Incarnations
A History of India in Fifty Lives
Event
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Driving India’s emergence onto the
world stage is a rich history, shaped by remarkable individuals. Yet, Indian
history remains a curiously unpeopled place – beyond a few mythic celebrities,
we know very little about the personal struggles that have gone into making
India. In Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives, Sunil
Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest
democracy came to be through the stories of the emperors, warriors,
philosophers, film stars, and corporate titans who shaped the country. From Kautilya,
a leader and political theorist whose works make Machiavelli’s Prince seem
“harmless,” to Lakshmi Bai, the “bad-ass queen” who led violent resistance
against 19th-century British colonialists, the individuals Khilnani examines
inform us not just about India but the world more generally.
Sunil Khilnani is holder of the Avantha Chair and Director
of the India Institute, which he established at King’s College London in 2011.
Born in New Delhi, he grew up in India, Africa, and Europe, and was educated at
Cambridge, where he gained his PhD in Social and Political Sciences. From 2001
to 2011, he was the Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins
University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington
D.C., and Director of South Asia Studies at SAIS, a program that he established.
He has been a Leverhulme Fellow, and has held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson
Center in Washington DC. , and at the Institute for Advanced Study and the
American Academy, both in Berlin.
New America is pleased to welcome Dr. Khilnani for a
discussion of his book and the people who have defined India’s history – and
who continue to shape its present.
Follow the discussion online using
#IndiaIncarnations and following @NewAmericaISP.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase by check or
credit card.
Participant:
Sunil Khilnani @sunilkhilnaniDirector, India Institute, King’s College London
Author, Incarnations: India in 50 Lives
Moderator:
Peter Bergen @peterbergencnnDirector, New America's International Security Program