Neera Chandhoke is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi. She is the author of Contested Secessions: Rights, Democracy, Self-Determination and Kashmir (2012); The Conceits of Civil Society (2003); Beyond Secularism: The Rights of Religious Minorities (1999); and State And Civil Society: Explorations in Political Theory (1995). She has also co-edited Contemporary India (2009) with Praveen Priyadarshi; edited Mapping Histories (2000); edited Understanding The Post-Colonial World: Theory and Method (1996); and co-edited Grass-Root Politics and Social Transformation (1994) with Ashish Ghosh. Her forthcoming work is Protecting the Unprotected: Social Protection Policies in South Asia which she is co-editing with Sanjay Agrawala.