Caste isn’t just a South Asian issue, it shapes who speaks, who listens, and who is heard in academic and development spaces worldwide. In this episode of Between the Lines, we explore how caste hierarchies continue to influence the production of knowledge, access to opportunities, and the experience of being in higher education.
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Hosted by Chandni Sai Ganesh, MA Gender and Development alum at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), this podcast brings together anti-caste scholars and activists Aarti Rajput, Ritu Kochar, and Priyanka Samy. They speak about the silences, exclusions, and resistances that define their journeys in the UK and global academic setting.
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Key themes include:
- Caste in the classroom: How caste-based hierarchies continue to shape higher education.
- The power and violence of academic gatekeeping.
- What it means to decolonise pedagogy and co-create knowledge.
- The future of anti-caste commitments in international development.
About the interviewer:
Chandni Sai Ganesh is a Programme Officer at Dalit Solidarity Network UK and an IDS alum. She co-leads the Brighton Ambedkar Reading Circle and researches caste, diaspora, abolition, and gender.
About the interviewees:
Aarti Rajput is a Commonwealth Scholar pursuing an MA in Power, Participation and Social Change at IDS. A mentor with the Eklavya Foundation and Project EduAccess, she is researching the internalisation of caste through participatory action research. Aarti reflects, “Educational institutions are supposed to be spaces for transformation and social change. But when these very spaces practice caste-based exclusion, it becomes nearly impossible for someone from a marginalised caste background to speak out, let alone belong.”
Ritu Kochar is an ESRC-funded PhD candidate at the London School of Economics researching caste inequalities and transnational academic mobility. She is the Founding President of LSESU Ambedkar Society and has worked extensively with public policy institutions in India. During the conversation, she shares, “We need to challenge caste discrimination from within academic institutions. When caste is treated as an abstract academic concept, it erases the lived reality of discrimination.”
Priyanka Samy is a Dalit feminist activist and Global Gender and Intersectionality Lead at the International Budget Partnership. She is also a member of the National Federation of Dalit Women. She shares, “The classroom is not just a place to learn, it’s where we, as Dalit students, fight daily for dignity and survival. When our voices are excluded from education, they’re also excluded from shaping development agendas, both at home and globally.”
This episode is a bold call to action, for researchers, academics, and development institutions to confront how caste operates within their systems, and what it truly means to dismantle it.
About the Between the Lines podcast
This podcast series explores ground-breaking ideas in development for positive social and environmental change. Each month we feature an interview with an expert in international development who will talk about their latest research and ideas.
Episodes content could feature authors of new books, IDS research or interviews with special guest stars.
The discussions give an insight on the themes covered, exploring the challenges and discoveries, and why the issues matter for progressive and sustainable development globally.
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