Research Conversations at NLSIU

The first convening of ‘NLSIU Research Conversations’ was held on April 1, 2023. Faculty, researchers and academic fellows came together to share their ongoing research. Presentations and discussions were organised across three topical sessions.   

Development and Rights

Chair/Discussant: Dr. Sony Pellissery
Presenters: Dr. Sudipa Sarkar, Dr. Sanjay Jain, Ms. Rashmi Venkatesan

Trained as an economist, Dr. Sudipa Sarkar is interested in two broad research areas: the future of work and social inequality. How does technology interact with existing social inequalities? How do we study the impact of AI and automation on employment and livelihoods? How do caste and gender identity shape labour markets and individual aspirations? These are some of the key questions that animate Dr. Sarkar’s research, which relies largely on empirical work—identifying trends and patterns in large datasets. She also spoke about her experiences of international research collaborations. Her recent publications include: COVID-19 and (mis)understanding public attitudes to social security and Measuring the impact of AI on jobs at the organization level.

Prof. Sanjay Jain spoke about the intersections between his teaching, research, activism and publishing engagements. Prof. Jain teaches constitutional law and jurisprudence. His research interests lie in comparative public law, basic structure constitutionalism, disability rights jurisprudence, and the interface between the judiciary and other branches of government. He highlighted the ‘discursive exclusion of disability’ in legal scholarship, and emphasised the need for dialogue to expand conversations around inclusion. Speaking about his writing engagements—including the challenges and rewards of writing textbooks—Prof. Jain urged the NLS community to reflect on the value of their research. His recently edited books include V.D. Mahajan’s Constitutional Law of India, Eighth Edition and Critical Essays on Disability Rights Jurisprudence: Combating Exclusion, Embracing Inclusion.

Ms Rashmi Venkatesan’s research interests lie in two broad areas: law & development and human rights. She presented parts of her ongoing doctoral research, which traces the evolution of narratives around industrialisation and development in India, as well as the role of law, with a specific focus on the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act 1951. In other research engagements, Ms Venkatesan aims to extend the current debate around hijab bans beyond the right to religion, using the lens of the rights to clothing and of bodily autonomy within an international human rights framework. Her recent writings include op-eds titled What Does International Human Rights Law Say About the Hijab Ban? and Without lowering unemployment rates, India cannot effectively address inequality.

Crime and Justice

Chair/Discussant: Dr. Arun K Thiruvengadam
Presenters: Mr. Kunal Ambasta, Mr. Arvind Narrain, Dr. Aparna Chandra

Mr. Kunal Ambasta’s research interests include criminal justice and criminal procedure, particularly the death penalty and the law of evidence and proof. He emphasised how his eight years’ experience as a practising lawyer informs both his scholarly and teaching work. His ongoing research looks at special criminal laws and their place in the Indian legal system. It asks questions such as: What counts as ‘special’ under criminal law? How do these special laws interact with general criminal law and how do they shape the idea of personhood and citizenship under the law? Mr. Ambasta recently authored an op-ed titled SC’s suspension of sedition law: An incomplete win.

Mr. Arvind Narrain, PhD scholar and visiting faculty at NLSIU, spoke about two ongoing research projects. The first is a conversation with Prof. Upendra Baxi about his life, work and his thinking about the law, to be published as a book titled ‘Conversations with Upendra Baxi: Law and Life’. The second, based on his doctoral work, is an inquiry into the possibility of an Ambedkarite jurisprudence. In other words, is there a distinct theory underlying Ambedkar’s engagement with the law? Mr. Narrain’s recent writings include op-eds titled One love and Reading as an antidote to ‘Frustration’: Ambedkar’s thoughts.

Dr. Aparna Chandra, who is interested in empirical studies of lived experiences of the law, spoke about the ‘Big Data for Justice Project’, of which she is the Indian Principal Investigator. This multidisciplinary collaborative research project aims to use machine learning to analyse an open-access dataset of 80 million legal case records between 2010–2018 processed by India’s lower judiciary to analyse patterns and assess citizens’ experience of the criminal justice system. Dr. Chandra has recently authored a book chapter titled A Life of Contradictions: Group Inequality and Socio-economic Rights in the Indian Constitution and co-authored a report titled Legal Barriers to Accessing Safe Abortion Services in India: A Fact Finding Study.

Research Centres

Chair/Discussants: Prof. Babu Mathew and Dr. Sony Pellissery
Presenters: Dr. Sony Pellissery, Dr. Chandrashekhar, Ms. Jasoon Chelat

The Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP) promotes interdisciplinary research on varied forms of social marginality and exclusion in India. Its key research focus areas include improving access to courts and aiding people’s dignified access to government programmes. On behalf of the centre, Prof. Sony Pellissery spoke about two ongoing projects: one on manual scavenging from the point of view of technology, and the second on Adivasi communities in Karnataka.

The aim of the Centre for the Study of Marginalised Communities (Tala Samudaya) is to conduct research and design policy interventions related to ‘invisible communities’ in India in general and Karnataka in particular. Dr. Chandrashekhar highlighted the Centre’s work in training ‘community researchers’—enabling community members to conduct research activities in their own communities—and working with key state and civil society actors to empower such communities. The Centre has facilitated a policy study on Devadasi mothers and their children, studies on tribal communities in Karnataka, an assessment of the socio-economic status of manual scavengers in Karnataka, and a study on safai karamcharis in Karnataka.

The Centre for Labour Studies is an interdisciplinary centre that addresses various aspects of regulation and governance in employment relations: Does labour law, as it stands now, protect workers? Who is a worker? In its work, the Centre goes beyond formal employer-employee relationships in order to focus on typologies of work and workers that are characterised by vulnerability. Ms. Jasoon Chelat, who presented the Centre’s work, spoke about its engagement with unions of informal workers, and emphasised the need to appreciate the specificities of each sector. The Centre has been working towards framing an informal labour code.

NLSIU Research Conversations will be organised once a term to facilitate greater interaction and cross-learning about the diverse areas of research and intervention at the University. The opportunity for collective reflection on the opportunities and challenges of doing research, as well as its relationships with practice, teaching-learning and intervention will foster greater collaboration and serendipitous discovery. The next edition of the NLSIU Research Conversations will focus on the place of theory in ongoing research of faculty and researchers.