Ajay Verghese
Biographic Data
| ID | 305664 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ajay Verghese |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ajay |
| FAMILY NAME | Verghese |
| SIGNATURE | VERGHESE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Riverside |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7420-0767 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
We God's People
Journal Article We God’s People: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in the World of Nations. By Jocelyne Cesari Get access We God’s People: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in the World of Nations. By Jocelyne Cesari. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 371pp, $34.99 paper. Ajay Verghese Ajay Verghese Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, USA E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academi…
The Problem of Infinite Regress
How can social scientists uncover the root causes of contemporary outcomes? Many scholars have assumed that a problem associated with identifying root causes-the problem of infinite regress-poses a central impediment to this endeavor. However, few have attempted to clearly conceptualize infinite regress or offer more than solutions in passing. This article undertakes the challenge. I begin by conceptualizing infinite regress as the potentially en…
Taking Other Religions Seriously
While the study of religion in political science has reemerged as a growing field of inquiry in the last few decades, most research still focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What religion is and how it is measured has largely been conceptualized through the lens of these Abrahamic faiths. This article, by contrast, examines Hinduism, the world's oldest and third most populous religion. I randomly assigned closed-ended or open-ended surve…
Violence, Insecurity, and Religiosity
A large social science literature demonstrates a link between personal insecurity and religiosity. When individuals are healthy, literate, and gainfully employed, they tend to be less religious. One of the most fundamental threats to an individual is the risk of violence, but this important marker of insecurity has been unexplored in recent studies of the determinants of religiosity. We use a unique dataset that measures state-sponsored terror, a…
Colonialism, Landlords, and Public Goods Provision in India
What is the impact of colonialism on public goods provision? This article examines India, once the world’s largest colony. While recent studies of the Indian case are divided, they overwhelmingly rely on econometric approaches. This article uses qualitative evidence to provide an important complementary perspective. Using controlled comparisons of the princely state of Travancore with the neighbouring provinces of Malabar and Tirunelveli, I find …
Conquest and Conflict
Does colonialism have long-term effects on political stability? This question is addressed in a study of India's Naxalite insurgency, a Maoist rebellion characterized by its left-wing proponents as having roots in the colonial period. The article highlights three mechanisms linking colonialism with contemporary Naxalite violence-land inequality, discriminatory policies toward low-caste and tribal groups, and upper-caste-dominated administrative i…
Conquest and Conflict
A Political Scientist Among the Anthropologists
One of the central questions driving my research as a political scientist is understanding why ethnic conflict in multi-ethnic states revolves around one identity rather than another. Why, for example, do some regions of a diverse polity like India experience recurrent religious conflict whereas other regions experience severe caste conflict? In my book,The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India, I argue that these patterns of conflict are …
British Rule and Tribal Revolts in India
British colonial rule in India precipitated a period of intense rebellion among the country's indigenous groups. Most tribal conflicts occurred in the British provinces, and many historians have documented how a host of colonial policies gave rise to widespread rural unrest and violence. In the post-independence period, many of the colonial-era policies that had caused revolt were not reformed, and tribal conflict continued in the form of the Nax…
British Rule and Tribal Revolts in India
British colonial rule in India precipitated a period of intense rebellion among the country's indigenous groups. Most tribal conflicts occurred in the British provinces, and many historians have documented how a host of colonial policies gave rise to widespread rural unrest and violence. In the post-independence period, many of the colonial-era policies that had caused revolt were not reformed, and tribal conflict continued in the form of the Nax…
Taking Other Religions Seriously
While the study of religion in political science has reemerged as a growing field of inquiry in the last few decades, most research still focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What religion is and how it is measured has largely been conceptualized through the lens of these Abrahamic faiths. This article, by contrast, examines Hinduism, the world's oldest and third most populous religion. I randomly assigned closed-ended or open-ended surve…
Conquest and Conflict
Does colonialism have long-term effects on political stability? This question is addressed in a study of India's Naxalite insurgency, a Maoist rebellion characterized by its left-wing proponents as having roots in the colonial period. The article highlights three mechanisms linking colonialism with contemporary Naxalite violence-land inequality, discriminatory policies toward low-caste and tribal groups, and upper-caste-dominated administrative i…
Violence, Insecurity, and Religiosity
A large social science literature demonstrates a link between personal insecurity and religiosity. When individuals are healthy, literate, and gainfully employed, they tend to be less religious. One of the most fundamental threats to an individual is the risk of violence, but this important marker of insecurity has been unexplored in recent studies of the determinants of religiosity. We use a unique dataset that measures state-sponsored terror, a…
A Political Scientist Among the Anthropologists
One of the central questions driving my research as a political scientist is understanding why ethnic conflict in multi-ethnic states revolves around one identity rather than another. Why, for example, do some regions of a diverse polity like India experience recurrent religious conflict whereas other regions experience severe caste conflict? In my book,The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India, I argue that these patterns of conflict are …
British Rule and Tribal Revolts in India
British colonial rule in India precipitated a period of intense rebellion among the country's indigenous groups. Most tribal conflicts occurred in the British provinces, and many historians have documented how a host of colonial policies gave rise to widespread rural unrest and violence. In the post-independence period, many of the colonial-era policies that had caused revolt were not reformed, and tribal conflict continued in the form of the Nax…
A Political Scientist Among the Anthropologists
One of the central questions driving my research as a political scientist is understanding why ethnic conflict in multi-ethnic states revolves around one identity rather than another. Why, for example, do some regions of a diverse polity like India experience recurrent religious conflict whereas other regions experience severe caste conflict? In my book,The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India, I argue that these patterns of conflict are …
Conquest and Conflict
Colonialism, Landlords, and Public Goods Provision in India
What is the impact of colonialism on public goods provision? This article examines India, once the world’s largest colony. While recent studies of the Indian case are divided, they overwhelmingly rely on econometric approaches. This article uses qualitative evidence to provide an important complementary perspective. Using controlled comparisons of the princely state of Travancore with the neighbouring provinces of Malabar and Tirunelveli, I find …
Conquest and Conflict
Does colonialism have long-term effects on political stability? This question is addressed in a study of India's Naxalite insurgency, a Maoist rebellion characterized by its left-wing proponents as having roots in the colonial period. The article highlights three mechanisms linking colonialism with contemporary Naxalite violence-land inequality, discriminatory policies toward low-caste and tribal groups, and upper-caste-dominated administrative i…
Taking Other Religions Seriously
While the study of religion in political science has reemerged as a growing field of inquiry in the last few decades, most research still focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What religion is and how it is measured has largely been conceptualized through the lens of these Abrahamic faiths. This article, by contrast, examines Hinduism, the world's oldest and third most populous religion. I randomly assigned closed-ended or open-ended surve…
Violence, Insecurity, and Religiosity
A large social science literature demonstrates a link between personal insecurity and religiosity. When individuals are healthy, literate, and gainfully employed, they tend to be less religious. One of the most fundamental threats to an individual is the risk of violence, but this important marker of insecurity has been unexplored in recent studies of the determinants of religiosity. We use a unique dataset that measures state-sponsored terror, a…
We God's People
Journal Article We God’s People: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in the World of Nations. By Jocelyne Cesari Get access We God’s People: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in the World of Nations. By Jocelyne Cesari. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 371pp, $34.99 paper. Ajay Verghese Ajay Verghese Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, USA E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academi…
The Problem of Infinite Regress
How can social scientists uncover the root causes of contemporary outcomes? Many scholars have assumed that a problem associated with identifying root causes-the problem of infinite regress-poses a central impediment to this endeavor. However, few have attempted to clearly conceptualize infinite regress or offer more than solutions in passing. This article undertakes the challenge. I begin by conceptualizing infinite regress as the potentially en…
Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Colonialism (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · History (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Ancient history (3 works) · Development economics (3 works)