India Observatory and CASE Public Seminar
Wednesday 29th May 2013, 12.45pm to 1.45pm, Room 32L.3.05, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, LSE
Speaker: Avatthi Ramaiah
Chair: Polly Vizard
Development has been defined in more than one perspective. While usually it is understood as economic growth, the UN has defined it as a condition that enables people to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Thus the core objectives of development are to free people from obstacles that affect their ability to develop their own lives and communities; empower people to take control of their own lives; to express their own demands and to find their own solutions to their problems. In short, freedom becomes central to the debate on development. This seminar will focus on whether the caste system allows such a freedom to individuals and groups within its structure, and what challenges it poses to accomplishing the objectives of development.
Professor Avatthi Ramaiah is a Visiting Fellow at LSE Asia Research Centre. He has been teaching and researching at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai since 1991 on the broad themes of political economy and sociology of caste, and caste and social work. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Anthropology Department, Columbia University, under the Fulbright Senior Scholar programme in 2009, and at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), University of Hull, in 2010. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 1999. He has published extensively on issues pertaining to caste, and caste based discrimination and violence.
Dr Polly Vizard is Research Fellow at CASE, LSE.
Additional Information
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries email arc@lse.ac.uk| or call 020 7955 7615.