Biography

Rinku Lamba's research focuses on debates within contemporary political theory relating to the doctrines of secularism and multiculturalism. She is also interested in the history of western political thought, modern Indian political thought, subaltern studies, politics and planning in third-world cities, and Southern Asian politics.
Her doctoral work at the University of Toronto engages the different kinds of domination encountered in liberal democratic states' attempts to accommodate claims made by members of non-hegemonic religious groups. Through an analysis of debates on religious reform in colonial and postcolonial India, her research aims both to underscore the importance of the nstrumentalities of the state for protecting the vital interests of vulnerable persons and to highlight the democratic limits on statist interventions in the affairs of non-liberal minorities.
In 2006, Rinku was an Instructor at the University of Toronto's Department of Political Science where she taught a course on secularism. She has also been a teaching assistant in political theory.
As a Max Weber Fellow at the EUI, her research focuses on providing a theoretical articulation of the emerging contours of European secular practice.
Rinku read for the M. Phil. in Politics at the University of Oxford, where she attended Balliol College as an Inlaks Scholar; she received her M. A. and M. Phil. in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; she holds a B. A. (Hons.) in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College at the University of Delhi.