Professor Pratap Mehta FBA

Pratap Bhanu Mehta (PPE, 1985) is Laurence Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. He is also Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University, and President, Center for Policy Research, Delhi. He has taught Harvard, Ashoka, and NYU Law School. He has published widely in political theory, history of ideas, Indian Constitutional Law and Indian Politics. He is the author of The Burden of Democracy (Penguin 2003). He is (most recently) co-editor, with Madhav Khosla and Sujit Choudhary of The Oxford Handbook to the Indian Constitution and of Navigating the Labyrinth: Perspectives on Higher Education in India.

Mehta was Convenor of the Prime Minister of India's Knowledge Commission (2005–07) and a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board. He is also editorial consultant to the Indian Express and a prolific contributor to public debates. He is a winner of the Malcolm Adishesiah Prize, and Infosys Prize. His citation for the Infosys Prize, written by a Jury Chaired by Amartya Sen read, ‘Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta has established himself as one of India’s finest scholars and public minds, who has inspired a new generation of intellectual enquiry. He has contributed not only to political philosophy and social theory in general, but has also addressed urgent issues of Indian politics and public policy. Mehta has shown an exemplary willingness to broaden the sphere of public reason and to challenge reigning orthodoxies, while remaining committed to institution building.’ After studying PPE at St John's Professor Mehta studied for a PhD in Politics from Princeton University.