Sushmita has a doctorate in political science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was a senior fellow at the KFG "Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities," Leipzig University. She has taught in Global and European Studies Institute, Leipzig University and Ashoka University, Haryana. Her research engages with issues in Indian political thought and Indian politics (especially, secularism, nationalism, and populism) in relation to the emerging field of comparative political theory.

Research Interests

• Indian Political Thought and Indian politics, with a focus on themes related to secularism and secularity, nationalism, and populism
• Comparative Political Theory
• Intellectual and Political History

Current research project at SCRIPTS

At SCRIPTS, Sushmita will focus on the populist politics of prominent national politicians in India. One of the central questions driving this research is: How has populist politics transformed in India with the introduction and strengthening of democratic politics, the rise and entrenchment of Hindu nationalism, and the increasing role played by the media in electoral politics? With the help of archival research, the project traces the changing nature of populism in India in its relation to nationalism, democracy, and media in the late twentieth and the twenty-first century.

Books

Nath, Sushmita 2022: The Secular Imaginary. Gandhi, Nehru, and the Idea(s) of India. Cambridge University Press.

Journal Articles

Nath, Sushmita 2019: Narratives of Secularity in 20th Century India. In: Companion to the Study of Secularity. Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities. 1-17. 

Nath, Sushmita 2016: Secularism in Crisis. Indian State's Codification of Muslim Personal Law and the Relegation of Muslim Women's Rights, Studies in Religion 45(4): 520-541. 

Nath, Sushmita 2014: Changing Trajectories of Indian Political Thought, Südasien-Chronik - South Asia Chronicle 4: 271-304. 

Nath, Sushmita 2013: Accommodating Religious Demands and Gender-justice Concerns. Indian State Practices after the Shah Bano Judgment, ASIEN – The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 126: 45-67.