New Delhi, Jan. 11 -- Dalit scholar and management professor Anand Teltumbde had two books published in quick succession late last year-The Cell and the Soul (Bloomsbury India), a chilling account of life in prison where he spent more than two years as an undertrial, and The Caste Con Census (Navayana), part history and part critical examination of the hotly contested caste census. Teltumbde, an IIM-A graduate, was teaching at Goa Institute of Management till he was accused of having a role in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and arrested in 2020. He was granted bail only in 2022.

In an interview with Lounge, he discusses the writing of his prison memoir, why class trumps caste within the confines of prison, and the pitfalls of a caste c...