Exploring Indian Modernities ― Ideas and Practices

This book analyses how multiple and hybrid ‘modernities’ have been shaped in colonial and postcolonial India from the lens of sociology and anthropology, literature, media and cultural studies, law and political economy. It discusses the ideas that shaped these modernities as well as the lived experience and practice of these modernities. The two broad foci in this book are: (a) The dynamism of modern institutions in India, delineating the specific ways in which ideas of modernity have come to define these institutions and how institutional innovations have shaped modernities; and (b) perspectives on everyday practices of modernities and the cultural constituents of being modern. This book provides an enriching read by bringing together original papers from diverse disciplines and from renowned as well as upcoming scholars. 

Prof. Leila Choukroune is Director of the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), New Delhi India, the French National Research Centre (CNRS) Unit on South Asia. She is a visiting Professor at the World Trade Institute (Bern), the University Paris II Pantheon-Assas, the Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (Arusha, Tanzania), the China-EU School of Law (Beijing), and the University of Geneva. When associate Professor of international economic law with the Faculty of Law of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, she was Deputy Director of the Institute for Globalization and International Regulation (IGIR) and Director of the Advanced Master in international economic law. Her research focuses on the interactions between trade, investment and human rights and is applied to emerging countries, China and India in particular. She has published numerous scientific articles and authored several books including (with Sangeeta Khorana) Global Health and the Emerging World: An Integrated International Trade Approach, (Springer, forthcoming 2015). She is the Editor of the Springer book series International Law and the Global South and member of the Editorial Board of China Perspectives. Leila Choukroune is regularly solicited as an independent expert on international economic law and business and human rights issues. She is an independent adviser to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and a Member of the French National Books Commission (CNL). Before taking the responsibility of the CSH directorship, she was Associate Professor with the Law Faculty of Maastricht University, Assistant Professor with HEC Paris, Consultant with the OECD, Lecturer with Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne and Researcher with the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) in Hong Kong. She holds a Doctorate in international law (Summa cum laude – highest honor) from the University Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and is a qualified lawyer to the Paris Bar. She is fluent in French, English and Spanish, speaks Chinese and German and learns Hindi.