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Caste-based discrimination is not just an ‘Indian social issue’. It is a global phenomenon, seen ‘from Britain to Bahrain, Canada to South Africa.’
Join us at this Sussex Development Lecture to hear one of India’s leading scholars and public intellectuals, Dr. Suraj Yengde, discussing his new book, Caste: A global story.
Dr. Suraj Yengde is one of India’s leading scholars and public intellectuals, a Harvard resident, and the first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university. Suraj has been named as one of the “25 Most Influential Young Indian” by GQ magazine and the “Most influential Young Dalit” by Zee. His second doctorate at the University of Oxford examined the intellectual history of caste and race.
This lecture invites a global audience to see caste not as a distant or uniquely Indian issue, but as a mirror reflecting how exclusion and privilege operate across all societies. Dr Suraj challenges both caste and racial discrimination, revealing how these two systems of hierarchical exclusion shape the modern world’s politics of identity, labour, migration, and justice. As a transnational Dalit rights activists, he is involved in building solidarities between Dalit, Black, Roma, Indigenous, Buraku and Refugee peoples in the Fourth World project of marginalised peoples.
What are the impacts of colonialism, religion and nationalism on caste-based hierarchies worldwide? What can we learn from caste-related movements in India and internationally? Why hasn’t the South Asian diaspora embraced the anti-caste struggles of the homeland? What are the limits of Dalit–Black solidarity? Dr Yengde asks probing questions about the nature of inequality and calls for a cosmopolitan Dalit universalism as part of a fight for social justice and equality.
Speaker
Dr Suraj Milind Yengde is Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies and a Ford Foundation Presidential Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. His second doctorate at the University of Oxford explored the intellectual histories of caste and race from the Middle Ages to the present. He is the bestselling author of ‘Caste Matters.’ He is also a consulting editor at Outlook Weekly and a columnist with Art Review.
Chair
Professor Gurminder K Bhambra is Professor of Historical Sociology in the Department of International Relations at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. She is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS). She has been President of the British Sociological Association and Trustee of the Sociological Review Foundation.
Discussants
Dr Kiruba Munusamy is an anti-caste activist, researcher, and advocate who practiced in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Madras. Her work and research focus on caste-based discrimination and related violence, gender issues, queer rights and human rights violations. With an expertise in intersection of caste and gender, she actively advocates for Dalit women empowerment. Following her Doctorate in Law from Middlesex University London, she has been awarded a Post Doctoral Fellowship by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.
Mr Abhishek Bhosale is a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. His primary scholarly engagement is with the critical juncture of anti-caste and land rights movements, specifically theorising on the nuanced relationship between freedom and emancipation for Dalit communities. His earlier research established a focus on the struggles, conflicts, and media representation concerning India’s Dalit and Adivasi communities. Mr. Bhosale also currently serves as the President of the SOAS Ambedkar Society.
