Jusmeet Singh Sihra, Manali Desai and Priyanka Kotamraju, Department of Sociology,
University of Cambridge
jss82@cam.ac.uk
The Caste as Practice (CAP) research 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 in India, 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, given that many influential accounts had predicted its demise over time. 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.
The network is currently convened by Manali Desai (Professor of Sociology), Jusmeet Singh Sihra (British Academy International Fellow) and Priyanka Kotamraju (PhD Candidate) in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
We started this initiative in 2024 as a reading group in Cambridge Sociology, meeting monthly to explore sociological and anthropological classics in the field and the latest cutting-edge research on caste. From there, it evolved into a collaborative research network with Ankur Barua (Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies) at the Faculty of Divinity. The network was supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and the Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation. Other doctoral students in Sociology – Vishal Vasanthakumar and Damni Kain – have also been involved at various stages of the network.
We invite 3-4 speakers two to three times per term for our thematic discussions. These curated panels feature speakers who bring distinct disciplinary, methodological, or epistemological perspectives to the central question under consideration. The persistence and transformation of caste is at the core of our collective inquiry. To explore this puzzle, we have brought together political scientists, historians, geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, scholars of religion, social activists, writers and filmmakers from across the globe. Our aim is to produce a holistic account of the debate at hand and to identify new pathways of research. Two points are worth noting: (1) we do not consider any debate ‘settled’ and are keen to revisit older debates with new eyes; and (2) our discussions across different generations of scholars are forward-facing, especially for young researchers beginning to sketch their own interests around caste.
The first iteration of the network in 2024-25 focused on understanding caste through majoritarianism and the politics of marginalisation, Dalit feminism, affective theories, space and sensoria, textual sources and an engagement with Louis Dumont. We hosted eminent scholars such as Susan Bayly, Christophe Jaffrelot, Manuela Ciotti, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Hugo Gorringe, Gopal Guru, Jon Keune, Ananya Vajpeyi, Ankur Barua, Joel Lee, Joel Robbins and Surinder Jodhka, early career scholars Rupali Bansode, Priyanka Kotamraju, Srilata Sircar, Bhawani Buswala and Jusmeet Singh Sihra, and writer Meera Jatav and filmmaker Jyotinisha.
The second iteration in 2025-26 is supported by Cambridge Sociology and the Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation. We started by exploring caste in historical perspective, with Divya Cherian, Ramnarayan Rawat and Chinnaiah Jangam followed by a highly topical discussion on the Caste Census with Trina Vithayathil, Christophe Z Guilmoto and Yogendra Yadav. Audiences worldwide may expect in the near future to find sessions on politics and democracy, social mobility, endogamy, a comparative session looking at caste across South Asia, a revisit of the classic writings of M. N. Srinivas, McKim Marriot, and B. R. Ambedkar among others.
We firmly believe that these critical conversations must move beyond the confines of western academic spaces. This is why we run our sessions in hybrid mode – to ensure wider participation and engagement. Our sessions have drawn audiences from over a dozen countries. Subject to consent from our speakers, all our recordings are available on our YouTube channels of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and the Department of Sociology. We encourage anyone interested in the subject, including those who were unable to attend our sessions, to explore the recordings online.
For any enquiries, please reach out to Jusmeet Singh Sihra at jss82@cam.ac.uk or Priyanka Kotamraju at pk514@cam.ac.uk. We hope to extend the network by providing more avenues to discuss new books and works in progress of early career scholars. Please consult our website here to keep up to date with our events. We look forward very much to welcoming you at our next event in January 2026.
