The 2004 Lok Sabha Elections

Speaker: Pradeep Chhibber, Associate Professor, Political Science, UC Berkeley

India's national elections for its 14th parliament must take place by October 2004, and will probably happen by April. They will be held in the context of a new environment for the country: recognition of its nuclear capability, a new global order post 9/11, and its rising economic power. Yet many parts of the country still have very low levels of social development. Social divisiveness also continues to trouble civic stability. In the context of these opportunities and challenges, the seminar will discuss the electoral strategies of the main political parties and likely outcomes.

Prof. Pradeep Chhibber studies party systems, party aggregation, and the politics of India. His research examines the relationship between social divisions and party competition and conditions that lead to the emergence of national or regional parties in a nation-state. Pradeep received an M.A. and an M.Phil. from the University of Delhi and a Ph.D. from UCLA. He is currently the Indo-American Community Chair in India Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Hosted by the South Asia Initiative at the Asia-Pacific Research Center