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Yashashwani Srinivas

Yashashwani Srinivas

Profile

I hold a BA Triple Major in Economics, Political Science, and Sociology from Christ University, Bengaluru, and a Master's degree in Women's Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. My research spans the intersection of caste, gender, labor, social movements, and issues of equity and inclusion, with a strong focus on the dynamics of anti-caste activism and the history of social and political movements in South Asia. I have held research roles at esteemed journals and international organizations across the UK, the US, and India. My work includes projects on knowledge and cultural production, Dalit movements, and advocacy for equitable recognition within academic and social contexts. I have collaborated with prestigious institutions, including the University of Leeds, Georgetown University, New York University, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Additionally, I am committed to initiatives that aim to expand the understanding of social heirarchies and their marginalisation and challenge systemic inequities in global and local contexts.

Responsibilities

Research interests

PhD Project: An Anti-caste Movement in Post-Colonial Karnataka: Politics and Culture of the Dalit Sangharsha Samithi

This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities Consortium

The Dalit movement in India has undergone significant phases of transformation, particularly in the post-independence period. Following 1947, as a one-party dominant 'state' took shape, the Dalit movement evolved, adapting to new political and social contexts in post-colonial India. The 1970s marked a pivotal decade, with the rise of the Dalit Panthers in Maharashtra—an organization inspired by the Black Panthers in the United States. This movement sparked a wave of consciousness among Dalit youth across various states, inspiring localized movements with unique characteristics.

My research focuses on one of the most significant Dalit movements in post-colonial India: the Dalit Sangharsha Samithi (DSS), which emerged in Karnataka during the late 1970s. A key moment was the controversial "Boosa Incident" of 1972, which arose from remarks by prominent Dalit politician B. Basavalingappa about Kannada literature. This incident catalyzed a generation of Dalit writers and artists and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the DSS. The DSS was the product of a broader cultural and literary renaissance in the region, which began to take shape in the 1970s and culminated in its formal establishment in 1977–78. While the cultural and literary dimensions of the movement have garnered some scholarly attention, the intersection of culture and politics remains insufficiently explored.

This project aims to address these gaps by examining the relationship between Dalit movements and formal politics in Karnataka, particularly the DSS's engagement with the state and dominant caste dynamics. My research places a strong emphasis on the complex interplay between anti-caste resistance and state politics, tracing how cultural movements transitioned into political action. The institutional trajectory of the DSS, from its formative years through the 1980s, reveals tensions around electoral participation and broader political goals. These conflicts reflect the movement's ongoing negotiation between grassroots activism and formal political engagement. 

Spanning nearly five decades, the DSS remains a crucial case study for understanding the evolving dynamics of caste, culture, and politics in post-colonial India. This research seeks to contribute to interdisciplinary scholarship on caste by exploring the historical practices of anti-caste and Dalit resistance within a broader political context. It aims to provide a nuanced analysis of how Dalit movements, particularly the DSS, have navigated the tensions between resistance, negotiation, and engagement with the state and dominant caste structures in post-colonial Karnataka.

Master’s Dissertation: ‘Cherigalin Kural: Understanding Oppari, a Dalit Women Artform’

Funeral traditions are considered impure which leads to employing people outside the funeral household to perform ceremonial processes. The basis of this employment is ritual and social status, hence the caste. Hence, reserving funeral labour for lower caste, the Dalit. These occupations are degraded not merely social and economically, rather the degradation is cultural. This could be understood in the case of Oppari, a funeral art form performed by Dalit women. My master’s dissertation titled ‘Cherigalin Kural: Understanding Oppari, a Dalit Women Artform’, was an ethnographic study of Oppari, a mourning art form performed by Dalit Women in Tamil Nadu and northern parts of Sri Lanka. This research addressed the aspects of gender, labour, bodies, performativity, popular culture and resistance by tracing the trajectory of the art form and its commercialisation. Through this study, the trajectory of the art form and its distortion in the popular culture of cinema was examined with an intersectional perspective. Furthermore, the research examined the  politics in the recent revival of the artform, juxtaposing with the Dalit consciousness of the last decade (2010-2020 ), with the filmography of Pa Ranjith. 

Current/Recent Research Engagements 

Reports/Papers

Srinivas, Yashashwani. Mapping Content on Gender and Sexuality in Indian Languages. Wikimedia Foundation, 2022 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Mapping_Content_on_Gender_and_Sexuality_in_Indian_Languages

Srinivas, Yashashwani. Exploring Gaps in Gender and Sexuality Content in Indian Languages on Wikimedia Projects. WikiWorkshop, 2022. https://wikiworkshop.org/2022/papers/WikiWorkshop2022_paper_26.pdf

Conference Presentations and Talks

  • 2024: Dr Ambedkar, Caste and Dalit Student Diaspora in the UK delivered at the House of Lords, British Parliament.
  • 2024: Between Saavuveedu and Sudugaadu: Exploring Funeral Economy and the Intersection of caste and Gender presented at the Critical South Asian Death Studies organised by the University of Munich. 
  • 2023: Dalit Journals: An Alternative Source of History presented at the Global Minority Human Rights Summer School held in Budapest.
  • 2023: Panchama: Outside the Cease Critique of Caste presented at the joint Edinburgh – St Andrews Graduate Conference in Political Theory
  • 2023: Boosa Incident and Dalit Mobilisation in Karnataka presented at the Annual Conference of British Association of South Asian Studies 
  • 2022: The Digital Gender Disparities presented at the Wiki Workshop 2022
  • 2022: Beyond Boundaries: Dr Ambedkar's Idea of Education presented at 9th Annual Education Studies PGR Conference, Warwick University.
  • 2021: Community Initiatives in Dalits Colonies: Pathways to Higher Education presented at Fair Chance to Education Conference hosted by Warwick University.
  • 2020: A Cry for Survival: Drawing Parallels between Mourning Practices of Oppari and Rudali presented at the North Regional Conference organised by the Indian Association for Women Studies.

Media/Features 

Qualifications

  • BA (Economics, Political Science, Sociology)
  • Masters in Women's Studies