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Academic
My research Archive
The articles in this section will lead you to my publications, as well as notes on the research process. Some articles are “academic” in nature, and the rest reflect on the joys and struggles of research. Hope you will enjoy them.
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Making subjectivity visible: Sections from my dissertation
Posted on December 31, 2011 | 1 CommentMy pot belly, being 'rosy complexioned' and other stories from the field. I wrote these pieces in a course on ‘creative non-fiction’ and included them in the dissertation to provide my readers a break from the formal monotony. Sadly, most people remember sections of this from the dissertation, and little else. Such is the life of a doctoral student. -
The art & craft of academic writing: Interviews & talks
Posted on December 9, 2011 | No CommentsUnlike a lot of people, writing does not come to me naturally. It has been a slow and difficult learning process, and I had to contend with massive writing project as I started the dissertation. As it turned out, writing the dissertation was fun, but not always. It took me an year and a half to write the dissertation after the fieldwork, and in the process, it helped me to know what other writers had gone through. A lot of that advice came from the committee and from my peers at the University, and some of it came from webcasts on... -
Mind-maps for organising the layout of a chapter, article or dissertation
Posted on November 17, 2011 | No CommentsMind maps can help us contend with different ways of organizing the layout of chapters, books or articles when we are confronted with different way of organizing it. -
Rights based approach to development: Lessons from India’s Right to Food Campaign
Posted on September 28, 2011 | No CommentsIn April 2001 People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) approached the Supreme Court of India arguing that the government has a duty to provide greater relief in the context of mass hunger. The litigation has now become the best known precedent on the right to food internationally. This paper reviews the litigation with a view to understand various strategies used by the litigants to create and enforce far-reaching entitlements in a near legal vacuum on the right to food. This is followed by a discussion on the lessons from this case for rights based approach to development at large. Citation:... -
From fractions to millions: Getting more people to challenge corruption using mobile phones
Posted on September 22, 2011 | 1 CommentAn initiative to use mobile phones to combat corruption in programmes that matter to the poorest people in India. -
Understanding Tamil Nadu’s commitment to public services: An institutional perspective
Posted on December 31, 2010 | No CommentsMy doctoral dissertation on the question of why Tamil Nadu has an impressive commitment to providing basic public services such as roads, water, electricity and education. -
Toothpaste, hair oil, and democracy
Posted on December 15, 2010 | No CommentsA recent survey says that Dalits of Uttar Pradesh have started using toothpaste and hair oil more regularly. Will it have an impact on democracy? Economic and Political Weekly recently carried the report of the survey by Devesh Kapur and others (Kapur et al. 2010). The paper argued that there have been important changes in grooming, eating practices and ceremonial consumption patterns of Dalits, and in general a rapid erosion of discriminatory practices that stigmatised the Dalits of Uttar Pradesh. This interesting survey draws attention to perceived discrimination, and how it has changed since the 1990s. The authors draw attention... -
Friendships and “research methods”
Posted on September 17, 2009 | No CommentsWith one's career at stake, we tend to do what is safe, rather than pursue what we feel is the right thing to do. Friendships helped me push these boundaries into doing the kind of research I really wanted to do. -
My dissertation question
Posted on November 23, 2008 | No CommentsWhen it comes to provision of basic amenities India performs badly by any account. Roads, electricity, water, schools, primary health, nutrition programmes, other amenities most basic to people today are poorly provided in most parts of India. Facilities that exist too are badly maintained and are often dysfunctional. While this is true by and large some states have performed exceptionally well. The famed example is Kerala whose education and health programmes have been remarkable. Another equally remarkable performer has been Tamil Nadu. The state has huge budgetary commitments for the social sector and most of these schemes also tend to... -
Overview of institutional change in Tamil Nadu & Governance
Posted on November 23, 2008 | No CommentsAn overview of institutional changes in Tamil Nadu over two centuries that explains the state’s relatively good governance Myron Weiner argued that India’s failure in providing universal education was due to the hierarchical mindset of the elite politicians and bureaucrats who did not consider it essential for children from the lower castes to be educated. Similarly in the Western world, there is evidence that evidence that relatively equal societies created provisions for universal primary education earlier. In other words, there is a strong relationship between social relations in a society and the role the government plays therein. I argue that...
