ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarath Pillai

Sarath Pillai is an Assistant Professor of Modern South Asian history in the Department of History at the University of Calgary, Canada. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continues to be a non-resident fellow.
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POSTS BY Sarath Pillai

12 May 2026

Sarath Pillai

Federalism Against Democracy

India, as the world’s largest democracy, is facing a unique challenge in the twenty-first century in managing the relationship between democracy and federalism. How do we historically approach this face-off between the imperatives of democracy and federalism in India today? I suggest that the constitutional and political debates in late colonial India on questions of democracy and federalism show a similar face-off, which fundamentally defined postcolonial India’s shaky tryst with federalism. Continue reading >>

Sarath Pillai

Federalism Against Democracy

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