Sharing sovereignty: Negotiating inequality & difference in postnational societies

Abstract

If I am privileged to be present here today as an Indian sociologist invited by the South African Sociological Association to participate in its XlVth Annual Conference, I am indeed doubly honoured to be invited, in addition, to address you as a keynote speaker. My heartfelt thanks for this honour go to all of you as SASA members, and to your President, Dr. Mokong Simon Mapadimeng. I understand that this invitation is also intended to give concrete effect to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between our associations at your 2008 Conference. In fact, the process of mutual engagement has already been taken forward by the SASA journal, the South African Review of Sociology, whose editorial board are to be congratulated for having accomplished the difficult task of bringing out a special issue on Indian sociology and some of its current concerns. Those of us who have been involved in efforts to go beyond the bland good intentions contained in phrases such as “South-South dialogue” know very well that this is a long and uphill road, and I am proud to be a fellow traveler.