Aniket Bhavthankar is a doctoral researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany on a scholarship from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. He has a democratic conception of India rooted in its civilizational past. Aniket was an assistant professor at the Symbiosis School of International Studies (SSIS) where he developed a course on Indian strategic thought. He holds a masters in international relations from the South Asian University, New Delhi and a bachelor's degree in computer applications from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune. Aniket is a lover of Marathi literature who particularly enjoys P.L. Deshpande’s wry, satirical and humorous observations on the human condition.