Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Professor of Indian Constitutional Law
Professor of Political Science
Faculty Director, B.R. Ambedkar Program in Global Constitutionalism
Member, Committee on Global Thought
Madhav Khosla is the B. R. Ambedkar Professor of Indian Constitutional Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. He also serves as the Faculty Director of the B.R. Ambedkar Program in Global Constitutionalism. Khosla is interested in the nature and form of constitutions, especially from a comparative and theoretical perspective. Much of his research and writing in comparative constitutional law has focused on South Asia and India. Khosla studied political theory at Harvard University, where his dissertation was awarded the Edward M. Chase Prize for “the best dissertation on a subject relating to the promotion of world peace”, and law at Yale Law School and the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Before joining Columbia Law School, he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.
Khosla’s book India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy (Harvard University Press 2020) was an Economist Best Book of 2020 and co-winner of the Order of the Coif Book Award 2021. His other books include Redefining Comparative Constitutional Law (ed. with Vicki Jackson, Oxford University Press, 2025), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (ed. with Sujit Choudhry and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press 2016), and Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia (ed. with Mark Tushnet, Cambridge University Press 2015). In addition, Khosla’s writings have appeared in journals such as the American Journal of Comparative Law, Harvard Law Review, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law, as well as popular forums like the Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, and Time. Khosla’s work has been cited by courts in India and Pakistan.
Website
Select Publications
- Redefining Comparative Constitutional Law: Essays for Mark Tushnet (with Vicki Jackson, Oxford University Press, 2025)
- India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2020)
- The Indian Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2012)
- Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance (with Devesh Kapur, Hart Publishing, 2019)
- The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (with Sujit Choudhry and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press, 2016)
- Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia (with Mark Tushnet, Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Education
- Ph.D., Harvard University
- LL.M., Yale Law School
- B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), National Law School of India University