Society and Politics between Elections
Lokniti- Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in collaboration with Azim Premji University (APU) has conducted the first of a three round of study that will be conducted over the next three years across 28 Indian states to understand the relationship between society and politics between elections. The first round of the survey was conducted in four states- Gujarat, Haryana, Odisha and Karnataka.
The objective of the study is to look into the state- society interaction beyond the times of the elections. The study will try to gauge how social and political identity influence perceptions towards other communities; how delivery of state service get affected by these social and political identity; which communities get easy access to public services and which communities are excluded? Are there any prejudices against certain groups or communities? These questions are at the heart of a fuller understanding of the problems of everyday governance and development in India.
The first report in the series titled Society and Politics between Elections was released on 4th April 2017 at CSDS, Delhi. The release event was chaired by Prof. Suhas Palshikar, Co-Director, Lokniti: Programme for Comparative Democracy, CSDS, Delhi. The three panelists who released and spoke on the report were Prof. Niraja Gopal Jayal (Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi), Prof. Ashutosh Varshney (Professor, Brown University, USA) and Dr. Siddharth Varadarajan (Founding Editor, The Wire).