Talk on "Cheating: Between the Habits and the Habitations of Modernity in India"

The Seminar Committee, Department of History, University of Delhi, invites you all to a talk on the theme - *"Cheating: Between the Habits and the Habitations of Modernity in India"* by *Projit Bihari Mukharji.*

*Chair* : Charu Gupta, Department of History, University of Delhi

*Details:*
Date - 24 September 2025
Time - 3.30 pm onwards
Venue - Room 6, Satyakam Bhawan, near Social Sciences building

One of the most ubiquitous and yet least historicized aspects of Indian modernity are examinations. From internal school and college exams to the massive all-India exams like JEE and UPSC, every year tens of millions of Indian students write exams. This has led to the emergence of a distinctive set of economic institutions, cultural habits, social concerns, and even linguistic formulations, around examinations. As hallowed institutions of our Indian modernity, examinations also engender a variety of social investments in merit, fairness, democracy etc. Cheating, on the other hand as the inverted mirror-image of examinations, allows us to open a distinction between what the examination system claims to be and what it effectively is. By following historical discussions around cheating, including both the practices of cheating and the attempts to stop cheating, I would argue we can better locate the examinations as a social and cultural phenomenon. More importantly, for me, it refigures the stakes and strategies through which we can comprehend Indian modernity.

*About the Speaker*
Projit Bihari Mukharji is Professor of History at Ashoka University. He specializes in the history of science in modern South Asia. Mukharji was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, JNU, New Delhi and SOAS, London, and is the author of three monographs. His most recent monograph, _Brown Skins, White Coats_ (University of Chicago Press, 2023) won the Pfizer Award, was shortlisted for the Pickstone Prize and was a runner up for the Scaglione Prize. Mukharji was also awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023.

Regards,
Seminar Committee
Department of History

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