A seminal book, namely, ‘Caste as a Social Capital’, revisiting Caste as playing an important role in promoting economic growth, written by Professor R Vaidyanathan was released on 9th April 2019 at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), New Delhi. The author is a distinguished economic thinker who retired as professor of Finance at the IIM Bangalore. He was also the former member of the National Security Advisory Board.

The discussion traced the evolution of the Hindutva phenomenon since the Vedic period to the present, and recorded the contributions of key great personalities to its growth which led to the proliferation of Hindutva (but not anti-others) sentiments - Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, to name the tallest among them. It was pointed out that the narrative of the Hindu-Muslim divide was first created and then promoted to discredit the Hindutva elements.

A round table discussion was held at the VIF to discuss the various aspects of Election 2019. Dr A Surya Prakash, Chairman Prasar Bharti, led the discussions.

Prof Vaidyanathan’s book, Caste as Social Capital, challenges several myths relating to the working of the caste system in India. Noting that while caste is commonly identified with oppression and discrimination, he points out that it also has positive aspects which have not been researched adequately. The main argument of the book is that “the jati or community or caste plays a major role in entrepreneurship and also facilitate the upward mobility of the whole caste rather than individual.”