Levi Visit Advances APSA Political Science Partnerships with India

Leading academics in India hosted this visit, led by Professor Pratap B. Mehta, President, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, and including Professors. Niraja G. Jayal, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Professor Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow and Director, National Election Studies (Lokniti), Center for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.  The trip was cosponsored by these Indian institutions and the APSA and the APSA Committee on International Political Science.

Major Meetings

Levi and Varshney held three major meetings with political scientists in India.  A session at the Center for Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, organized by Niraja Jayal, included political theorists, comparativists, identity politics experts and those specializing in Indian government and politics.  A second, at the Center for Policy Research, organized by Pratap Mehta, predominantly involved international relations scholars, especially addressing security studies and IPE.  And a third, in Bangalore, coincided with the annual meeting of Lokniti - the Institute for Comparative Democracy in New Delhi.  Lokniti maintains India's National Election Studies data series. This latter event was organized by Yogendra Yadav, and was planned to coincide specifically with this visit. Lokniti maintains a nationwide network of political scientists, based in all 28 states of India. They have operated for ten years, meet annually, and now have panel data spread over four national parliamentary elections since 1996.

These events provided an opportunity to talk with a rich array of political science scholars across many fields of the discipline in India.  In Levi's words, she was able to make contact with many "superb Indian scholars who have a lot to teach us about contextualizing electoral research and about the political theory of and empirical study of religious and identity politics, among other subjects. There are also terrific scholars and students who need support in their efforts to improve the research and teaching infrastructure."

Public Attention

This visit attracted widespread public attention in India.  Levi presented a major public address in New Delhi on the "Politics of Outsourcing,"  This event was held at the Center for Policy Research and was chaired by former Prime Minister I.K. Gujaral.   The talk generated global press attention for the visit and for the American Political Science Association in the The Indian Financial Express and in The Hindu (India's national newspaper).  Levi was interviewed by Harish Khare, Deputy Editor of The Hindu.  Khare himself is a PhD in Political Science from Yale, and his interest reflected the extraordinary opportunities to build on existing relationships to create strong cross-national partnerships in the discipline.  In addition, Levi visited India's Parliament and met with the CEO of Infosys, India's leading IT company -- the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ and a company that has taken an interest in public life.

Media Coverage

The Hindu (India's national newspaper)

The Indian Financial Express 

 Strenthening International Partnerships

Already new institutional linkages with scholars in India have followed from this visit.  Ashutosh Varshney facilitated cooperation between the Indian Lokniti election studies group and the US National Election Studies group at the University of Michigan; a spring meeting is planned.   The Ford Foundation in India has expressed interest in supporting an effort to further knit together the Indian political science community.  And there was widespread interest in cross-membership by Indian scholars in the APSA, especially with the new non-OECD membership rate in place.   The cross-linkages among the scholarly, governmental, foundation, press, and the emerging entrepreneurial communities in India may point the way in both countries for enhanced appreciation and support for political science scholarship as a public resource.

This visit was one of the early steps called for under an APSA initiative to strengthen international partnerships and enhance cross-national perspectives across the Association.   The framework for this effort was proposed by the International Committee in 2004 and enthusiastically approved the APSA Council.   It includes building new linkages with political scientists globally to complement APSA's existing collaborations with the British PSA, with ECPSR, and with Japan, increased travel support for international scholars, greater to attention to appointment of international scholars to APSA committees, and new membership options.  In the latter case, the APSA council has just approved a $40 membership rate for scholars from and working in non-high income countries, including India.  We anticipate a significant increase in APSA membership in India because of the combination of the outreach from this visit and the new membership option.

Media Coverage

The Hindu (India's national newspaper)

The Indian Financial Express 

Related Information

Read the statement from the APSA Committee on International Political Science regarding potential approaches for strengthening APSA's international partnerships and enhancing cross-national perspectives within the Association: "Internationalization of APSA: Why? How?"  This statement was subsequently unanimously endorsed by the APSA Council.