Inspired by Kosambi’s use of analytic methods to understand history, I will structure this talk around the use of basic analytics to better ‘see’ some overlooked regularities in human behavior. I will draw on examples from recent Indian history (crowdsourced memories of the Partition of British India; timeless religious gatherings like the Maha Kumbh Mela) as well as from contemporary social phenomena (ubiquity of unskilled youth and the demographic bulge; an unmanageable epidemic of chronic disease across the developing world). Such analytics require some degree of consilience, so that scholars can triangulate insights from different academic disciplines. I will conclude with some remarks on the institutional landscape in developing countries that bedevil this quest for consilience, and suggest some policy initiatives that nudge communities, universities, industry and government into a tentative and hopefully constructive embrace, drawing on my experiences with the Boston and Bengaluru ecosystems.
