Center for New Economics Studies

What do you do when educated, urban, and supposedly progressive people your age say things that are deeply sexist, casteist, or homophobic? How do you respond when the very people who claim to support equality are the ones reinforcing oppression?

In this episode, I share real statements from 18-21 year olds that left me speechless. Dr. Sindhu Rajasekaran, scholar, author of the bestseller Smashing the Patriarchy and her latest book Forbidden Desires, and curator of The Subjective Space, helps me understand where these beliefs come from and, more importantly, how to respond to them. We go beyond just criticizing what’s wrong and focus on practical questions: How do you actually challenge someone when they say something harmful? What do you do when it’s a professor or someone with power over you? And how do you keep fighting when the person saying these things is someone you love?

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion on rape, caste-based violence including untouchability, homophobia, and stigmatization of sex workers.

Hosted by Meddhya Singh, this episode challenges the idea that gossip is merely trivial, malicious, or unserious. In a 21st-century world shaped by social media, virality, and constant public scrutiny, gossip has become something far more powerful.

Rather than treating gossip as a moral failure, the discussion examines it as a social force. Through a debate, our guests take opposing positions on whether gossip functions as a tool for accountability and collective awareness, or whether it undermines truth, privacy, and justice. Drawing from political life, pop culture, digital media, and everyday social dynamics, they explore how rumours and informal narratives increasingly shape reputations, public opinion, and even national events.

This episode doesn’t ask whether gossip is “good” or “bad.” Instead, it asks why, despite institutions, algorithms, and an abundance of information, gossip refuses to disappear, and what that persistence reveals about power, credibility, and how we decide whom to believe.

Hosted by Meddhya Singh, this episode features Ms. Apoorva Lakshmi Kaipa in a discussion on the twentieth century as a moment of extraordinary intensity, defined by world wars, collapsing empires, mass media, and rapid social change. In this charged landscape, gossip and scandal did not merely accompany history; they actively shaped public opinion, political power, and cultural norms.

As cheap printing and mass-circulation newspapers transformed private lives into public spectacle, scandal became an industry and gossip a tool of influence. From political figures to cinema stars and women’s reputations, the episode explores how newspapers blurred the line between rumour and reportage, reshaping ideas of morality, respectability, and modernity, and asks how scandal came to lie at the heart of modern mass culture.

In this episode, hosted by Meddhya Singh, Mr. Chandril Ray Chaudhuri joins us for a deep dive into the medieval origins of gossip, to uncover a hidden history of power, gender, and control. We trace the linguistic and social transformation of “gossip” from its medieval origins as “godsibb”, a sacred term for trusted kinship, to its modern use as a gendered insult. We explore how women’s oral knowledge networks functioned as medical systems, support structures, and resistance movements in medieval Europe, and why these networks threatened institutional power. Through historical analysis and contemporary connections, we examine the double standard that labelled women’s information sharing as “gossip” while men’s identical activities became “political discourse” and “networking.”  Gossip has sparked revolutions, exposed predators, and preserved knowledge. It’s time to understand its real power. 

We are in a world where machines are quick to replicate art, and replace artisans, at a pace where we do not even look at pieces of carvings on our furniture, or the patterns of colors on our carpets as art anymore, these are merely objects created by machines to soothe the appearance of our lives. Yet what of the true artists? What of that carpenter, who learnt how to carve a peacock on a piece of wood through traditions that passed over generations? What of the clothmakers who learnt to block print from the family occupation?

These are the stories that this episode of ‘Interlinked’ persuades us to mull over. In conversation with Ms. Devika Dahiya, founder of the ‘Trunk Door’ organisation, which works towards rehabilitating and aiding textile artists, the episode discusses the behind the scenes of such lives, and the help they can receive to persuade the cause of their art. By discussing the artists that Ms. Dahiya herself works with, the episode conveys the importance of the art and the artist, and the steps we can take for an act of their furtherance.

In a fast developing country, it is not uncommon to see forests being chopped down to make more space for people. Such conditions have often led to conflicts between wildlife and forest proximate people. How are such situations dealt with? Can a happy result for both be ensured?

These are some of the questions being answered in Nandini Pandey’s discussion with Mr. Giriraj Singh Kushwaha, a former IAS officer, who is currently a member of the State Wildlife Board of Rajasthan, and a member for the committee for SARISKA Tiger Reserve of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Through taking the case Mor Dungri, a village near Ranthambore National Park, whose people were happily relocated under Mr. Kushwaha’s facilitation, our guest discusses with us the problems that may arise in such cases, how they are dealt with, and how meaningful changes can be made to have long lasting effects ensure a better future for many.

The Vichaar segment, in conversation with PhD scholar and activist Angel Sophan, explores the intricate relationship between caste and food practices in India. Ms. Sophan, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at Christ University, highlights how notions of purity and pollution govern dietary choices, reinforcing caste hierarchies and social exclusion. Tracing historical roots from the Vedic era to present-day institutional settings, she explains how vegetarianism became a marker of moral superiority and dominance. Through examples from campuses, public spaces, and mid-day meal schemes, she exposes how food restrictions perpetuate discrimination and humiliation among marginalized communities. Emphasizing the psychological impact of such exclusion, Ms. Sophan calls for resistance against casteist norms disguised as dietary ethics. She concludes by urging individuals to internalize constitutional values of equality, liberty, and fraternity, and to challenge the control exercised by the privileged few over the majority’s right to consume freely.

In this edition of Vichaar, we explore the theme of the gastropolitics of caste in India, examining how food becomes a powerful medium through which purity, hierarchy, and exclusion are enforced. Through our conversation with Ms. Angel Sophan, PhD scholar and activist, we delve into the historical roots of dietary restrictions, tracing how vegetarianism evolved from a religious philosophy into a marker of caste superiority. Ms. Sophan highlights how these hierarchies continue to shape our social and institutional spaces — from university dining halls to mid-day meal schemes — where access to food and the right to eat without shame remain deeply political. She urges the unlearning of purity and the reclamation of food as a site of equality and dignity, reminding us that caste is not a relic of the past but an evolving structure that adapts to modern life. Drawing from Ambedkar’s call for fraternity, she emphasizes that dismantling caste oppression begins not just through policy, but through internalising constitutional values in our everyday choices — including what we eat, how we eat, and whose food we deem “pure.”

In this edition of Vichaar, we explore the theme of the gastropolitics of caste in India, examining how food becomes a powerful medium through which purity, hierarchy, and exclusion are enforced. Through our conversation with Ms. Angel Sophan, PhD scholar and activist, we delve into the historical roots of dietary restrictions, tracing how vegetarianism evolved from a religious philosophy into a marker of caste superiority. Ms. Sophan highlights how these hierarchies continue to shape our social and institutional spaces — from university dining halls to mid-day meal schemes — where access to food and the right to eat without shame remain deeply political. She urges the unlearning of purity and the reclamation of food as a site of equality and dignity, reminding us that caste is not a relic of the past but an evolving structure that adapts to modern life. Drawing from Ambedkar’s call for fraternity, she emphasizes that dismantling caste oppression begins not just through policy, but through internalising constitutional values in our everyday choices — including what we eat, how we eat, and whose food we deem “pure.”

In this episode, we unpack the big question: Are private universities really as inclusive as they claim? Drawing from a report on queer, trans, and caste-oppressed student experiences in four private universities of Delhi NCR, we explore the gap between glossy policies and lived realities. From campus “safe spaces” to hidden hierarchies, this conversation examines what safety, belonging, and care truly mean and why universities must move beyond optics to real accountability. The report is the work of Swabhimaan: a student-led initiative under the Centre for New Economics Studies at OP Jindal Global University as we tune in with Suhani Sharma, a student associated with the project!