Events of ADRI (Patna - Ranchi)
Patna, 20 December. A book reflecting on governance in Bihar, entitled “Last among equals: Power, caste and politics in Bihar’s villages”, was released today at ADRI. Dr. M R Sharan, from the University of Maryland, USA, has written this book. Shri Tripurari Sharan, Chief Secretary of the state, presided over the release function.
Talking about his book, Dr. Sharan said that he essentially talks about reservation, wealth creation and political participation in his book and how decentralisation majorly impacts democratisation. Dr. Sharan also said that his book goes beyond the talk of how caste identity has a role in development in Bihar and presents how people in rural Bihar actually think on politics and development. The author clarified that even though his book has many anecdotes, it rests on analyses of the data collected from across the state.
The book draws significantly on author's conversations with the beneficiaries of grievance redressal system in Bihar. Apart from that, the book is a broad reflection on how things move in rural Bihar, and provides a glimpse of how politics and caste come into play in the course of governance.
On the occasion, ADRI’s member-secretary Prof. Prabhat P Ghosh, expressed his deep thanks to Dr. Sharan for choosing ADRI for the book release.
Among other, Smt. Harjot Kaur, Dr. Sunita Lall, Dr. Nandini Mehta and faculty members of ADRI, and about 50 renowned persons from academia, civil society and media were present on the occasion.
Dr. Ashmita Gupta conveyed the vote of thanks on the occasion.