Aninhalli R Vasavi is best known for establishing that farmer suicides are not a result of immediate economic circumstances, but of transformed social experiences.
On Tuesday, the Infosys Science Foundation recognised her contribution to the social sciences by awarding her the Infosys Prize.
Currently a senior fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, Vasavi is also engaged with Punarchith, an organisation for alternative learning in Chamarajanagar.
She worked with the NIAS, Bangalore, from May 1997 to April 2011. “Doing social sciences in Bangalore is tough. Institutions here are primarily focused on science and technology and social science is often treated as a step-child,” said told Express. Despite some headway, she feels social science researchers have to “carve our own identities and develop ideas.”
Her concept of school differentiation demonstrates how the presence of 11 types of schools shapes choices of parents and teachers, determining the pedagogical experience of children.
“My deep engagement with social science has enabled me to understand the societies we are embedded in. Also, my research has been important during my difficult times,” she said, adding that such an understanding is the biggest incentive for young researchers.
Vasavi completed her MA and MPhil in sociology from the Delhi University. She holds a PhD in social anthropology from Michigan State University.“There is a huge, huge out-migration of very talented researchers in the social sciences, both because of the absence of good institutions and the pathetic state of existing institutions.”
“Funding is poor, but the past decade has seen more state and private funding.” Vasavi believes decentralisation of social science research can help improve the current state of affairs.
“Right now, only Delhi and Kolkata are the centres for such work,” she said.
Vasavi is currently working on her book ‘Four Emblematic Figures and The Making of a New India’.
She has written the widely acclaimed ‘Shadow Space’ (on farmer suicides), and edited ‘Inner Mirror: Kannada Writings on Society and Culture’.
