Srivatsan is a political theorist with specific interest in development, culture, welfare and health care.

He has written a book titled Seva, Savior and State: Essays on Caste Politics, Tribal Welfare and Capitalist Development. He has also written a book History of Development Thought that aims to provide a framework to critically examine the current practices in development policy. It is being used as a textbook in some courses.

He has conducted an Anveshi National Seminar on the topic “Development beyond the State” in January 2018.

He has co-edited a volume Towards a Critical Medical Practice: Reflections on the Dilemmas of Medical Culture Today.  He has served as a convenor (member of a team during 2014-16) of Medico Friend Circle (a forty four year old nationwide organization of health activists) and is currently an executive committee member of that organization.  He is also currently co-editor of the Medico Friend Circle bulletin.

His research interests are focused on studying critically processes of development in politics and government, in health care, visual culture, and since the past decade in religion.

He works in the Critical Development Studies, Health and Healthcare Systems, and Public Domain and Outreach Initiatives at Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies. He is one of the founder editors (resident) of the Anveshi Broadsheet on Contemporary Politics (a biannual publication, 10 issues have been published so far).  Srivatsan has steered the Short-Term (1-2 years) Fellowship programme at Anveshi, during the first three years of its functioning.  The programme has mentored 12 fellows on specific projects of their research interest during this period.  The programme continues till date under a different convener.

Srivatsan has been conducting a reading group at Anveshi on GWF Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit for the past two years.

In 2016, he has done a one-year collaborative project with Prof Anand Zachariah of Christian Medical College, Vellore on the development and health among the adivasi communities of Gudalur in the Nilgiris.

He has presented a plenary paper titled “Health for All Indians: A Goal Afar?”  at the Indian Social Science Conference in December 2016

He has conducted a National Seminar on the theme Development Beyond the State in January 2018.

He has been active since 1992 in different struggles towards the actualization of democratic education in India with particular reference to dalit and adivasi students.

He is an occasional translation of Telugu dalit prose and poetry.

During the first half of his life, Srivatsan was a practicing engineer with a BE in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Computer Systems.

Select Publications

Books

Seva Saviour and State: Caste Politics, Tribal Welfare and Capitalist Development. New Delhi: Routledge (2015)  (Book Reviews)

History of Development Thought: a critical anthology – edited volume. New Delhi: Routledge (2012)

Towards a critical medical practice: reflections on the dilemmas of medical culture today (co-edited with Anand Zachariah and Susie Tharu). Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2010.

Conditions of Visibility: Writings on Photography in Contemporary India. Calcutta: Stree ( Bhatkal & Sen), 2000.

Essays

Published

Commentary: Storm in a Teacup: General Implications of the Cochrane Crisis, in Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Published online: October 20, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2018.079

Book Review: The missing trickle-down effect:  of Alpa Shah, et. al., Ground Down by Growth: Tribe, Caste, Class, and Inequality in Twenty-First Century India’ review (New Delhi: Oxford, 2018). In The Hindu, May 12, 2018.

Book Review: Notes from the margins: of Bhangya Bhukya, The Roots of the Periphery, (New Delhi: Oxford, 2017). In The Hindu, May 6, 2017.

Plenary Paper at Indian Social Science Congress 2016: Health for All Indians: A Goal Afar? Accessed at: http://www.esocialsciences.org/Articles/show_Article.aspx?qs=XkEqhzvARqvilcDKHND803kd+6Eg1H/lrwhPMmGYS2MVOF0EegIwNjRgOptN3+eI Accessed on 13^th December 2018.

Comment: Responding to Suicide in PPP, Vol. 23, No. 3–4 September–December 2016.

Changing the connotations of disability: mental health and higher education. https://cafedissensus.com/2016/08/14/changing-the-connotations-of-disability-mental-health-and-higher-education/

Reflections on Discrimination and Health in India. IJME. Vol 12, No 1 (2015).  Accessed at: http://www.issuesinmedicalethics.org/index.php/ijme/article/view/2174 on June 24, 2016.

‘Aarogyasri Healthcare Model: Advantage Private Sector’/ co-authored with Rajan Shukla, Veena Shatrugna–  Economic & Political Weekly, vol xlvi No. 49, Dec.3, 2011.

‘Writing Degree Zero” (Book review of Ravi Kumar, Venomous Touch: Notes on Caste, Culture and Politics (Calcutta: Samya, 2009))– Economic and Political Weekly, January 2010.

Book review of Kancha Ilaiah, Post- Hindu India: a discourse on Dalit- Bahujan, Socio spiritual and scientific revolution.– New Delhi: Sage, 2009,xvi, 302pg(paperback),– Contributions to Indian Sociology,45, 2(2011) 290- 293 pg.

‘From Ambedkar to Thakkar and Beyond: Towards a Genealogy of Our Activisms’ –Economic and Political Weekly, September 2008.

‘Concept of “Seva” and the “Sevak” in the Freedom Movement.’–Economic and Political Weekly, February, 2006.

‘Native Noses and Nationalist Zoos:  Debates in Colonial and Early Nationalist Anthropology of Castes and Tribes’.–Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40 No, 19, 2005. pp 1986-1998.

‘The Woman in the Advertisement: Historical explorations through a type.’ In Richard Fardon, Wim van Binsbergen & Rijk van Dijk, Eds., Modernity on a Shoestring: Dimensions of Globalization, Consumption and Development in Africa and Beyond. Leiden & London: EIDOS, Africa Studiecentrum Leiden & Centre of African Studies London, 1999. pp. 269-280.  Also reproduced recently on the Antiserious (online magazine) https://antiserious.com/modernity-on-a-shoestring-srivatsan-234d2a713336  Accessed on 13^th December 2018.

‘”Rowdysheeters”: An Essay in Subalternity and Politics.’ In Subaltern Studies, IX: Writings on South Asian History and Society. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996. Co-author.

‘Imaging Truth and Desire: Photography and the Visual Field in India.’ In Tejaswini Niranjana, P. Sudhir & Vivek Dhareshwar, Eds., Interrogating Modernity. Calcutta: Seagull, 1993. pp 155-198.

‘Cartier-Bresson and the Birth of Modern India.’–Journal of Arts and Ideas. Numbers 25-26. December 1993. pp 37-53.

‘Looking at Film Hoardings: Labour, Gender, Subjectivity and Everyday Life in India.’ –Public Culture.  Vol 4, Number 1. Fall, 1991.  pp 1-23.

‘Photography and Society: Icon Building in Action.’–Economic and Political Weekly. Vol 26, No 11-12 Annual Number 1991. pp 771-788.

‘Trajectory of Reason in the Historiography of the Sciences.’ –Economic and Political Weekly. Vol 25, No 4. Jan 27, 1990. pp 205-208.

Forthcoming

Book Review: Wendy Doniger, Beyond Dharma: Dissent in the Ancient Indian Sciences of Sex and Politics (New Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2018)

Special article submitted to EPW (expected in 2019): Scattered Notes on the Impasses Around Contemporary Hinduism.