Can the Left and Dalits in India Unite Against Hindutva?

Location: room 2600, SFU Surrey.

Co-sponsored by SFU’s Institute for the Humanities, Gursharan Singh Memorial Lecture Committee, & Chetna Association of Canada.

GURSHARAN SINGH MEMORIAL/AMBEDKAR MEMORIAL LECTURE 2016

Caste and class have had an uneasy relationship in India despite their often close connection. Dr. Anand Teltumbde will reflect on the history of this relationship and the possibility of solidarity among Dalits, the most oppressed people in the caste system, and the left in the struggles against caste oppression and economic exploitation in the face of Hindu nationalism.

SPEAKER

Anand Teltumbde is a professor of business management who is also a leading public intellectual writing and speaking on the issues of caste, class, peoples’ struggle, public policy and democratic politics in India today. He has written extensively in leading newspapers, and magazines, published organizational pamphlets and booklets as an aid to struggling masses, lectured widely in India and abroad, and authored 20 books which have been translated into many Indian languages. He is a regular contributor to the Economic and Political Weekly and regularly contributes to Mainstream, Frontier, Seminar and several English and Marathi newspapers.

Born in a family of landless laborers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, he was active in student politics.He has been involved in struggles of construction workers and casual labour in West Bengal and in the struggles of textile workers, slum dwellers and contract labour in Mumbai. He is associated with the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR)and with the All India Forum for Rights to Education (AIFRTE).