Achin Vanaik Associate

Our people — Associate

A TNI Fellow and Associate since 1987, Achin Vanaik is a Retired Professor of International Relations and former Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Delhi, and a life-long activist for nuclear disarmament. He is an active member in the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India), and in the Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel working to pressure Israel to comply with international law. He is a founder of the Society for Marxist Studies (SMS), which holds two-week long residential schools for post-graduate students and social activists from across India.

Achin Vanaik

Achin has authored, edited and contributed to many books ranging from studies of India's political economy, issues concerning religion, communalism and secularism as well as international contemporary politics and nuclear disarmament. His most cited book is The Furies of Indian Communalism: Religion, Modernity and Secularization (Verso, 1997). His most recent books include Nationalist Dangers, Secular Failings: A Compass for an Indian Left (Aakar Books, 2020), The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism: Secular Claims, Communal Realities (Verso, 2017), and After The Bomb: Post-Pokharan II Essays (Orient Black Swan, 2015).

Achin was also Assistant Editor with The Times of India from 1978 to 1990, sat on the executive board of Greenpeace (India) for many years, and was a member of an Expert Group (the Ghosh Committee) set up to independently evaluate the India’s National Literacy Mission from 1993-1994. 

Honours/Awards

He is a co-recipient, with Praful Bidwai, of the International Peace Bureau's Sean McBride International Peace Prize for 2000.