What Governs the Evolution of a Society? Anonymous

There’s a wall near my grandparents’ home in Kolkata that’s stood for decades. Spray-painted on it, in carmine-colored dye, is an enormous hammer and sickle, a reminder of the Communist Party’s stranglehold over the area’s regional politics for generations. I’ve always found it intriguing that the wall still stands while other traces of Kolkata’s past have been mercilessly stamped out. What governs the evolution of a society? It’s a question that demands incredibly nuanced thinking.

I’m fascinated by the ways history and society intersect in complex and often messy ways. Just look at countries like Senegal and India, which have remained at the center of a global struggle for ideological dominance. Caught between two hemispheres with diametric views, Eastern nations often suffer from what’s sometimes called a colonial hangover. This preoccupation with the West leads to untenable levels of brain drain and a heavy economic reliance on remittances and foreign direct investments, which in turn fuel populist sentiment domestically. Everything we see is derived from the tangled network of political and interpersonal relationships that we’re all part of.

A political science degree from Columbia offers some invaluable insights into...