Caste & the Postcolonial Promise (and Subterfuge) of Higher Education
Join us this January for a lecture that interrogates one of independent India’s most enduring promises: that education is the great equaliser.
About the Lecture
Higher education in India is often imagined as a site of opportunity, where merit triumphs over background and social mobility becomes possible. Yet, a closer look reveals a more unsettling reality.
Grounded in the Critical Caste Studies framework, this lecture examines how higher and professional education has historically functioned as an instrument for reproducing social elites and savarna modernity. Moving through legacy colleges, IITs, IIMs, elite design and business institutions, and contemporary private universities, the session traces India’s long and warped record of creating unequal classrooms.
About the Speaker
Ravikant Kisana had an ordinary education and does not have a prestigious alma mater to reference, and insists that this absence is itself politically meaningful. He writes on caste, social elites, and power, and is the author of Meet the Savarnas.
A professor of cultural studies with over 15 years of experience spanning corporate roles, civil society, and academia, he is closely associated with grassroots Ambedkarite mobilising. He also hosts a podcast and performs live under the moniker Buffalo Intellectual, using multiple formats to interrogate caste, culture, and knowledge production.
PS: Your ticket includes a complimentary beverage or snack at the venue.
About unLecture
unLecture brings experts out of classrooms and into cafés, bars and neighbourhood spaces across Delhi. Created by three friends from St. Stephen’s, Delhi who wanted learning to feel warm, social and alive. unLecture turns an otherwise ordinary evening into a conversation you may think about long after it ends.
Where it is
Address : Fort City Brewing, E-17, Market Ln, Hauz Khas Market, Block E, Hauz Khas, Delhi, New Delhi, Delhi 110016, India
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