
This session will focus on chapter 3 of the book

Session 3: September 10, 2025 | 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Speaker: Alastair McClure, Assistant Professor, Department of History, The University of Hong Kong
This session will be held virtually to discuss the book generally, with a specific focus on the introduction

About the Book

‘Trials of Sovereignty’ offers the first legal history of mercy and discretion in nineteenth and twentieth-century India. Through a study of large-scale amnesties, the prerogative powers of pardon, executive commutation, and judicial sentencing practices, Alastair McClure argues that discretion represented a vital facet of colonial rule. In a bloody penal order, officials and judges consistently offered reduced sentences and pardons for select subjects, encouraging others to approach state institutions and confer the colonial state with greater legitimacy. Mercy was always a contested expression of sovereign power that risked exposing colonial weakness. This vulnerability was gradually recognized by colonial subjects who deployed a range of legal and political strategies to interrogate state power and question the lofty promises of British colonial justice. By the early twentieth century, the decision to break the law and reject imperial overtures of mercy had developed into a crucial expression of anticolonial politics.