Prof. Dhirubhai L. Sheth

D.L. Sheth is a political - sociologist working at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi as Honorary Senior Fellow. He is the Founder- Director of Lokayan, a CSDS programme on Democracy and Development which has been functioning since 1983 as an independent movement-organisation. He served as a social scientist member of National Commission for Backward Classes (1993-1996) and as President of the Delhi Chapter of People's Union for Civil Liberties (1990-1992). Currently he is editing the journal Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. His recent publications include: Minority Identities and the Nation State, New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1999. (ed. With Gurpreet Mahajan), "Caste and the Secularisation Process in India" in Peter Ronal DeSouza (ed.), Contemporary India-Transitions, (2000). "The Crisis of Political Authority" in Rajendra Vora & Suhas Palshikar (eds.), Indian Democracy: Meaning and Practices, Sage, Delhi , 2004. "Caste, Ethnicity and Exclusion in South Asia", a paper Contributed to: Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's diverse World (UNDP Website: http://hdr.undp.org).