BHIKHU PAREKH is Professor in the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, UK. He was Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and before that for many years was Professor of Political Theory, University of Hull. A political theorist of international renown he has held visiting chairs at many of the top US universities as well as in Vienna and Barcelona. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Baroda and a member of India's University Grants Commission in the early 1980s. On his return to the UK he became Deputy Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality. He was chair of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic. He was elected British Asian of the Year in 1992 and received the BBC's award for special lifetime achievement in 1999. He was awarded The Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for lifetime contribution to political studies by the Political Studies Association in 2003.