VCU news

By Pamela Stallsmith
L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs

Shashi Tharoor, Ph.D., a member of India’s parliament, former undersecretary general of the United Nations and an award-winning author, will deliver the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs’ 2017 India Lecture in Democracy and Civil Society on Monday, Oct. 9.

Tharoor will discuss “Pax Indica: India’s Future in the 21st Century” at 7 p.m. in the Richmond Salons, University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

Tharoor is the author of 16 books of fiction and nonfiction, including “The Great Indian Novel,” “Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century,” and his latest, “An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India.” He has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

A second-term member of parliament representing Thiruvananthapuram, and chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, Tharoor has served as India’s minister of state for human resource development and for external affairs. During his nearly three-decade-long career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker and administrator at the highest levels, serving as undersecretary general during Kofi Annan’s tenure as secretary-general.

The lecture series brings experts on India — the world’s largest democracy and second most populous country — to VCU to share their knowledge and engage the community about the nation’s culture and history and the vibrancy of its civil society.