On November 9, 2017 Dr. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University, gave a talk on his newest publication, The Nation as Mother and Other Visions of Nationhood (Penguin India, 2017). This interconnected set of deeply-researched and powerfully-argued essays explores the relationship between nation, reason, and religion in Indian political thought and practice. The book illuminates different visions of India as a free and flexible federal union and makes the case for concepts of layered and shared sovereignty that might enable an overarching sense of Indian nationhood to coexist with multiple identities of the country’s diverse populace. Dr. Bose delved into history on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of India’s independence to evoke an alternative future of a new India based on cultural intimacy among its diverse communities.
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.