Pravin Prakash

Contact                                                                             Email: pravinprakash.research@gmail.com pravin.prakash@uni-heidelberg.de

Vita

Pravin Prakash is currently pursuing a PhD at the Institute of Political Science, Universität Heidelberg under Prof. Dr. Aurel Croissant. He is a Doctoral Fellow with the Heidelberg Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences and a recipient of the DAAD-GSSP Scholarship. 
He received his Master of Social Sciences in Political Science and his Bachelor of Social Sciences (with honours) in Political Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS). He was previously a Teaching Assistant with the Political Science Department at NUS before working as an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. 

Pravin has penned several articles and book chapters on various print and digital platforms. He has also delivered lectures and tutored modules with the Political Science and South Asian Studies departments at NUS and has conducted training programmes on multiculturalism, secularism and religious nationalism for government agencies.

His research interests include autocratization, ethno-religious nationalism, secularism, multiculturalism, communal relations, immigration and the experiences of diasporic communities.
 

Doctoral research

Working Title: Saffron Politics and Subnational Autocratization in India

My research aims to further understanding about how autocratization manifests at the subnational level within backsliding regimes. To do this, this study will focus on an in-depth analysis of India. India today also manifests as a critical case study when we consider the most potent variants of democratic backsliding observed by scholars in recent years. 

However, there has been a serious paucity of work situating recent trends in India within the conceptual framework of autocratization. Furthermore, there has been a lack of research focused on understanding how the majoritarian, autocratic impulses of the BJP government functions at the subnational level. My research takes a significant step towards plugging current gaps in our understanding of subnational autocratization by studying how the autocratic impulses of the BJP government manifests at the subnational level and attempting to shed greater light on the diffusion of autocratization between the national and subnational levels in India.

Published work

Book Chapters

• Norman Vasu and Pravin Prakash. “What if We Ignore Race and Religion.”, in Singapore Perspectives 2017: What If?  edited by Gillian Koh and Carol Soon. World Scientific Publishing. Singapore, 2017
• A. Mani, Pravin Prakash & Shanthini Selvarajan. “Tamil Community and Culture in Singapore.” In The Singapore Ethnic Mosaic: Many Cultures, One People, edited by Mathew Mathews. World Scientific Publishing. Singapore, 2018.
• Bilveer Singh and Pravin Prakash, “The Rise of a Political Community in Singapore.” in Community Development Arenas in Singapore, edited by S. Vasoo, Bilveer Singh, Chan Xian Jie, World Scientific Publishing. Singapore, 2019.
• Prakash, Pravin. “Dravidian-Tamil-Indian: Morphing of Multiple Identities.” In Sojourners to Settlers: Tamils in Southeast Asia and Singapore, edited by Arun Mahizhnan and Nalina Gopal. Indian Heritage Centre and Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, 2019.  
• Prakash, Pravin. “The Leviathan and Its Muscular Management of Social Cohesion in Singapore.” In Social Cohesion in Asia: Historical Origins, Contemporary Shapes and Future Dynamics, edited by Aurel Croissant and Peter Walkenhorst. Routledge Studies on Comparative Asian Politics. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
• Prakash, Pravin. “God, Gory and Glory: Hegemony, Hindutva and the Legitimisation of Violence in India.” In, “Securing India: Navigating Internal Security Threat,” edited by Mohammed Sinan Siyech and Jolene Jerard (Forthcoming)

Commentaries

• THE INDIAN EXPRESS
  • The Rajini Show – 8 January 2018
  • The long winter of American discontent – 2 November 2020
• THE DECCAN CHRONICLE
  • Being Patriots in time of nationalism: Networked legitimacy – 14 July 2019
• THE INTERPRETER - LOWY INSTITUTE                                                                                                                                        
  • Competing shades of saffron in Indian politics – 13 December 2018 – Co-authored with Juhi Ahuja
• THE DIPLOMAT
  • The Other Lesson Singapore Can Learn from Brexit – 12 July 2016 – Co-authored with Dr Norman Vasu
  • Are Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian Parties on a Terminal Decline? – 31 January 2019
  • Fake News in Indian and Indonesian Elections 2019 – 9 April 2019 – Co-authored with Jennifer Yang
  • Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad and Amethi: What’s There to Lose? – 5 April 2019 - Co-authored with Juhi Ahuja
• RSIS COMMENTARIES
  • Glocalisation, English and Singlish: Creating a Singaporean Identity – 13 June 2016
  • State and Society: Securing Social Cohesion – 13 March 2017 - Co-authored with Nur Diyanah Binte Anwar
  • Cow Vigilantism in India: Modi’s Dilemma or Legacy? – 7 July 2017 - Co-authored with Juhi Ahuja
  • BJP in 2019: A More Militant Hindutva? – 19 February 2019
• EAST ASIA FORUM
  • New violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka has old roots – 30 March 2018
• INTERNATIONAL POLICY DIGEST                                                                                                                                              
  • Bali Nine: The Death Penalty Debate and Poster-Boys – 5 June 2015
  • Revolution and Evolution: Supra-Nationalism and Pragmatism in Iran’s Foreign Policy - 28 March 2017 – Co-authored with Hamoon Khelghat-Doost
• TODAY NEWSPAPER – MEDIACORP    
  • The Punggol Evolution – 22 January 2013
  • The Need for an Evolving Meritocracy – 15 February 2013
  • Heed History’s Ghosts of City-States – 5 April 2013
  • 3 Stumbling Blocks in the Politics of Identity – 30 April 2013
  • Keeping it Civil: How Now for Political Engagement – 1 June 2013
  • The Lion, The Haze and the People – 23 July 2013
  • Understanding Meritocracy – 24 June 2014
• INCONVENIENT QUESTIONS    
  • Evolving the Leviathan - What Does the AHPETC Saga Reveal About the Shifting Tides Within the Public Sphere in Singapore Today? – 2 Sept 2015