Charles Douglas Lummis, a distinguished political theorist, was the first Rajni Kothari Chair in Democracy, a chair named after the founder of CSDS and one of the foremost theorists on democracy.

Professor Lummis’ engagement with the theory and practice of democracy runs deep through several cultural and political boundaries across continents. He teaches and writes in English and Japanese on political issues and theory as a self-conscious and dissenting American citizen, who has made Okinawa his home.

Lummis’ writings over the years (mostly published in Japanese) have focused on several themes: peculiar forms through which stereotyping and discrimination of Japan take place (English Conversation as Ideology, 1976; A New Look at The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, 1982); studies  of Japan's war-renouncing Constitution from a political theory perspective (Japan's Radical Constitution, 1987); and searches for a non-Marxist radical and political perspective (Radical Democracy, 1996). He is presently working on a book to serve as a companion piece to Radical Democracy, whose provisional title is Radical Peace. Besides these, he has written The Madman and the Sword (2004) and Concerning a Small matter of Definition (2004).

Lummis was the Rajni Kothari Chair Professor at CSDS from August 2004 till December 2005. After he returned to Japan, he expanded the work he did at CSDS into a book, which was published in Japan by Shueisha. The English title of this work would be Gandhi's 'Dangerous' Constitutional Proposal. He delivered the annual lecture linked to the chair on ‘State's Right to Belligerency and `Gandhi on Non Violence’ at CSDS on 18 October 2005.