India, Feb. 2 -- The bustling metropolis of Minneapolis and the dusty Maharashtra village of Kasegaon in Sangli have almost nothing in common. One is a major American industrial hub, a scenic city that sits on the edge of lakes and functions as a nerve centre of the US Midwest. The other is a lush village 15,000 km away with barely any industry and verdant cropfields ringfencing it. One sits 11 hours and 30 minutes ahead of the other.

Yet, there is one common thread tying these two disparate sites - American sociologist Gail Omvedt, considered among the world's leading scholars of caste. Omvedt grew up in Minneapolis in a Scandinavian immigrant household where her father worked as a lawyer. She taught African-American children in her nei...