Sunil Khilnani is a professor of politics and history at Ashoka University, India. Previously, he was a professor of politics and the Director of the King's College London India Institute. He is a scholar of Indian history and politics best known as the author of The Idea of India (1997). He was the presenter of a BBC Radio 4 series entitled Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, which was later published as a book in 2016. He was a 2010 Berlin Prize Fellow, and he was also a recipient of the Indian government's 2005 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award.
Career
Khilnani was born in New Delhi and grew up on the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia. He earned a first at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a PhD at King's College, Cambridge.
He was Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and Director of South Asia Studies. He has also served on the Humanities and Social Sciences juries for the Infosys Prize from 2013 to 2015. As of 2023, Khilnani is a Professor of Political Science and History at Ashoka University. He is also the Dean of AshokaX, an initiative by the university that allows those not affiliated with Ashoka to take courses specially tailored for them.
Personal life
He is married to the writer Katherine Boo.
Works
Books
- Khilnani, Sunil (1993). Arguing Revolution: the intellectual left in postwar France. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300057454.
- Khilnani, Sunil (1999). The Idea of India. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 9780374525910.
- Khilnani, Sunil; Kaviraj, Sudipta (2001). Civil Society: history and possibilities. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521002905.
- Khilnani, Sunil (2016). Incarnations: India in 50 Lives. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 9780241208229.
Chapters in books
- Khilnani, Sunil (2009), "Democracy and its Indian pasts", in Kanbur, Ravi; Basu, Kaushik (eds.), Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume II: Society, institutions and development, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 488–502, ISBN 9780199239979.
References
- William Dalrymple, Incarnations: India in 50 Lives by Sunil Khilnani – review, The Guardian, 16 March 2016.
- ^ "King's College London - Professor Sunil Khilnani". Kcl.ac.uk. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- Roy, Amit (17 April 2011). "In UK pipeline: a new-India institute". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011.
- "King's College London - Professor Sunil Khilnani". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
- "Arguing Democracy: Intellectuals and Politics in Modern India | Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI)". Casi.ssc.upenn.edu. 30 April 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- "Johns Hopkins SAIS Academics | South Asia Studies | Faculty". Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
- Humanities Jury, Infosys Science Foundation. "Infosys Prize - Jury 2015".
- "Ashoka University: Leading Liberal Arts and Sciences University". www.ashoka.edu.in. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- "Ashoka X". AshokaX.