The Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) congratulates R. Ramakumar, Professor, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, for being awarded the Bernstein & Byres Prize in Agrarian Change for 2017, for his article ‘Jats, Khaps and Riots: Communal Politics and the Bharatiya Kisan Union in Northern India’.

FAS takes immense pride in the achievement of Professor Ramakumar.

Ramakumar is a longstanding research collaborator of FAS. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Review of Agrarian Studies, the Journal of FAS. In recent past, Ramakumar has served as a core group member for the FAS project on the small farm economy in India. He is also a part of the reception committee for the International conference on “Women’s Work in Rural Economies”, that is being organised by FAS in December 2018.

The article traces the origins of the communal riots that took place in the rural areas of Muzaffarnagar in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in September 2013, to the communal discourse constructed and perpetrated by the Khap Panchayats, in general, and the leadership of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), in particular.

Please find more details at the Journal of Agrarian Change blog, hosted on the Development Studies at SOAS blog (https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/).