Place of birth: Nairobi, Kenya

Parentage: son of Joseph Lazar Chiriyankandath and Maliakkal Elannam

Family: married Sarah Cave-Browne-Cave 1983; two sons

Education: BA (Hons), History and Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London 1981; PhD, SOAS 1985

Career: James Chiriyankandath is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study at the University of London. Prior to that, he was Research Director in the Department of Law, Governance and International Relations at London Metropolitan University. Born in Kenya, he spent his childhood in Sudan and India before arriving in the UK in 1976. Following his studies at SOAS, he did a stint in Sudan researching the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood in 1985–86 and returned to the UK and worked for several years as a freelance researcher on the Middle East and a research administrator at the Economic and Social Research Council. Following three years as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hull, he joined the then London Guildhall University in 1993 as a Lecturer in Politics. Dr Chiriyankandath’s teaching specialisms include the politics and contemporary history of South Asia and the Middle East ‘Third World’ politics, and international relations. His main area of research is Indian history and politics, especially focusing on nationalism, communalism and religion. He has also commented on South Asian and Middle Eastern affairs for BBC World Service TV and radio, Channel Four News and British and Indian newspapers. James Chiriyankandath is co-editor of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics (see url below) and is a Trustee of Jeevika, a British charity supporting development work in India.

Publications include: Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (co-editor) 1992; contributions to: Sudan After Nimeiri 1991, The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India 1998, Electoral Politics in South Asia 2000, Democracy in India 2001, Palgrave Advances in Development Studies 2005, Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism 2005, The Politics of Religion. A Survey 2006, Politics in the Developing World 2007, Handbook of Religion and Politics 2008; numerous journal articles and conference papers on Indian secularism, coalition government, Hindu nationalism, Zionism and Islam and politics in southern India and Sudan

Contact details: Address: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2nd Floor, South Block, Senate House Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU, England; Email: James.Chiriyan@sas.ac.uk ; Website: http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14662043.asp/ .