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Paper short abstract:

In India, two paradoxes— neo-liberalism and social justice, continue to affect the socio-political discourse in every social setting, and universities are at the centre stage. This paper brings the perspective from below to the forefront of the question of graded inequality in knowledge production.

Paper long abstract:

Since the inception of higher education in India, the dominant castes have had control over knowledge production. In the age of neo-liberal universities, the concentration of power remains with the caste elites. Despite the constitutional mandate for affirmative action for Dalits (ex-Untouchables) and Adivasis (Tribals), these underrepresented groups remain at the margins of the knowledge production process. Consequently, my research engages with one of the critical sites, the university, to understand the academic activism of the faculties from historically marginalized communities. Using the perspective of the socio-politics of caste, the paper elucidates the process of academic scholarship with social and political activism in Indian higher education.

This paper, based on an ethnographic study (January 2019 to January 2020) at the University of Hyderabad— one of the top-ranking public universities in India— engages with the perspective on anti-caste pedagogy. The site of study made headlines after the ultimate protest by the Dalit student-activist Rohith Vemula in the year 2016, further developing in a series of nationwide student agitations against caste discrimination. The study critically examines the relationship between identity, knowledge and power through the lived experiences of the Dalit and Adivasi faculties to capture the identity resistance.

Given the conspiracy of silence towards the contribution of marginalized castes in knowledge production, the study analyses the everyday engagement of the Dalit and Adivasi faculties in academic and non-academic spheres. It also reflects on the processes and practices of deconstructing the Brahmanical-hegemonic narratives through the teaching-learning-research activities in Indian higher education.