Beyond the Ivory Tower: Tariq Thachil

�It�s the most exhausting process I�ve ever gone through,� Postdoc Tariq Thachil says of his search last semester for a professorship at a university. �You know, you paid the price of me being so tired,� He tells a student from his first-ever class taught at Yale (an eye-opening seminar on development in South Asia). Despite his apology, it is highly unlikely that a single one of the students in that seminar would have anything negative to say about Thachil. His honesty and down to earth way of mentioning his exhaustion as he went through eight grueling job interviews only added to his charisma, and didn�t detract from his teaching. When, as the semester drew to a close, Thachil was offered jobs at Yale alongside other prestigious institutions, his students resoundingly asked him to stay.

To the excitement of these students and the members of the South Asian Studies Council, he decided to accept the job of assistant professor here at Yale. The political scientist says that he chose Yale largely because the political science department is so broad. �There are people who have the same thematic interests as I do. As a young scholar, it�s great to be around people who you can learn from and work with.� He adds that being part of the South Asian Studies Council is also very exciting: it�s a newer program really starting to take off, and he�s looking forward to being part of that process. This semester he�s continuing to teach South Asian studies, in a small lecture discussion course on social movements in India, but, in the future, he hopes to teach a mixture of South Asian and general political science courses.

Just out of Cornell�s graduate political science department, and after only a year of on-the-ground research, he feels like he�s just beginning. He�s still learning, he says. �I�m most interested in broader questions: How do political parties form connections with voters whose interests aren�t actually served? Why do religious groups do service?� and more. But, �India is the place I�m invested in the most.� Having grown up in cities across India, and graduating high school in Delhi, his academic studies remain rooted there. But it�s not just personal connection which drives him to study India. The broadest questions, he says, are often answered by the most specific case studies, and it�s rare to find a country with so much diversity.

He will give a talk on March 24th using part of his dissertation, which he is now working on to publish in both paper and book format. He studies the surprising growth of Hindu nationalism among certain lower caste groups in India, even as the BJP (the Hindu right) is losing power at the national level. Hindu nationalism has traditionally been appealing to upper castes, and was initially a backlash against lower caste mobilization. Upper castes were interested in preserving the traditional Hindu order, one with a strict hierarchy.

Looking mainly into voting patterns, but having done field research in small communities as well, talking to social service providers and voters alike, he has been trying to uncover the reason that lower castes are suddenly becoming interested in this party which, in its traditional support groups, is becoming less popular.

His research shows that the activities of many social service groups are at least partially responsible for the increased support for the BJP among lower castes. Groups that provide services and goods are popular with the urban and rural poor, who often then vote for the political parties affiliated with the groups.

Though this relationship rings of a political machine-like exchange of goods for votes, Thachil explains that it is more complex. These groups are ideologically grounded. They are part of the matrix of organizations sponsored by the Hindu right, and are not interested in just winning votes. They are interested in broader social change, and make a bid for the hearts and minds of the populations they serve. They want to inspire those they help to be �good Hindus� and behave within the parameters of Hindu traditionalism as they understand and advocate it. The question is, are they succeeding? Thachil shakes his head, �I�m finding that, while it gets votes, it doesn�t get hearts and minds. In essence, from the voter�s perspective, it is about machine politics.� The organizations, however, would not like to think about themselves in that manner. Part of the problem is that there is no static definition of what it means to be Hindu even among those who identify as such. So, in general, these socialization attempts only accomplish mobilization of voters.

Thachil�s interest in social action groups stretches into other areas of his work. A critical theme his seminar last semester was, If you flew into a small village in India today, what would you do: Organize political action groups, or work with grassroots businesses and self-help groups? Thachil�s work, in his mind, is always geared towards the practical, the applicable.

Next week he is making the trip to Washington D.C., where he will be part of a conference discussing Indo-US policies and relations at the RAND (Research And Development) Corporation. He believes in the power of scholarship to influence real-world situations and never loses sight of that.

Development and activism are important to him. When asked why he chose to go into scholarship instead of activism or policy work, he pauses.

�I�ll always wrestle with that,� He says. �But I�ve become OK with wrestling with it.� Ultimately, he says that you have to play to your strengths and what you love most. For him, it�s a combination of teaching and researching. �A university is only as much of an ivory tower as you make it.� He�s doing his best to always root academia in practical reality. He hopes that, by teaching, he will enable students to do the activism and development work he believes is necessary. It�s an ongoing dialogue, and his enthusiasm for his work, and ability to engage students is rare. This, when combined with his stellar academic record, makes him a truly exciting new professor to have here at Yale.