Ashwin Desai

Professor Ashwin Desai is a writer and the Director of the Centre of Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. He was born on January 31, 1944, in the Casbah (Grey Street in inner-city Durban). He is a prolific writer and an international sensation for his works, praising his courage and vision for their focus on the lived experience of oppression and resistance of the people of South Africa. He has given lectures at the University of Durban-Westville, Workers College in Durban, and Rhodes University. His qualifications include a BA Honours and MA in Sociology from Rhodes University and a PhD in Sociology from Michigan State University.

His research interests include the Sociology of sports and Social Identity/ Social Movements. The most popular books written by him are We Are the Poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Inside Indian Indenture: A South African Story, 1860-1914, The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire, The Poors of Chatsworth: Race, class and social movements in post-apartheid South Africa and A History of the Present: A Biography of Indian South Africans, 1990-2019. He received a medal in the Established Researcher Category at an Awards ceremony in Pretoria.