Why and how has India’s Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, become so adept at appealing to and recruiting people from the lower castes? And what does this mean for Indian politics in the short to medium term? In this episode we are joined by Samantha Agarwal to discuss the rise of Hindu nationalism, focusing on the strategies it deploys to recruit people and ... Show More
Sep 11
Michael E. Neagle, "Chasing Bandits: America's Long War on Terror" (UNC Press, 2025)
While the war on terror has been America's largest and most publicized attempt to root out foreign enemies this century, the quest to identify and destroy real or imagined threats to national security has long been a part of US history. Drawing on six case studies, Professor Mich ... Show More
47m 14s
Sep 10
William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe, "Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Political Scientists William Howell and Terry Moe have a new book out that explores how the United States constitutional system has given way to the establishment of a kind of strongman presidency, disconnected in many ways from the constraints designed to keep the American presi ... Show More
53m 20s
Sep 8
Voices from North Korea: Refugees Tell Their Stories
n this podcast, North Korean refugees who visited the University of Bradford share their harrowing experiences of life in North Korea, escape, and the challenges of building new lives in freedom. They are supported by Freedom Speakers International (FSI), a Seoul-based non-profit ... Show More
42m 17s
Oct 2022
Political Deification in South Asia
How can we understand the processes through which political leaders, god-men, stars of all kinds, and big or small deities mingle together in the public sphere? And what are the consequences of deifying politicians, or opening politics to the gods? In this episode, we discuss Sou ... Show More
33m 50s
Dec 2023
Violent Majorities, Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism. Episode 1
"The Slippery Slope to a Multiculturalism of Caste" Professor Balmurli Natrajan has long studied questions of caste, nationalism and fascism in the Indian context: his many works include a 2011 book, The Culturalization of Caste in India. He joins anthropologists Lori Allen and A ... Show More
51m 35s
Oct 2024
Anuradha Sajjanhar, "The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi's India" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
How are technocratic experts supporting populist politics? In The New Experts Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi’s India (Cambridge UP, 2024), Anuradha Sajjanhar, a Lecturer in Politics & Public Policy at the University of East Anglia examines the recent history of ... Show More
33m 25s
Nov 2022
The US: whose country, ’tis of thee? | Nationalism Reimagined
Politicians around the world use nationalism. They use it to win elections, and to stoke fear, and to gain and hold on to power. This kind of nationalism is exclusive, often based on ethnicity, race or religion. But is there another way? This series will look at nationalism in it ... Show More
28m 22s