Project Work/s
My work/research is concerned with how hierarchies become part of ordinary life: how they enter institutions, shape memory, organise knowledge, and settle into the ways people learn to understand themselves and others. I approach caste through this wider question of social ordering, reading it as a historical formation that speaks to larger problems of inequality, authority, dignity, and human relations. Across my research and public-facing work, I ask how inherited structures shape the conditions under which some lives are made legible, some histories become peripheral, and some forms of knowledge acquire the force of truth.
These projects move across writing, talks, workshops, artistic practice, and collaborative spaces. They are guided by Dalit epistemology, decolonial thought, and मीमांसा as a practice of careful interpretation. I am interested in the relation between lived experience and theory, between institutional power and everyday feeling, between social suffering and the forms of thought that emerge from it. The work remains committed to anti-caste, anti-hierarchical, decolonial, and plural-universal futures, but its method is deliberately patient: to read closely, to think with history, and to remain answerable to the worlds from which knowledge is made.
Jai Bhimजय भीम
Decolonial Debrahmanical Deimperial
Research Network
Decolonial, Debrahmanical, De-imperial: Introducing the D3 Research Network Thinking critically, phenomenologically, and ‘worldly’; stemmed in anti-caste, anti-hierarchial, anti-colonial epistemology.
Emerging from a self-reflexive reading of contemporary academe, this network recognises that much scholarship—including work that styles itself critical—continues to orbit colonial, brahmanical/hierarchical, and imperial logics. A collaborate intiative started by HarshuL S and Chandni G
Read and Connect us @d3researchnetwork | d3researchnetwork@gmail.com
Dalit Theory Referential Framework Series
As a collaborative effort during my tenure convening the SOAS Ambedkar Society at SOAS University of London, the Dalit Theory Referential Framework was launched to foreground Dalit perspectives in academic spaces. Rooted in the critical work of Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai, this framework champions Dalits' moral right to theorise their own lived experiences, underscoring the value of authentic representation in scholarship. It serves (d) as a testament to epistemic justice, pushing against dehumanising and anti-caste academic practices by advocating for inclusive methodologies. Recognising caste's complex intersections with societal categories, this framework highlights caste as both a locus of power and a site of systemic oppression. Furthermore, it emphasised the acknowledgement and celebration of intellectual contributions from marginalised communities, asserting ownership over their narratives. By dismantling upper-caste hegemony, this initiative strives to foster equitable and inclusive academic practices, giving voice to scholars from the periphery and promoting the legitimacy of their contributions within the broader scholarly discourse.
Global Feminist Solidarities: Caste and Race
Global South Feminist Solidarities into Race, Health and Caste was part of my brief engagement with SOAS Worldmaking and Beyond (FCRJ), where I presented my visual and text-based work encapsulating various feminist figures and their initiatives towards raising awareness regarding climate justice and the racialised aspects that often affect the marginalised community groups of the Global South. The project was made possible with enriching intellectual and financial support from UCL - Climate, Health Action Incubator (CHAI).
Decolonising; Debrahmanising Knowledge Production
DBA Epistemologies and Political Resistance
Driven by a commitment to challenge and reconfigure dominant frameworks in knowledge production through the integration of Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi (DBA) scholarship. In an academic landscape often shaped by Brahmanical and Eurocentric norms, my research and social engagement focus on uplifting DBA perspectives, celebrating their contributions, and embedding their insights into academic discourse. This project foregrounds the importance of critically interrogating the structures and hierarchies that perpetuate exclusion within academia, emphasizing de-Brahmanization as an essential dimension of the decolonization process.
Through this approach, I seek to create a more inclusive intellectual space by actively engaging with DBA epistemologies, which offer alternative perspectives on social, cultural, and political resistance. In my writing, I deliberately challenge and demystify terms"savarna," "brahman," and "eurocentrism," by writing them in short-script, to deconstruct the privileged language that sustains hegemonic narratives. By decentralizing these terms, I aim to destabilize the linguistic and epistemic power they hold, fostering a discourse that is both accessible and anti-oppressive.
This project is reflected across my research outputs, where I uphold DBA voices as essential to reimagining social theory and political thought. By incorporating the works and perspectives of marginalized communities, I strive to build a scholarship that resists hierarchical epistemologies and advocates for an academic practice rooted in equity, diversity, and critical self-reflection. This underscores decolonizing knowledge production requires not only amplifying DBA voices but also a sustained, reflexive commitment to challenging our own positionality and complicity in existing power structures.
Caste Discrimination
SOAS SU Equality and Diversity Policy
In early 2023, caste discrimination was formally recognized as a category of prejudice within the SOAS Student Union’s Equality and Diversity Policy—a significant milestone achieved through the collaborative efforts of Dalit and Bahujan students, alongside the Ambedkar Society. This change followed extensive appeals and sustained advocacy, dedicated to highlighting caste as a critical facet of discrimination, requiring careful consideration within SOAS’s Student Union policies. I contributed by providing essential definitions, a glossary, and contextual background on the caste system and caste-based discrimination in India, which became valuable resources for documentation and awareness efforts. This update reinforced the institution’s commitment to fostering an inclusive environment that actively promotes equality, diversity, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination
Caste Campaign at SOAS
A Step towards Inclusivity and Social Justice
Archived
The Campaign aimed to address caste and its related issues. Caste comes to a severe category on the basis of which many of the South Asian Student community continue to face discrimination and other unjust behaviour (this can be carried through conscious and non-conscious attributes). The proposed campaign aimed addressing caste to promote greater consciousness and awareness of caste-based discrimination; the need for anti-caste inclusive sensitisation practices and social justice.