N Sukumar, Lecture on ‘Gatecrashing into Gurukuls: Caste Discrimination in Indian Universities’
Channel: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Date: 09/11/2022

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
invites you to a lecture

Gatecrashing into Gurukuls
Caste Discrimination in Indian Universities

by N Sukumar

Chair: Nishikant Kolge

Friday, 2 September 2022, 4.30 pm IST
Seminar Room and Zoom
Link: https://bit.ly/3cjCKMB
Meeting ID: 82056872204
Passcode: csdsdelhi

In the caste ridden Indian society, Scheduled Caste students are excluded from social relations, which limits their life opportunities, thus produc¬ing not only capability deprivation, but also socio-cultural exclusion. Deprived of cultural capital, students from these communities encounter value judgments from the socially superior teacher/students. The theory of cultural reproduction through education notes that institutions are the spaces that ensure the reproduction of social hierarchies in terms of its cultural, economic, and political systems. The lecture seeks to interrogate the differential treatment meted out to Scheduled Caste students who get admission through affirmative action in institutions of higher learning and the psycho-social consequences of casteplaining that they are subjected to by the peer group, administration and the larger academia. 

N Sukumar is a Professor of Political Science at Delhi University. His area of interest includes Indian Political Thought, Ambedkar and Dalit Bahujan Studies, and Social Exclusion. Currently, he is engaged with the idea of Dalit Citizenship. His books include Caste Discrimination and Exclusion in Indian Universities: A Critical Reflection (2022) and Indian Government and Politics, co-authored with K Roul (2013).

Nishikant Kolge is Associate Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.