South-south migration: an ethnographic study of an Indian business district in Johannesburg

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg 2016Fordsburg, in central Johannesburg (Joburg) is a globally connected locality hosting 15-20 thousand visitors every month from all over the world. Fordsburg is a microcosm of Johannesburg’s cosmopolitanism and bears a distinctly South Asian flavour. With a growing south Asian and Indian presence, it has assumed the name ‘Indian market of Johannesburg’. The dedication of the shopkeepers to keep prices low and the options of good bargains for consumers has helped the area to develop its own identity. The passion to rise upwards among newly arrived south Asian migrants marks the mood throughout Fordsburg market.1 This thesis will provide insights on Fordsburg as an area for Indian businesses deriving stories of businessmen, and labourers from various backgrounds, professions and nationalities. [No abstract provided. Information taken from introduction]MT201

Contemporary African history in unusual times

Initially, we envisaged that this editorial essay would focus on history-writing in the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. In particular, we hoped to examine how that self-proclaimed moment of technological evangelism raises questions about the future of society and whether, paradoxically, the study of the past might provide a beacon, a pilot light, to navigate these unknown places. Tapping into the 1923 debates between biochemist John Burdon Sanderson Haldane and philosopher Bertrand Russell about technology and moral progress, we wanted to ask what work needs to be done to develop a novel ethic to match our technological ingenuity – and the role of history, the history of Africa, in developing this. This undertaking seemed particularly germane, given how history and other critical disciplines were by-passed and disregarded by boosters of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the progressive New World that some believed it heralded

A Modern History of Caste

The theory of caste and the antecedent hierarchical system has received growing interest in the past two centuries. In contemporary times, there has been a surge among researchers and scholars to locate the category of caste. Various theories have tried to base the ‘origins’ of caste in religion, society, or Indian culture since the arrival of Aryans in the Indian subcontinent (2000 BCE). This talk will look at the episodes of making caste a category of modern interest during colonial times. By centring attention on the experiences of Dalits and untouchability it reframes the approach and examines the development of anti-caste body-politics through the rise of popular Dalit social and political movements. This version of caste history departs from the reliance on the orientalist and occidental interpretations of Indian society, and inserts new theories of caste politics. Suraj Yengde’s recent appointment was a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School He is currently a research associate at the department of African and African American Studies, and a non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and as well part of the founding team of the Initiative for Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability (IARA) at Harvard University. He has studied on four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, North America), and is India’s first Dalit PhD holder from an African university (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). Suraj Yengde is an International Human Rights attorney by qualification from India and the UK, and has published over 100 essays, articles, and book reviews in multiple languages in the field of caste, race, ethnicity studies, and labour migration in the global south. Named one of the ‘25 Most Influential Young Indians‘ by GQ magazine and the ‘Most influential Young Dalit’ by Zee, Suraj is the author of Caste Matters (2019) and co-editor (with Anand Teltumbde) of the award winning anthology The Radical in Ambedkar (2018). His forthcoming books are Caste: A New History of the World (2022), and a biography of B. R. Ambedkar (2022).Suraj Yengde, A Modern History of Caste, lecture, ICI Berlin, 15 November 2021, video recording, mp4, 58:37 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e211115

Sustaining Solidarities: Dalit, Black & Muslim Lives in an Era of Uncertainty

In this very timely and relevant event the speakers discussed: themes of solidarity, specifically addressing anti-Blackness and anti-Islamic sentiments in the US and India; and ways they envision sustaining the solidarities built between BLM and Muslim activists, especially during the pandemic and government repression. Historical and present day examples to examine how to sustain transnational solidarities in our time and envision a radical new future for Dalit, Black and Muslim lives in India and the U