Bhargava started his academic career at St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 1979, in the following year he joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi where he worked till 2005, when he joined Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi as a senior fellow and, from 2007 to 2014, was its director. He formally retired in 2019 but continues to be an Honorary Fellow and Director of its Parekh Institute of Indian Thought.[1]
Bhargava writes a regular column for the Indian national daily, The Hindu. He also served on the Social Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2019. in 2009, Bhargava was awarded the UGC national award for his contribution to political science and in 2011, the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for his contribution to the social sciences.
Selected works
Individualism in Social Science, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992) This book offers a balanced, subtle critique of methodoloigical individualism.
Secularism and its critics, (Oxford University Press, 1998) The first major anthology of its kind that sparked international academic interest in secularism.
Multiculturalism, Liberalism and Democracy (OUP, 1999).Archived 17 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine This book looks into the cultural dimension of political and political dimensions of identity and culture.
Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution (OUP, 2008).Archived 28 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine This book examines Indian constitution from the perspective of political theory.
What is Political Theory why do we need it? (OUP, Delhi, 2010).Archived 3 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine In this book Bhargava clarifies concepts like secularism, multiculturalism, socialism, individualism and ethnocentrism etc.
The Promise of India's secular democracy (OUP, Delhi, 2010).Archived 3 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine This book explores the politics of secularism in India.
Secular States and Religious Diversity (UBC Press, Vancouver, 2013). He gave the concept of Principled Distance model of secularism as an alternative model to be more suitable for a heterogeneous society like India.
Politics, Ethics and the Self: Re-reading Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (Routledge, London and New Delhi, 2022). Based on a conference on Hind Swaraj's centenary, this book puts together essays by the most eminent contemporary writers on Gandhi.
Between Hope and Despair: 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India (Bloomsbury, New Delhi, 2023). This book, written for a wider, non-academic readership, is on the crisis of India's collective ethical identity.
Bridging the Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China (California University Press, 2023), edited with Amitav Acharya, Daniel A. Bell, and Yan Xuetong.
