Beyond Ambedkar: Essays on dalits in India

Nandu Ram teaches Sociology at the centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, new Delhi, where he is currently Dr. Ambedkar Chair professor of Sociology set up by dr. Ambedkar Foundation, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, new Delhi. In between, he was Director general of dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar national Institute of Social Sciences, MHOW (now Dr. Ambedkar nagar), District Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Over the past 30 years of teaching and research at I.I.T, Kanpur and J.N.U., New Delhi, he was accumulated lots of insights from within in understanding and analyzing social phenomena as well as Indian social phenomena as well as Indian social reality as such. He has also developed a perspective called views or 'perspective from the below', an alternative theoretico-methologogical perspective or approach in sociological enquiry, which has insipid a large number of young scholars in pursuing their social research. His areas of Specialisation are sociology of marginal groups and communities, minorities and ethnic groups, social stratification and social mobility, study of rural and urban societies in India, and so fourth. He has published a large number of articles and research in Indian and foreign Journals and chapters in edited books. His widely read books are mobile Scheduled Castes: Rise of a New Middle Class (1988), and Beyond Ambedkar: Essays on dalits in India (1995). His other books I press are dalits on Contemporary India, Vol. 1: Discrimination and Discount, and Vol. 2: Reservation, development and Discontent, in addition to other 4 volumes of Encyclopedia of scheduled castes in India. He is also the General Editor of a proposed series in dalit Studies in India.