Professor Manali Desai received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles where she trained as a comparative and historical sociologist. Her work encompasses the areas of parties and political articulation, social movements, ethnic and gendered violence, and post-colonial studies.
Her current research, which is funded by the ESRC/GCRF Large Grant (£1.76 million) is a comparative qualitative project titled Gendered Violence and Urban Transformation in India and South Africa. Manali's first book State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990 (2007) was a historical analysis of the emergence of two different welfare regimes in India where social democratic parties have ruled consistently since independence.
She has also published her research in the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Science History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Historical Sociology and Critical Asian Studies, among others. Manali has co-edited two books titled States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia (2009) and Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society (2015).
Research Interests
Manali's current work includes three projects: (1) Gendered Violence and Urban Transformation in India and South Africa (ESRC 2020-23) which examines gender and sexual violence in urban and peri-urban India and South Africa; (2) An analysis of the long-term articulation of ethnographies-nationalist politics in India and its relationship to the transforming political-economy; (3) A comparative study of colonial rule and long-term development in India funded by a grant from the Cambridge Humanities Research Grant. The project uses historical quantitative and qualitative data to examine state infrastructural power across India, and its effects on patterns of inequality, growth and basic goods provision.
Teaching
Courses:
SOC1: Introduction to Sociology
SOC3: Modern Societies II: Global Social Problems and Dynamics of Resistance
SOC11: Racism, Race, and Ethnicity
MPhil in Sociology: Political and Economic Sociology stream
Current Doctoral students:
Rashmi Singh
Shaaroni Leionaonapoina'ole Wong
Farhana Rahman (Centre for Gender Studies)
Ilaria Michelis
Graduate supervision availability and interests:
Manali is available to supervise graduate students in the areas she is currently researching, namely, postcolonial politics, gender, ethno-nationalism and violence. Potential applicants are encouraged to write to her with a CV and 2-page proposal of research clearly stating how your research fits her current interests. Regrettably she is unable to discuss admission requirements, or discuss research ideas that are not fully developed into a proposal.
Publications
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS AND EDITED VOLUMES
Roy, Indrajit and Manali Desai (eds.) 2025 (forthcoming). Cambridge Companion to Indian Society and Politics. Cambridge and New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
De Leon, Cedric, Manali Desai and Cihan Tugal. 2015. Building Blocs: How Parties Organise Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. (ASA Political Sociology Section: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award (Honorable Mention))
Chatterjee, Piya, Manali Desai and Parama Roy (eds.) 2009. States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press and Zubaan Books.
Desai, Manali. 2007. State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990. [Studies in Asia’s Transformations Series]. London and New York: Routledge.
REFEREED ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
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Desai, Manali. 2025. ‘Multiple Masculinities in ‘City of Men’,’ forthcoming, Urban Geography.
Philip, Shannon and Manali Desai. 2025. ‘Buying Safety: Neoliberalism, Gendered Violence and the Everyday State in South Africa, Signs, 50(3).
Desai, Manali. 2023. ‘Crisis, Conjunctures and Turning Points in Historical Sociology,’ Social Science History, 47(1): 1-9.
Desai, Manali and Rashmi Singh. 2020. ‘Machine Politics and Clientelism,’ in Janoski, T. et al. (eds). Handbook of Political Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Desai, Manali. 2017. ‘The Emergence of Governance Discourse in Liberalising India,’ in eds. Sekhar, M., Parasuraman, P and R. Kattumuri, Governance and the Governed: Multi-Country Perspectives on State, Society and Development. Springer: Singapore.
Desai, Manali. 2017. ‘Gendered Violence and the Body Politic in India, New Left Review, Vol. 99, May-June, pps. 67-83.
Desai, Manali. 2016. ‘Weak Party Articulation and Development in India, 1999-2014, in eds. De Leon, Cedric, Manali Desai and Cihan Tugal, Building Blocs: How Parties Organise Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, pps. 151-74.
Desai, Manali and Indrajit Gupta. 2016. 'Development Discourse and Popular Articulations in Urban Gujarat,' Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 48, no. 1, pps. 1-26.
Desai, Manali. 2015. ‘Hegemony and Ambivalent Subjectivity: Caste and Generation in Western India,’ in Roy, S. and A. Nielsen (eds.) Rethinking Subaltern Studies. Oxford and New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pps. 1-19.
Desai, Manali. 2012. "Parties and the Articulation of Neoliberalism: From 'the Emergency' to Reforms in India, 1975-1991," Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 23, pps. 27-63.
Desai, Manali. 2009. “Colonial Legacies, State Formation and repertoires of Ethnic Violence: The Case of Western India, 1940-2002, Journal of Historical Sociology, 22(2):147-79.
De Leon, Cedric, Manali Desai and Cihan Tugal. 2009. “Political Articulation: Parties and the Constitution of Cleavages in the US, India and Turkey,” Sociological Theory, 27(3):193-219.
Desai, Manali. 2009. “A History of Violence: Gender, Power and the Making of a Pogrom in Gujarat ,” in eds. Chatterjee, P., Desai, M. and Roy, P. (2009) States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia, Zubaan Books and Cambridge University Press, India, pps: 293-313.
Riley, Dylan and Manali Desai. 2007. “The Passive Revolutionary Route to the Modern World: Italy and India in Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 49(4), pps. 815-47.
Desai, Manali. 2005. “Indirect British Rule, State Formation and Welfare in Kerala, India, 1860-1960,” Social Science History, Vol. 29(3), pps. 457-88.
Desai, Manali. 2003. “From Movement to Party to Government: A Comparison of Kerala and West Bengal, India,” in ed. Jack Goldstone, States, Parties and Social Movements: Pushing the Boundaries of Institutional Change. Cambridge University Press, pps. 170-96.
Desai, Manali. 2002. “The Relative Autonomy of Party Practices: A Counterfactual Analysis of Left Party Ascendancy, Kerala, India, 1934-1940,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 108 (2), pps. 615-57.
Desai, Manali. 2001. “Party Formation, ‘Political Power and the Capacity for Reform: Comparing Social Policies in Kerala and West Bengal, India,” Social Forces, 80(1), pps. 37-60.
In Progress
Desai, Manali and Kammila Naidoo. 2025. ‘Negotiating Everyday Gendered Violence: Reflections on Fieldwork in India and South Africa,’ International Sociology.
Desai, Manali, Nandini Gooptu, Kammila Naidoo and Lyn Ossome. Silence and Voice: Gendered Violence in India and South Africa. Book ms.
Other Media
‘No City for Women,’ 2023 (Documentary Film, Dir. Rangan Chakravarty)
Key Publications - Books
Roy, Indrajit and Desai, Manali (eds). 2023 (forthcoming). Handbook of Indian Politics and Society. Cambridge University Press
DeLeon, C., M. Desai and C. Tugal (eds.). 2015. Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. (ASA Political Sociology Section: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award (Honorable Mention)
Chatterjee, P., M. Desai and P. Roy (eds.). 2009. States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia. New Delhi: Zubaan and Cambridge University Press.
Desai, M. 2007. State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990. [Studies in Asia's Transformations Series]. London and New York: Routledge.
Key Publications - Book Chapters
Desai Manali, and Singh, Rashmi. Forthcoming ‘Chapter 18: Political Parties: Machines Politics and Clientelism’. The New Handbook of Political Sociology, edited by Janoski, Mishra, Mudge and de Leon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Desai, Manali. 2019. “Democratic Trajectories IV: Comment,” in Alf Gunvald Nielsen and Srila Roy, eds. Indian Democracy:Origins, Trajectories, Contestations.” London: Pluto Press.
Desai, M. 2017. ‘The Emergence of Governance Discourse in Liberalizing India,’ in eds. Sekhar, M., Parasuraman, P, and R. Kattumuri, Governance and the Governed: Multi-Country Perspectives on State, Society, and Development. Springer: Singapore.
Desai, M. 2015. 'Weak Party Articulation and Development in India, 1991-2014,' in DeLeon, Cedric, M. Desai and C. Tugal (eds.) Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Desai, M., 2015. “Political Articulation: The Structured Creativity of Parties,” in Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society, edited by Cedric de Leon, Manali Desai, and Cihan Tugal. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 1-35
Desai, M. 2015. ‘Hegemony and Ambivalent Subjectivity: Caste and Generation in Western India,’ in Roy, S. and A. Nielsen (eds.) Rethinking Subaltern Studies. Oxford and New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pps. 1-19.
Desai, M. 2009. 'A History of Violence: Gender, Power, and the Making of a Pogrom in Gujarat,' in eds. Chatterjee, P., Desai, M. and Roy, P. (2009) States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia, Zubaan Books and Cambridge University Press, India, pps: 293-313.
Key Publications - Journal Articles
Desai, Manali. 2023 (forthcoming). ‘An Eventful Critique of Crisis Language in Historical Sociology’, Social Science History, Vol. 47(1).
Desai, M. 2016. ‘Gendered Violence and the Body Politic in India', New Left Review, May/June.
Desai, Manali and Indrajit Roy. 2016. ‘Development Discourse and Popular Articulations in Urban Gujarat,’ Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 48, no. 1.
Desai, M. 2012. "Parties and the Articulation of Neoliberalism: From 'the Emergency' to Reforms in India, 1975-1991," Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 23.
Desai, M. 2009. "Colonial Legacies, State Formation and Repertoires of Ethnic Violence: The Case of Western India, 1940-2002," Journal of Historical Sociology, 22(2):147-179.
DeLeon, C., Desai, M., and Cihan, T., 2009. "Political Articulation: Parties and the Constitution of Cleavages in the U.S. India and Turkey," Sociological Theory, 27(3):193-219.
Dylan, R. and Desai, M. 2007. "The Passive Revolutionary Route to the Modern World: Italy and India in Comparative Perspective," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 49(4).
Desai, M. 2005. "Indirect British Rule, State Formation and Welfare in Kerala, India, 1860-1960," Social Science History, Vol. 29:3, 2005.
Desai, M. 2002. "The Relative Autonomy of Party Practices: A Counterfactual Analysis of Left Party Ascendancy, Kerala, India, 1934- 1940," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 108 (2).
Grants and Projects
Desai, M. (PI) Gendered Violence and Urban Transformation in India and South Africa. ESRC Large Grant (2020-2023): £1.76m
Desai, M. (PI) Comparative Study of Gendered Violence: India and South Africa. School of the Humanities and Social Sciences (2016-18): £67,845
Desai, M. (PI) Colonial State-Building and Development Trajectories within India. Cambridge Humanities Research Grant (2016): £11,563
Desai, M. (PI) Beyond Identity?: Markets and Logics of Democratization in Post-1991 India. Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (2010-2013): £78,500
Desai, M. (PI) Ethnic Violence and State Formation in Western India. British Academy Research Grant (2006-2008): £6,750
Research Groups & Affiliations
Political Sociology Reading Group
Lead Organiser, ‘Caste As Practice: Persistence and Transformation,’ CRASSH Research Network 2024-25 with PhD students Priyanka Kotamraju and Vishal Vasanthakumar and Dr Jusmeet Singh Sihra.
Lead Organiser Infrastructures of Gendered Violence, Department of Sociology, 2016- 2018 with networks in India, Pakistan and South Africa and affiliated faculty at The University of Oxford and University of Johannesburg. Research Assistants: Mahvish Ahmad and Katie Gaddini (Sociology, Cambridge)
Dr Nilotpal Kumar, Postdoctoral Research Scholar on Leverhulme Trust Research Project, ‘Market Logics and Democratisation in India, 1991-2009,’ January 2012- January 2013’ Department of Sociology, LSE.
Awards
2019 Pilkington Teaching Prize
