Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1916–1999) was an Indian sociologist and social anthropologist. He is mostly known for his work on caste and caste systems,Social stratification,Sanskritisation and Westernisation in southern India and the concept of 'Dominant Caste'. He is considered to be one of the pioneering personalities in the field of Sociology &Social anthropology in India as his work in Rampura remains one of the early examples of ethnography in India. This was in contrast to most of his contemporaries of the Bombay School,who were primary focusing on a historical methodology for conducting research.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is an Indian academician. He was the president of the Centre for Policy Research,a New Delhi-based think tank and was the Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University from July 2017 to July 2019.
Ramachandra "Ram" Guha is an Indian historian,environmentalist,writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social,political,contemporary,environmental and cricket history,and the field of economics. He is an important authority on the history of modern India.
Upendra Baxi is a legal scholar,since 1996 professor of law in development at the University of Warwick,United Kingdom. He is presently a Research Professor of Law and Distinguished Scholar in Public Law and Jurisprudence at the Jindal Global Law School,OP Jindal Global University. He has been the vice-chancellor of University of Delhi (1990–1994),prior to which he held the position of professor of law at the same university for 23 years (1973–1996). He has also served as the vice-chancellor of the University of South Gujarat,Surat,India (1982–1985).
Castes are rigid social groups characterized by hereditary transmission of life style,occupation and social status. The caste system in India has its origins in ancient India,and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval,early-modern,and modern India,especially the Mughal Empire and the British Raj. The caste system consists of two different concepts,varna and jati,which may be regarded as different levels of analysis.
Amiya Kumar Bagchi is a distinguished Indian political economist. His contributions have spanned economic history,the economics of industrialisation and deindustrialisation,and development studies from an overall Marxist perspective,incorporating insights from other schools of radical political economics,including left Keynesianism. Among Marxists,he is known for his extensive contributions to theories of imperialism and underdevelopment.
Gail Omvedt was an American-born Indian sociologist and human rights activist. She was a prolific writer and published numerous books on the anti-caste movement,Dalit politics,and women's struggles in India. Omvedt was involved in Dalit and anti-caste movements,environmental,farmers' and women's movements,especially with rural women.
Rudrangshu Mukherjee is an Indian historian and author of several major history books. He was formerly the Opinions Editor for The Telegraph newspaper,Kolkata and the Chancellor for Ashoka University,where he also serves as Professor of History. He was the founding Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka when the University began in 2014 and was succeeded in 2017 by Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
Mahesh Rangarajan is a researcher,author and historian with a special interest in environmental history and colonial history of British and contemporary India. He is a professor of Environmental Studies and History at Ashoka University. He appears frequently on Indian television as a political analyst. He is also a columnist in the print media writing on wildlife conservation,political and environmental issues. In 2010,he chaired the Elephant Task Force (Gajah) of the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Task Force was formed to formulate measures for the protection of elephants in India.
Sugata Marjit is the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta and currently the First Distinguished Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and the Project Director of Centre for Training &Research in Public Finance and Policy (CTRPFP) [A Ministry of Finance,Government of India funded initiative]. He is a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and currently the Editor of South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance. He used to be the Director of Centre for Studies in Social Sciences,Calcutta from March 2007 to March 2012 and Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor of Industrial Economics at CSSSC till September,2019. On 15 July,2015 he took the charge as an interim Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious University of Calcutta,Kolkata,India.
David Vumlallian Zou is a historian of modern South Asia with special interest in north-east India. His research interests reflect an interdisciplinary orientation that includes colonial history,book history,gender history,ethno-history,indigenous identities and historical geography.
Sajal Nag is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Distinguished Chair Professor in Social Sciences at Presidency University,Kolkata. He specialises in the history of modern North-East India. He has published extensively on different aspects of India's North-East
Madhugiri Shamarao Anathapadmanabha Rao (1926–1985) was a professor of sociology who had been a founder-member in 1959 of the Department of Sociology at the University of Delhi,India. He wrote and edited extensively on subjects such as the social aspects of nutrition,both urban and rural sociology,the sociology of migration,and social dominance. He conducted much fieldwork as a part of his researches.
Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and much of Europe,where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States,social anthropology is commonly subsumed within cultural anthropology or sociocultural anthropology.
R. S. Khare is a socio-cultural anthropologist and a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia,U.S. He is known for studying “from within/without”India's changing society,religions,food systems,and political cultures,and for following the trajectories of contemporary Indian traditional and modern cultural discourses. His anthropology has endeavored to widen reasoned bridges across the India-West cultural,religious-philosophical,and literary distinctions and differences.
Susan Visvanathan is an Indian sociologist,social anthropologist and a fiction writer. She is well known for her writings on religious dialogue and sociology of religion. Her first book Christians of Kerala:History,Belief and Ritual among the Yakoba is a pathbreaking work in the field of sociology of religion.
David Reid Syiemlieh is an Indian academician and the former Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission of India. He studied in Dr Graham's Homes,Kalimpong (1958–1970) and graduated with history honours from St.Edmund's College,Shillong. This was followed with a master's degree in History (1976),MPhil (1980) and PhD (1985) from the North Eastern Hill University,Shillong. He taught undergraduates in St. Edmund's College (1977–1979) before joining the Department of History,NEHU,in 1979. He rose in the profession to become a Professor in the Department of History. He held numerous positions in the University,including Dean of Students' Welfare;Head Department of History;Controller of Examinations;Registrar and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Prof. Syiemlieh,is a former Vice-Chancellor,Rajiv Gandhi University,Doimukh,Arunachal Pradesh.
Ashoka University is a private university located in Sonipat,Haryana,India,focusing on liberal arts and sciences. It was established in 2014 by a group of philanthropists.
Dipankar Gupta is an Indian sociologist and public intellectual. He was formerly Professor in the Centre for the Study of Social Systems,Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi. For a brief period from 1993 to 1994,he was also associated with the Delhi School of Economics as Professor in the Department of Sociology. His current research interests include rural-urban transformation,labour laws in the informal sector,modernity,ethnicity,caste and stratification. He is a regular columnist with The Times of India,The Hindu and occasionally in The Indian Express and Anandbazar Patrika in Bengali. He serves on the board of institutions like the Reserve Bank of India,the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) and Max India.
Tharailath Koshy Oommen is an Indian sociologist,author,educationist and Professor Emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems,Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was awarded Padma Bhushan,the third highest Indian civilian award in 2008 for his services to the fields of education and literature by the President of India.
