The writer teaches sociology at Delhi University.

June 16,2025 08:05:12 AM
Coming Census will be unique. Questions raised by caste count and delimitation will be answered in a particular political conjuncture
Mon, Jun 16, 2025
October 14,2024 00:25:55 AM
It is distressing that arguments used against reservation earlier are being used now to oppose sub-categorisation within Scheduled Castes.
Mon, Oct 14, 2024
January 27,2024 07:30:00 AM
It is a shrewd move, doesn't cede anything substantial to 'backward' castes
Sat, Jan 27, 2024
January 05,2024 07:19:58 AM
To appreciate why JPS and his brand of indigenous knowledge will be missed we only have to look at what passes in the name of indigeneity today
Fri, Jan 05, 2024
December 13,2023 16:28:43 PM
Universities, research centres and other knowledge-producing institutions are entrusted with the task of thinking on behalf of society. Their job is to ensure that the ideas we use are the best ones available
Thu, Dec 14, 2023
October 04,2023 07:45:11 AM
Caste differences are real differences. True political unity is the negotiated overcoming of differences, not their denial or suppression
Wed, Oct 04, 2023
September 23,2023 07:00:38 AM
Power is concentrated in a single supreme leader who is popular amongst a dominant segment of the population defined in religious, racial-ethnic or other cultural terms. This form of regime is invariably accompanied by the erosion of all the institutions that modern democracies have relied on.
Sat, Sep 23, 2023
April 11,2023 12:26:16 PM
Satish Deshpande writes: It is not surprising that the All India Federation for Social Justice is the initiative of the DMK, the party with the longest history of “caste politics”.
Wed, Apr 12, 2023
November 08,2022 15:42:33 PM
The EWS constitutional amendment, now sanctioned by Supreme Court, aims for and struggles to avoid stating openly what it is — reservation for the Hindu upper castes
Wed, Nov 09, 2022
September 19,2022 19:17:39 PM
Satish Deshpande writes: A fresh study on caste among Christians and Muslims is needed, but the existing evidence already shows that the Dalits among them suffer from the same kind of social discrimination as Hindu or Sikh Dalits
Wed, Sep 21, 2022
September 08,2022 16:40:44 PM
Satish Despande writes: Renaming of Rajpath is an attempt to represent state power to the public, in a sanctimonious manner filled with a for-show hyper-morality
Fri, Sep 09, 2022
July 05,2022 19:14:52 PM
Satish Deshpande writes: Higher education in India needs reform but FYUP, NEP may be providing false hope to the young
Wed, Jul 06, 2022
January 14,2022 03:33:03 AM
🔴 Satish Deshpande writes: Since it began in the 1920s, the larger Hindutva project had only been battery-powered. The Modi-Shah regime has plugged this project into the power of the state.
Fri, Jan 14, 2022
October 25,2021 03:48:38 AM
Satish Deshpande writes: The truth is not the same as what is politically relevant and convenient. This is what critics of Rajnath Singh’s recent remarks have missed.
Tue, Oct 26, 2021
August 13,2021 03:00:49 AM
Satish Deshpande writes: The most powerful and the most pampered minority in Indian society is composed largely of the upper castes. A caste census will make it visible.
Sat, Aug 14, 2021
March 15,2021 03:10:18 AM
With the Supreme Court reconsidering the ceiling of 50 per cent for reservations, we can move beyond binaries and ask difficult questions about power-sharing.
Mon, Mar 15, 2021
July 24,2020 03:55:53 AM
The fact that Dubey was yet to be charged under any law while Rao has been charged under a special law should not blind us to the essential similarity they share — the state took unfair advantage of its custodial power over them. But the real danger such cases pose is that they always carry in their background the suggestion of popular support, which sometimes ripens into an explicit claim.
Fri, Jul 24, 2020
May 27,2020 04:44:11 AM
We have long ignored the vital role public educational institutions play as exemplary sites of social inclusion and relative equality. In Indian conditions, this role is arguably even more important than the scholastic role.
Wed, May 27, 2020
January 17,2020 04:00:52 AM
The erosion of autonomy began well before the current regime. Much of it was ceded by academics rather than snatched by bureaucrats or politicians.
Fri, Jan 17, 2020
June 14,2019 00:00:47 AM
The nation awaits the new born DNEP’s janmakundali to reveal its future. But we already know one of its possible epitaphs: It was just too good to be true.
Fri, Jun 14, 2019
January 11,2019 00:05:36 AM
Being poor is different from belonging to lower castes, even though most poor belong to lower castes.
Fri, Jan 11, 2019
December 27,2018 00:13:13 AM
The decisive question for democracy in India: How should it deal with citizens who think differently and are annoying or inconvenient to ‘us’?
Thu, Dec 27, 2018
July 04,2018 00:05:40 AM
Institutions like the UGC are meant to embody this principle and are designed to act as buffers, insulating universities from the massive financial and political power of the state.
Wed, Jul 04, 2018
March 23,2018 00:15:29 AM
The Congress’s main issue is not dynasty: It is the absence of a distinct and decisive political agenda
Fri, Mar 23, 2018
January 08,2018 01:00:08 AM
Bhima Koregaon is where three political projects of our times clash even as they try to collude with each other
Mon, Jan 08, 2018




