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Please join the Department of International Development at KCL for a book talk with Shankar Ramaswami "Souls in the Kalyug: The Politics and Cosmologies of Migrant Workers in Contemporary India." The discussant will be Dr Jayaseelan Raj from King's College London.
About the talk
About Souls in the Kalyug from university of Pennsylvania Press:
How migrant workers in contemporary India strive toward, and at times realize, elements of a good life
The economic development process in India is one that has induced new difficulties and hardships into the lives of poor and working people despite its alleged achievements. In villages, farming families confront an agrarian crisis, with rising costs of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides; low prices for crops in the face of grave indebtedness; and ecological damage to the soil, water, and forests. Due to the scarcity of jobs, many migrate to cities for work. Once in the city, migrants take on and must contend with low-paid, insecure, and hazardous work. And in urban neighborhoods, they deal with congested living conditions; poor qualities of air, water, and sanitation; and separation from their families in the village.
Souls in the Kalyug introduces readers to migrant workers who are confronting myriad hardships and asks how it is that these workers create lives that can become less injurious than their circumstances might suggest. Anthropologist Shankar Ramaswami proposes a three-part answer. In a metal factory in Delhi, migrant workers engage in resistance and collective struggle against perceived oppression and injustice. In the city and village, they weave connections to one another, building friendships in empathetic closeness and fellowship. In the metaphysical realm, they attempt to resist soul-distorting processes in our present, decivilizing times, or the Kalyug. Through these activities, migrant workers strive toward, and at times realize, elements of a good life.
Souls in the Kalyug ultimately presents a nuanced and intimate portrait of migrant workers through a complex study of entanglement and noncooperation in workers’ worlds, and in its analysis of workers’ politics, within and outside of labor unions, interpersonal relationships, and foundational religious and cosmological worldviews.
About the speaker
Professor Dr. Shankar Ramaswami
Prof. (Dr.) Shankar Ramaswami is Professor of Sociology, O. P. Jindal Global University. He works on the anthropologies of globalization, migration, urban workers, and religion in South Asia. He completed an A.B. in Economics at Harvard College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Prior to coming to Jindal, he was Lecturer on South Asian Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard, where he taught courses on anthropology, literature, cinema, and religion. He is currently completing a book entitled, Souls in the Kalyug: The Politics and Cosmologies of Migrant Workers in Contemporary India. He teaches courses on global capitalism, autonomous politics, urban ethnography, religion and justice, the Mahabharata, and Indian cinema.
Discussants
Dr. Jayaseelan Raj
Jay is a senior lecturer in Anthropology and International Development. Before joining King's, he was a professor at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Göttingen, Germany. Previously, he was an assistant professor at the Centre for Development Studies, India and a postdoctoral research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also Fellow in the GRNPP project at the Department of Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Jay holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Bergen, Norway. He is also associated with the Egalitarianism Project based in Bergen Anthropology. He was recently awarded the New India Foundation Fellowship to write a book on Dalits and State in Kerala.
About the Interrogating Development Seminar Series
The 'Interrogating Development' seminar series is organised by the Department of International Development at King's College London. The series examines some of the most pressing issues of development facing global society today, with the authors of new books presenting cutting-edge research on a variety of topics related to development.
The talk will be followed by a wine reception. The event is open to everyone.
At this event
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and International Development
Event details
BH (SE) 1.05Bush House South East Wing
Strand, London WC2R 1AE