Logo

Harnam Singh Verma (b. 1942) is a senior sociologist who has worked in such prestigious institutions as the NIRD, Hyderabad (1965-1971), CIDCO Ltd., Mumbai (1971-1974), IIM, Ahmedabad (1975-1977), GIDs, Lucknow (1977-1982) and State Plg Com, U.P. (1982-1993). He has also taught full courses at the TISS, Mumbai as a visiting faculty (1971-72, 1972-73). He was the Member-Secretary-Coordinator of the Expert Committee on Creamy Layer and a Member of the Committee for Fixation of the Percentage of Reservations for the OBCs, both appointed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 1993. he was a Member, State Commission for the Backward Classes, Uttar Pradesh and a Member of the Working Group on Empowerment of the OBCs of the Tenth Five Year Plan. He has authored/co-authored/edited /co-edited nine books, written two dozen monographs, contributed thirty pieces to books edited by others and published 44 research papers in prestigious national and international journals. Social Change in Rural Areas, Industrial Families in India: An enquiry in to nature of their entrepreneurship, Bombay, New Bombay and Metropolitan Region: Growth process and Planning lessons, The OBCs and the ruling classes in India, and The OBCs and the dynamics of social exclusion in India are some of his books that are rated as classics. He has been working on the OBCs for the last 14 years.

Nadeem Hasnain is a professor of social anthropology at University of Lucknow, ucknow (India). He did his Master's and Ph.D. from the same department founded by D.N. Majumdar, one of the doyens of anthropology in India. Currently he is one of the editors of The Eastern Anthropologist and also the founder-editor of a newly launched journal, Islam and Muslim Societies: A Social Science Journal. He is also heading a multi-disciplinary research organization Centre for Social Action and Development devoted to research and advocacy of the disadvantaged sections of Indian society and based at Lucknow. He has published a number of books and papers in reputed journals. His popular books include Tribal India, Indian Anthropology, Indian Society and Culture: Continuity and Change and OBC Communities in the Process of change in India some of which have been translated into several Indian languages. Two of his field based studies Bonded For Ever and Shias and Shia Islam in India: A Study in Society and culture have been widely acclaimed as seminal contributions. An academician-activist, he is also involved with the mass media and writes in popular magazines and newspapers in English, Hindi and Urdu.