Research Radio

The FIRs filed to regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol follow a curious template in Madhya Pradesh, our guests from today’s episode found. An FIR is likely to begin with a tip from an anonymous informant. Police officers would then reach the “crime site” and find that the accused does not have the appropriate licence to sell liquor. On paper, the section they are charged under is about regulating the sale of alcohol. In practice, however, our guests for today’s episode identify how this type of FIRs and subsequent legal proceedings reveal how power and control operate in India.

Nikita Sonavane and Srujana Bej join us in this episode of Research Radio. We will be discussing their article titled Construction(s) of Female Criminality: Gender, Caste and State Violence. We recommend reading the two articles “The Anxious State” and “Death by Excise Policing: The Widening Web of Carcerality in India.” Their article was a part of a specially commissioned series of seven articles published in EPW Engage on the state of NT-DNT communities in India. Both researchers refer to the CPA Project's report "Drunk on Power: A Study of Excise Policing in Madhya Pradesh," which offers rich details and insights.

Nikita Sonavane is the co-founder of the Criminal Justice And Police Accountability Project (CPA Project) focused on building accountability against criminalisation of marginalised communities by the police and the criminal justice system. Srujana Bej is a lawyer and researcher with interests in spatial justice, the rights to food and education, and critical legal studies.

Although the role of Birsa Munda has been seminal in championing the Adivasi cause, his political movements and legacy have been distorted, like other prominent Indian historical figures, including B R Ambedkar and M K Gandhi. Despite misrepresentations, Birsa Munda and his politics continue to inspire not just Adivasis but also Dalits and other marginalised sections in their pursuit of attaining social justice.

Birsa Munda, a young freedom fighter and a tribal leader was born and raised in the tribal belt of Bihar and Jharkhand. Although he lived a very short span of life, Birsa managed to mobilise the tribal community against the British regime and he forced them to introduce laws to protect the land rights of the tribal community.

This podcast is based on the article “ Setting the Record Straight on Birsa Munda and His Political Legacy” which was authored by Dr Joseph Bara. The article was published in EPW journal on 25th July 2020.

Dr Bara is an independent scholar on tribal history and education in modern India and was formerly with Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is currently based in Ranchi.

This is part two of the podcast. You can find Part-I here.

Byju’s is likely to be the first name that pops into our heads when  we think of the words online education and EdTech. While online  education was once seen with doubt, Byju’s has reported consistent  growth in users and the pandemic has given them a turbo boost. What are  the implications of EdTech companies in changing how students learn and  grow? What types of partnerships are EdTech companies forging to grow?  How can technology be used to bring us closer to the ideal of education  as a transformative force for progress, to spark innovation and to  address inequity?

These are some of the questions that researcher Gurumurthy Kasinathan will help address. We will be discussing his articles "The Edtech Leviathan" and "Platform Capitalism and Edtech."

Gurumurthy Kasinathan is one of the founders of IT for Change. His  areas of expertise include ICT integration in school education, teacher  education and pre-service teacher education.

Opening excerpt courtesy: LearnIt

Although the role of Birsa Munda has been seminal in championing the Adivasi cause, his political movements and legacy have been distorted, like other prominent Indian historical figures, including B R Ambedkar and M K Gandhi. Despite misrepresentations, Birsa Munda and his politics continue to inspire not just Adivasis but also Dalits and other marginalised sections in their pursuit of attaining social justice.

Birsa Munda, a young freedom fighter and a tribal leader was born and raised in the tribal belt of Bihar and Jharkhand. Although he lived a very short span of life, Birsa managed to mobilise the tribal community against the British regime and he forced the crown to introduce laws to protect the land rights of the tribal community.

This podcast is based on the article “ Setting the Record Straight on Birsa Munda and His Political Legacy” which was authored by Dr Joseph Bara. The article was published in EPW journal on 25th July 2020.

Dr Bara is an independent scholar on tribal history and education in modern India and was formerly with Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is currently based in Ranchi.

This podcast is in two parts and this is the part one. Please make sure you listen to part two as well.

The recent Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, passed in the Karnataka legislative assembly that claims to combat conversion is a diabolical move by the government to provide legal cover to the majoritarian fundamentalist oppression against minorities.

This podcast is based on the article “Anti-conversion Legislation in Karnataka: BJP’s Responsible Governance or Descent in Communal Chaos?” which was published in EPW journal on 15th January, 2022.

Cynthia Stephen is an independent social policy researcher and analyst and independent journalist. She is also a well-known trainer on Gender, policy and Development issues. Her body of work includes leadership in several people’s initiatives for justice, in large country-wide women’s empowerment groups, and theoretical work on Women’s concerns from the unrecognised perspective of women and girls from a large number of marginalised sections in India.

The podcast has been conceptualised, recorded and edited by Rahul Bhise.

In 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reported in Parliament that the government inefficiently allocated coal blocks and caused a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 1.8 lakh crore. The period from 2010 to the national elections in 2014 was when “the allocation of natural resources to mainstream economic sectors, especially mining, was politicised like never before.” What did this process of politicisation involve? How was it different from before? In what ways has environmental regulation changed since 2014?

These are some of the questions that researchers Dr Kanchi Kohli and Dr Manju Menon will help address. We will be discussing their EPW article titled “Narratives of Natural Resource Corruption and Environmental Regulatory Reforms in India.” Their article was a part of a specially commissioned series of five papers for EPW’s annual Review of Environment and Development.

Manju Menon is a senior fellow at CPR, where she undertakes research, writing and community projects on environmental justice and the politics of resource rights. Kanchi Kohli is a senior researcher at CPR. Her policy research and practice explore the links between law, development, sustainability and environmental justice.

Opening excerpt courtesy: NDTV/Govt regulator CAG tables report on coal, Delhi airport

Marathi poet Namdeo Dhasal challenged Brahminical literature and sought to reconstruct a caste-less society through his works.

This podcast is based on the article Namdeo Dhasal’s new language that was published in EPW journal on 27th October, 2018.

Yogesh is a poet, columnist, writer and founder of Panther’s Paw Publication. He is also a PhD scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He is studying the History of Ambedkarite Shahiri in Maharashtra.

January 15 is marked as the death anniversary of Poet extraordinaire Namdeo Dhasal, and EPW pays homage to him with this feature.

The podcast has been conceptualised, recorded and edited by Rahul Bhise. 

Gail Omvedt has published more than 50 articles in EPW. This includes sharp book reviews, innovative research work and critical responses to articles published in the journal. After her death, EPW published reflective articles to understand her contributions. To take this a step further, and to commemorate her legacy, we felt that it could be useful to take a behind-the-scenes look at her research process, how her work is taught within a classroom setting and critical reflections about her scholarship.

Dr Umesh Bagade and Dr Sangita Thosar join us on the podcast to share their insights based on extensive experience teaching Omvedt’s work and knowledge about anti-caste and feminist movements in Maharashtra. Our reading list charts the growth of her scholarship. We discuss Dr Omvedt’s articles titled “Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India,” “Development of the Maharashtrian Class Structure, 1818 to 1931,” and “Non-Brahmans and Nationalists in Poona”

Umesh R Bagade is a professor at Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. His research and teaching interests include the history of anti-caste movements, the intellectual and social history of modern Maharashtra, historiography, studies of caste economy and history of caste gender consciousness. Sangita Thosar is an assistant professor at the Advanced Center for Women’s Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her research and teaching interest include caste and gender, women’s role in various social movements, questions of citizenship and the rights of Dalit–Adivasi women.

In their bid to maintain political visibility, various factions of the Republican Party of India have struck up alliances with "secular" and "non-secular" parties. They have not adequately utilised the progressive undercurrents of the Dalit consciousness to connect with other deprived communities to form a dynamic coalition.

This podcast is based on the article Dalit Politics in Maharashtra that was published in EPW journal on 21st April 2012. This article is authored by Dr Harish S Wankhede. Dr Wankhede is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies at JNU, New Delhi. He has written about caste, Dalit movement, Dalit Politics in the states of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. He specialises in Political Theory, Public Institutions, Secularism and Social Justice and Cinema.

Women spend more than three times as much time performing unpaid domestic work than men in India based on 2019 NSSO data. This means women get less time to pursue paid work, learn new skills, get rest, and more. This disproportionate division of labour remains unrecognised. Indian courts, however, have attempted to value women’s unpaid domestic work in cases where women have died or become disabled in motor accidents.

Dr Prabha Kotiswaran has analysed hundreds of such cases since the 1960s. She joins us on the podcast to discuss her findings. Dr Kotiswaran is a Professor of Law and Social Justice at King’s College London. She is currently working on a multi-year project titled “Laws of Social Reproduction” and is an advisory member of EPW’s Review of Women’s Studies. We recommend reading the following related articles as well: “What Does Work-From-Home Mean for Women?” “Estimating Unpaid Care Work: Methodological Issues in Time Use Surveys” and “'Wages for Housework' for Indian Society and Digitalising Economy”