The third session of our Sindhanai - "Disrupting the Colonial Library" webinar series on 15 January 2025, delved into the interconnected histories of capitalism and workers' struggles, focusing on transformative texts from the Global South. These works challenge dominant #economic narratives and offer alternative visions for #justice and #equity in the #global ecosystem. Speaker: 1. Arun Kumar is a social development professional and a non-institutional researcher. He is a student of Modern Indian History and Historical Sociology. For his PhD, he studied the Modern World System with Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi and Terence Hopkins. His first book, based on his doctoral dissertation, was Rewriting the Language of Politics: Kisans in Colonial Bihar. He lives in London, writes poetry, and watches football when he is not working on poverty and inequality, caste, labour, civil society empowerment, subaltern cultures and Bhojpuri folk songs. He has written for several publishing houses, including the Journal of Peasant Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Journal of Human Development, Scroll, Indian Development Review, and Primus Books. 2. Tom Thomas has more than three decades of experience in the development sector. His association with Praxis began in 2000 when he took over as CEO. Before joining Praxis, he held senior leadership positions with ActionAid in India, Bangladesh and the UK. He serves as a member of several national and international civil society coalitions, where his contributions have informed policy and advocacy efforts. A key advocate for participatory practices, Tom is deeply invested in the praxis of participation, working to translate the principles of participation into actionable frameworks that empower communities and influence systemic change. A member of the National Human Rights Commission on Business and Human Rights, he is also an ardent advocate of business and human rights, promoting responsible corporate practices that align corporate responsibility with social justice. 3. Tarini J Shipurkar - Co-covener, Sindhanai

The second edition of the Disrupting the Colonial Library on 11 December 2024, focused on three seminal works: 🔹 Kimberlé Crenshaw’s "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex" - Introducing #intersectionality, this work remains a cornerstone in understanding overlapping systems of oppression, offering critical tools for #decolonising global discourses on equity and rights. 🔹 Frantz Fanon’s "The Wretched of the Earth" - A radical analysis of colonialism’s #psychological and #cultural impacts, Fanon’s vision challenges us to rethink #liberation, #justice, and the legacies of #imperialism. 🔹 Gail Omvedt’s "Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of #Anticaste Intellectuals" - Highlighting anti-caste movements, Omvedt brings forward an egalitarian vision that dismantles oppressive hierarchies, with profound implications for global #equity and research practices. Speakers: 1. Trimita Chakma is a feminist researcher, organiser and campaigner from the Indigenous Chakma hill tribe of Bangladesh. She has over 12 years of experience in women's rights advocacy, with a significant focus on research and communications. Her career has been marked by collaborations with grassroots activists across Asia Pacific and Africa. Through feminist participatory action research (FPAR) tools and communication strategies, she has contributed to impactful change in critical areas like climate justice, labour, migration, land rights, and trade/economic justice. She is a member of the Kapaeeng Foundation, a national organisation championing Indigenous Peoples' rights in Bangladesh. Currently, Trimita is collaborating with South Feminist Futures to craft a South Feminist Manifesto, striving to provide a clear and comprehensive definition of Global South Feminist Internationalism. 2. Born in Sudan, Ali Hussein came to the UK in 1972 and has lived and worked in the north of England ever since. Ali was a co-founder of Griot International Books, Creation For Liberation (North) and the Independent Black Collective. He worked as the coordinator for the Hall Place Studios at Leeds Metropolitan University, where he was responsible for policy training and education in the field of film, video and sound production. He is currently the Vice Chair of George Padmore Institute (GPI), and the deputy representative of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). 3. Dr Elizabeth Joy is the Director at the Dalit Solidarity Network (DSN-UK) and works to further DSN UK's vision of 'a world without caste discrimination. She brings a wealth of experience and skills, including two decades of proven leadership as General Secretary of the Student Christian Movement of India and Executive Secretary for Mission Education at the Council for World Mission. As a Director/Trustee of Churches Together in England, she has led initiatives against modern slavery. She also holds a PhD from King's College London, where she previously taught social ethics and applied ethics. She is an activist and a visionary, who has lived and worked with multicultural and multi-faith communities. She has worked extensively for the cause of Dalit Rights as Human Rights and works towards building inclusive and transformed communities that challenge the systems of oppression today. 4. Tom Thomas has more than three decades of experience in the development sector. His association with Praxis began in 2000 when he took over as CEO. Prior to joining Praxis, he held senior leadership positions with ActionAid in India, Bangladesh and the UK. He serves as a member of several national and international civil society coalitions, where his contributions have informed policy and advocacy efforts. A key advocate for participatory practices, Tom is deeply invested in the praxis of participation, working to translate the principles of participation into actionable frameworks that empower communities and influence systemic change. A member of the National Human Rights Commission on Business and Human Rights, he is also an ardent advocate of business and human rights, promoting responsible corporate practices that align corporate responsibility with social justice. 4. Tarini J Shipurkar - Co-covener, Sindhanai

On 14 November 2024, we launched the first series of the Sindhanai book club, where three seminal books were revisited: #PauloFreire's #Pedagogy of the #Oppressed", B.R. Ambedkar's "Annihilation of #Caste", and Bell Hooks' #FeministTheory: From #Margin to Centre". Written through the lens of #livedexperiences of #exclusion and #colonialism. These works have founded and informed pillars, now adopted by #GlobalNorth #research #institutions. Speakers: 1. David Archer, Head of Programmes with ActionAid, has extensive expertise in education, public services, economic justice, civic participation, climate justice, gender justice, coalition building, democratic governance and accountability, and transformative human rights-based approaches. He is Co-founder of the Global Campaign for Education and former Chair of both the Strategy Committee of the Global Partnership for Education and the Right to Education Initiative, he has developed the Reflect approach to adult learning and social change inspired by Paulo Freire. 2. Ophelia Kemigisha is a feminist activist, facilitator and human rights lawyer from Kampala, Uganda. She has worked with various non-profit organisations providing legal services including emergency legal response, strategies for public interest litigation, and legislative advocacy. Her work takes particular interest in international human rights law, reproductive justice, feminist ideology, and economic justice. She organises with feminists from Uganda and across the African continent to advance radical politics for the liberation of women, LGBTIQ people, and other groups affected by patriarchal violence. Currently, Ophelia works with an international NGO to ensure that sexual and gender minorities are duly accounted for in United Nations processes and mechanisms. Ophelia loves reading, curating memes on social media, and writing poems and songs. She currently lives in New York. 3. Dhananjay Soindaji is a civil servant of the 2008 batch belonging to the Indian Revenue Service. He has been a faculty at the National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur, India, and has been a regular guest faculty of Comparative Politics, Political Thought and Political Sociology at undergraduate and graduate schools. In addition to his academic pursuits and administrative commitments, he has been regularly involved in community service and development activities, particularly in the area of education. His publications, "Inheritance, Hierarchy and Caste: Origins of Political Decay in India (Sage)" and "Humanizing Power: Ambedkar`s Humanist Approach to Power and Politics (Bloomsbury)", reflect a strong commitment to foreground Ambedkar as a theorist and philosopher for Power. 4. Tom Thomas - Chief Executive, Praxis - Insititute for Participatory Practices 5. Tarini J Shipurkar - Co-convener, Sindhanai 6. Stanley Joseph: With over 20 years in the development sector, Stanley specialises in participatory methods, community empowerment, and network-building. He works with marginalised groups, including people living with HIV and sexual minorities, to support advocacy and leadership development. Stanley has created participatory monitoring and evaluation frameworks, led community-led assessments, and directed research and evaluation projects across sectors to drive inclusive change. 7. Anusha Chandrasekharan is a journalist by training, with over a decade's experience in the development sector. She has worked on several research and capacity-building assignments that aim to enable community participation in contexts including gender and sexuality, disability, child rights and forced labour, trafficking, and working with communities marginalised by sex, gender, occupation, caste, class, religion and ability. Her work has included exploring the role of community-led planning, monitoring, participatory action research and audiovisual tools to democratise development processes across the country. 8. Saesha Parekh works at Partners in Change, where her role spans from participatory practices to business and human rights. With a science background, they are keen on how technology reshapes society—and as a trans person, she's always ready to question the world’s most rigid gender rules.