Caste as Practice: Persistence and Transformations
This network seeks to understand the enduring role of caste in contemporary South Asia through interdisciplinary collaboration across the social sciences and humanities.
Despite significant economic and political changes, caste remains a persistent marker of inequality and identity, woven into every aspect of social life. Explaining its resilience and resurgence poses a key challenge. Our network brings together established and emerging scholars to rethink existing analytical frameworks on caste. Additionally, viewing caste as a multi-dimensional and interlocking structure of oppression offers new insights into global discussions on race and racialisation.
Format
Twice a term (2025-26)
Convenors and Contact
Manali Desai (Department of Sociology and Professorial Fellow at Newnham College) md644@cam.ac.uk
Priyanka Kotamraju (Gates Cambridge Scholar, Department of Sociology) pk514@cam.ac.uk
Jusmeet S. Sihra (British Academy International Fellow, Department of Sociology) jss82@cam.ac.uk
Lent 2026 Upcoming Meetings
Caste and the Limits of Mobility
- March 11, 1 - 3pm (UK Time)
- Online via Zoom
Speakers:
Ajantha Subramanian (City University of New York)
Divya Vaid (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Priyanka Kotamraju (University of Cambridge)
This panel explores social mobility in caste society. Social mobility is often theorised through class – income, occupation, or status. In caste societies, however, mobility happens differently. India's story is one of simultaneous continuity and change: change visible in increasing educational attainment, new forms of work, and shifting aspirations; continuity persisting through caste-based stigma, occupational segregation, and gendered exclusion. How does caste complicate conventional understandings of mobility?
To register, please follow this link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CkEevbwDQ5efzL3pRPtHNA#/registration
Past Meetings
Caste and Democracy: What the Data Reveal
- January 28 2025, 12 - 2pm (UK Time)
- Hybrid Event: Online and Sociology Seminar Room
Speakers:
Lucia Michelutti (University College London)
Gilles Verniers (Sciences Po)
Pavithra Suryanarayan (London School of Economics)
The Caste and Democracy panel explores how caste and Indian politics can be studied when the production and dissemination of data itself has become a contested political arena.
To register, please follow this link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pn1D1wEgSV6Uc4y08cnUaA#/registration
Caste Census
- November 7 2024
Speakers:
Trina Vithayathil (Providence College)
Christophe Z Guilmoto (IRD, France)
Yogendra Yadav (Swaraj India)
Jusmeet S Sihra (University of Cambridge)
History of Caste
- October 29 2024
Speakers:
Divya Cherian (Princeton University)
Ramnarayan Rawat (University of Delaware)
Chinnaiah Jangam (Carleton University)
Manali Desai (University of Cambridge)