Neera Chandhoke is Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, and Director of the Developing Countries Research Centre, University of Delhi. She received her MA (1968) and her PhD (1984) from the University of Delhi. Her main teaching and research interests are political theory, comparative politics, and the politics of developing societies with special focus on India. She has authored The Conceits of Civil Society (2003, Delhi: Oxford University Press); Beyond Secularism: The Rights of Religious Minorities (1999, Delhi, Oxford University Press); and State and Civil Society: Explorations in Political Theory, 1995 (Delhi, Sage), and has edited Mapping Histories (2000, Delhi: Tulika); Grass-Roots Politics and Social Transformation (1999, Delhi: University of Delhi Press); Understanding the Post-Colonial World (1995, published under the auspices of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi). Professor Chandhoke regularly contributes articles to national and international journals and to Indian newspapers on contemporary themes.