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Sumeet Mhaskar
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Department of Religious Diversity, Junior Research Partner
Prof. Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar is Professor of Sociology at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O. P. Jindal Global University in NCR of Delhi, India. He is also a Research Partner with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Goettingen, Germany.
Prior to Jindal, Dr. Mhaskar was a Resident Fellow at the Center for South Asia, Stanford University, and Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Dr. Mhaskar is a recipient of the prestigious research award conferred by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. As a Humboldt Fellow, he was based at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen. Dr. Mhaskar is also a recipient of a Post-Doctoral fellowship from the Max Weber Foundation, and a Visiting Lecturership at the Kassel University. He holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Oxford, and M.A and M.Phil degrees in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Dr. Mhaskar's research is on the multifaceted aspects of labouring at the lower end of India's 'rising' economy. In his doctoral research, he examined Mumbai's textile mill workers' responses to their job loss following the closure of textile mills. He has also studied its effect on their children's educational and occupational attainment. Based on the doctoral thesis, he is currently working on a book manuscript. Following his doctoral research, Dr. Mhaskar studied rural-urban linkages in a globalising Mumbai city. This project, supported by Alexander von Humboldt foundation, explored the urban experience of rural labour migrants who enter the city through well established and old networks.
Dr. Mhaskar runs a digitization centre in Mumbai where old and rare documents on social and political movements are digitised. The initial funding for this project was given by International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. Currently it is funded by the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen.
Dr. Mhaskar has published his research in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, working papers, and he occasionally writes articles for newspapers and magazines.
Address: Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar
Jindal School of Government and Public Policy
O.P. Jindal Global University
Sonipat Narela Road
Sonipat, 131001
Haryana, India
Prior to Jindal, Dr. Mhaskar was a Resident Fellow at the Center for South Asia, Stanford University, and Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Dr. Mhaskar is a recipient of the prestigious research award conferred by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. As a Humboldt Fellow, he was based at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen. Dr. Mhaskar is also a recipient of a Post-Doctoral fellowship from the Max Weber Foundation, and a Visiting Lecturership at the Kassel University. He holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Oxford, and M.A and M.Phil degrees in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Dr. Mhaskar's research is on the multifaceted aspects of labouring at the lower end of India's 'rising' economy. In his doctoral research, he examined Mumbai's textile mill workers' responses to their job loss following the closure of textile mills. He has also studied its effect on their children's educational and occupational attainment. Based on the doctoral thesis, he is currently working on a book manuscript. Following his doctoral research, Dr. Mhaskar studied rural-urban linkages in a globalising Mumbai city. This project, supported by Alexander von Humboldt foundation, explored the urban experience of rural labour migrants who enter the city through well established and old networks.
Dr. Mhaskar runs a digitization centre in Mumbai where old and rare documents on social and political movements are digitised. The initial funding for this project was given by International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. Currently it is funded by the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen.
Dr. Mhaskar has published his research in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, working papers, and he occasionally writes articles for newspapers and magazines.
Address: Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar
Jindal School of Government and Public Policy
O.P. Jindal Global University
Sonipat Narela Road
Sonipat, 131001
Haryana, India
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for reservations in employment and higher education,
claiming that the lack of reservations has resulted in
socio-economic backwardness. Their opponents have
largely highlighted the political and economic
dominance of the community. This paper examines the
income, education and occupational status of the
Marathas vis-à-vis non-Marathas while scrutinising the
statistical limitations of the Gaikwad Committee report
(2018). Compared to other castes and communities in
Maharashtra, the Marathas have a higher proportion of
the rich and wealthy and the lowest share among the
poorest and poor. It is only in comparison to the
Brahmins and other upper castes that the Marathas lag
behind in education and employment.
From the perspective of the shudra-atishudra – the serving, labouring, and untouchable castes, who formed the lowest stratum of Western Indian society – the new political situation provided a space to challenge the established structures of caste and gender domination. The article starts with a discussion of colonial-governmental and missionary educational interventions, and proceeds to analyse anti-caste radicals’ educational activities against this background. Schools, popular literature, and public performance aimed to create a reflexive knowledge among the shudra-atishudra
about their own position in society, and the ways to change it. Finally, the article explores the anti-caste movement’s varying interpretations of the changes in education and society. While anti-caste writers
of the 1850s welcomed the new educational opportunities, their voices were highly critical of colonial education policy in the 1880s. In the nineteenth century’s struggles over caste, gender, and education, privileges and exclusions had been reworked in a colonial modern framework. Still, important steps had been taken towards democratising and universalising Indian education.
Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag untersucht Prozesse politischer Mobilisierung durch Bildung in einem kolonialen Kontext. In Indien entwickelte sich Bildung im 19. Jahrhundert zu einem wichtigen Kristallisationspunkt sozialpolitischer Auseinandersetzungen: Einerseits richtete sich die Forderung nach einer Ausweitung von Bildungschancen unmittelbar gegen bestehende Ausschlüsse im Rahmen der Kasten- und Geschlechterhierarchien. Andererseits sollte über Bildungsangebote eine Solidargemeinschaft der unteren und untersten Kasten gestiftet werden, die sich unter dem Begriff Dalit Bahujan zu einer wichtigen politischen Kategorie im modernen Indien entwickelt hat. Insgesamt beleuchtet der Beitrag das spannungsreiche Verhältnis von kolonialer Herrschaft, Nationenformierung und subalterner politischer Mobilisierung.
The thesis first lays out background to the study by examining the changes that have taken place in the social composition of the workforce and its implications for the working class neighbourhoods, particularly social relations and politics. Following this, it goes on to analyse the phenomenon of return migration: the conditions that led ex-millworkers to opt for return migration, and whether this strategy has ensured their incorporation into the rural milieu. It also tries to understand the political mobilisation of ex-millworkers in rural areas and its implications for their experience of life in the village. Moving towards the city-based ex-millworkers, this thesis looks at the ways in which their occupational choices after the closure of the mills were shaped by social institutions such as caste and religion. Finally, the political mobilisation of the ex-millworkers around the rehabilitation question is the subject of enquiry. This inquiry looks at the interaction of state, labour and capital over the issues of alternative employment and housing for ex-millworkers.
The thesis makes a strong case for an expanded understanding of ex-millworkers’ experience of post-industrial Mumbai. Millworkers had evolved a complex and unique notion of self-hood connected to the activities of work, leisure and forms of recognition – both political and social – that sprang up around industrial employment. The closure of the mills has, consequently, been more than a mere shrinking of economic opportunities. It has been experienced as a multi-pronged assault upon and refashioning of workers’ identities. Nevertheless, through their protests, ex-millworkers’ efforts to hold onto, and even expand the worker-self continue. The transformation of the landscape of ‘world class’, post-industrial, neo-liberal Mumbai cannot be understood without reference to this contested unmaking of the worker-self.
for reservations in employment and higher education,
claiming that the lack of reservations has resulted in
socio-economic backwardness. Their opponents have
largely highlighted the political and economic
dominance of the community. This paper examines the
income, education and occupational status of the
Marathas vis-à-vis non-Marathas while scrutinising the
statistical limitations of the Gaikwad Committee report
(2018). Compared to other castes and communities in
Maharashtra, the Marathas have a higher proportion of
the rich and wealthy and the lowest share among the
poorest and poor. It is only in comparison to the
Brahmins and other upper castes that the Marathas lag
behind in education and employment.
From the perspective of the shudra-atishudra – the serving, labouring, and untouchable castes, who formed the lowest stratum of Western Indian society – the new political situation provided a space to challenge the established structures of caste and gender domination. The article starts with a discussion of colonial-governmental and missionary educational interventions, and proceeds to analyse anti-caste radicals’ educational activities against this background. Schools, popular literature, and public performance aimed to create a reflexive knowledge among the shudra-atishudra
about their own position in society, and the ways to change it. Finally, the article explores the anti-caste movement’s varying interpretations of the changes in education and society. While anti-caste writers
of the 1850s welcomed the new educational opportunities, their voices were highly critical of colonial education policy in the 1880s. In the nineteenth century’s struggles over caste, gender, and education, privileges and exclusions had been reworked in a colonial modern framework. Still, important steps had been taken towards democratising and universalising Indian education.
Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag untersucht Prozesse politischer Mobilisierung durch Bildung in einem kolonialen Kontext. In Indien entwickelte sich Bildung im 19. Jahrhundert zu einem wichtigen Kristallisationspunkt sozialpolitischer Auseinandersetzungen: Einerseits richtete sich die Forderung nach einer Ausweitung von Bildungschancen unmittelbar gegen bestehende Ausschlüsse im Rahmen der Kasten- und Geschlechterhierarchien. Andererseits sollte über Bildungsangebote eine Solidargemeinschaft der unteren und untersten Kasten gestiftet werden, die sich unter dem Begriff Dalit Bahujan zu einer wichtigen politischen Kategorie im modernen Indien entwickelt hat. Insgesamt beleuchtet der Beitrag das spannungsreiche Verhältnis von kolonialer Herrschaft, Nationenformierung und subalterner politischer Mobilisierung.
The thesis first lays out background to the study by examining the changes that have taken place in the social composition of the workforce and its implications for the working class neighbourhoods, particularly social relations and politics. Following this, it goes on to analyse the phenomenon of return migration: the conditions that led ex-millworkers to opt for return migration, and whether this strategy has ensured their incorporation into the rural milieu. It also tries to understand the political mobilisation of ex-millworkers in rural areas and its implications for their experience of life in the village. Moving towards the city-based ex-millworkers, this thesis looks at the ways in which their occupational choices after the closure of the mills were shaped by social institutions such as caste and religion. Finally, the political mobilisation of the ex-millworkers around the rehabilitation question is the subject of enquiry. This inquiry looks at the interaction of state, labour and capital over the issues of alternative employment and housing for ex-millworkers.
The thesis makes a strong case for an expanded understanding of ex-millworkers’ experience of post-industrial Mumbai. Millworkers had evolved a complex and unique notion of self-hood connected to the activities of work, leisure and forms of recognition – both political and social – that sprang up around industrial employment. The closure of the mills has, consequently, been more than a mere shrinking of economic opportunities. It has been experienced as a multi-pronged assault upon and refashioning of workers’ identities. Nevertheless, through their protests, ex-millworkers’ efforts to hold onto, and even expand the worker-self continue. The transformation of the landscape of ‘world class’, post-industrial, neo-liberal Mumbai cannot be understood without reference to this contested unmaking of the worker-self.
Volume 2: Issue IV
Special Journal Issue on Shram Ko Naman (Understanding The Plight of The Working Class), July 2020
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