South Asia is going through a new and noticeable burst of intellectual energy. Recent developments are reinvigorating intellectual curiosities and generating exciting and new research puzzles, while also compelling scholarly return to some enduring concerns of the social sciences. A new generation of researchers is vigorously registering its presence.

Oxford University Press, the largest university press in the world, is bringing the regional thought leaders together on a platform to make new research ideas on modern South Asia available to the larger public sphere.

Policymakers, bureaucrats, academicians, and journalists from different spheres will join the conclave to discuss topics such as: democracy’s electoral vitality in the region, coexisting with low salience of liberal principles between elections: identity politics versus governance; regional disparities in economic and human development; the fledgling and uncertain, though unmistakable, rise of gender consciousness; the dark shadow of security over politics and economics; the delayed emergence of rapid urbanization and rise of cities; gross inequalities of various kinds and concerns of social justice; the burst of economic dynamism; changes in culture and social structure; the emergence of a large middle class; and the rising significance of diasporas.

Some of these ideas will get published through the new series on – Modern South Asia – by us. Recently released The Other One Percent: Indians in America by Devesh Kapur, Sanjoy Chakravorty, and Nirvikar Singh is the first in this series.