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Nishant Kumar

Nishant Kumar

Nishant Kumar
Nishant Kumar
Associate Professor
Centre/School/Special Centre
Centre for Political Studies,
School of Social Sciences
Room No
126, SSS-II
Email
nishant@jnu.ac.in, nishant@mail.jnu.ac.in
Personal Webpage
https://jnu.ac.in/Faculty/nishant/cv.pdf
Qualifications
  • Ph. D. from King’s India Institute, King’s College London as Commonwealth Scholar.
  • M. Phil. from Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.
  • M.A, Centre for Political Studies, JNU, Delhi.
  • B.A (Honors), Political Science, Hindu College, University of Delhi.
Areas of Interest/Specialization

Intellectual History, Political Theory and Thought, Constitutional Law in South Asia, State Politics in India

Experience

Teaching Experience:

  • Associate Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU since July, 2024.
  • Taught Undergraduate students as Assistant/Associate Professor in Department of Political Science, Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi, for 15 years


Research Experience:

  • Completed a research project sponsored by ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Sciences Research) titled “Pedaling their way to Empowerment: The changing contours of girl child education in Bihar”.
  • Completed a research project sponsored by ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Sciences Research) titled “Analyzing the implementation of Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan (G): A Study of West Champaran District of Bihar”.
Awards & Honours
  • Awarded Commonwealth Scholarship for pursuing PhD at King’s College London in 2012.
  • Cleared Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) exam conducted by UGC in December, 2006.
Best Peer Reviewed Publications
  • 'Prioritizing Quantity over Quality: Lopsided Approach to Girl Child Education in the Bihar Government's Schemes', Indian Journal of Gender Studies, vol 28, no. 3, October 2021 (ISSN NO. 0971-5215), SCOPUS Indexed.
  • 'Gandhi's Deontological Framework and the importance of Bhagavad Gita', Gandhi Marg, vol. 43, no. 2, Nov 2021 (ISSN No. 0016-4437), UGC Care Listed.
  • 'Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015: A Review' (co-authored with Smita Agarwal), Space and Culture, India (published by ACCB Publishing, England), vol. 3, no. 3, March 2016 (ISSN No. 2052-8396), SCOPUS Indexed.
  • 'Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression: Analysing the Legal and Constitutional Complexities in the Indian Context', NIU International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 8, Dec 2021 (ISSN No. 2394 – 0298), UGC Care Listed.
  • 'The Women’s Reservation Bill: Analysing its case through a study of Assembly elections in Bihar' (co-authored), Indian Journal of Political Science, vol. LXXXII (4), Oct-Dec, 2021, UGC Care Listed.
  • 'हेट स्पीच, अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता एवं भारतीय कानून व्यवस्था', Pratiman (CSDS), vol. 17-18, January-December, 2021 (ISSN No. 2320-8201), Peer Reviewed.
  • 'Internet Freedom', social media and Indian democracy: Prospects and challenges', The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. LXXVI, No. 1, January-March, 2015 (ISSN No. 0019-5510) UGC Care List.
  • 'Internet in the age of Mass-surveillance: The Domestic Dimension', (co-authored), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLVIII, No. 47, November 23, 2013 (ISSN No. 0012-9976) SCOPUS Indexed.
Recent Peer Reviewed Journals/Books

Books:

  • Religious Offence and Censorship of Publications: An Enquiry through the Prism of Indian Laws and the Judiciary (Routledge, London: 2023) (ISBN No. 978-1032384993)
  • Co-authored State Politics in India: Issues and Concerns (Kitab Mahal, Delhi: 2024) (ISBN No.:

Chapters in Edited Volumes:

  • 'Evolution with Harmony: Integral Yoga and Its Transformational Potential in the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo' in Bindu Puri (ed.) Reading Sri Aurobindo: Metaphysics, Ethics and Spirituality (Springer, Singapore: 2022).
  • 'Gandhi, Aurobindo and the idea of Swaraj as inclusive Freedom', in Ananta Kumar Giri (ed.) Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo (Routledge, London: 2021).
  • 'Making Indian Women Aatmanirbhar: A case study of Amul, SEWA and Navdanya', co-authored in Vandana Mishra and Swadesh Singh (ed.) Aatmanirbharta: Revisiting the Idea and Practices (Ane Books, Delhi: 2021)
  • 'Law and Colonial Subjects: The subject-citizen riddle and the making of section 295 (A)', in Gunnel Caderlof and Sanjukta Das Gupta (ed.), Subjects, Citizens, and Law: Colonial and Independent India (Routledge, London: 2017).
  • 'Affirmative Action in India: The Cases of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes', in Abhay Prasad Singh and Krishna Murari (ed.) Political Process in Contemporary India (Pearson, Delhi: 2019).

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.