Megan Moodie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226252995
- eISBN:
- 9780226253183
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226253183.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
What are the horizons of hope and possibility for subaltern groups in contemporary India? We were adivasisis an ethnography of collective aspiration among a marginalized urban community known as the ...
More
What are the horizons of hope and possibility for subaltern groups in contemporary India? We were adivasisis an ethnography of collective aspiration among a marginalized urban community known as the Dhanka in Jaipur City, Rajasthan, India. The Dhanka are a Scheduled Tribe, that is, a group recognized by the Constitution of India as original inhabitants (often referred to as “adivasis”) of the subcontinent who are entitled to affirmative action quotas in legislatures, educational institutions, and government employment by virtue of their unique cultural practices and in recognition of centuries of oppression at the hands of non-tribals. We were adivasis argues that the Dhanka, like other tribal communities in India, must undertake a great deal of imaginative work to occupy the tribal role through which they are recognized as worthy and needy of affirmative action benefits. This ethnography brings the reader into that imaginative work by exploring a range of settings, from intimate household interactions to tribal council meetings to historical narratives to group wedding festivals, and highlights what Dhanka women and men hope and strive for in each. It argues that collective aspiration is a highly gendered process requiring very different dreams and dispositions for men and women, both of which are essential to the community’s ability to invent and articulate alternative visions for the future and to move away from the stigma of adivasi-ness, a state that becomes tentatively relegated to the past: we were adivasisLess
What are the horizons of hope and possibility for subaltern groups in contemporary India? We were adivasisis an ethnography of collective aspiration among a marginalized urban community known as the Dhanka in Jaipur City, Rajasthan, India. The Dhanka are a Scheduled Tribe, that is, a group recognized by the Constitution of India as original inhabitants (often referred to as “adivasis”) of the subcontinent who are entitled to affirmative action quotas in legislatures, educational institutions, and government employment by virtue of their unique cultural practices and in recognition of centuries of oppression at the hands of non-tribals. We were adivasis argues that the Dhanka, like other tribal communities in India, must undertake a great deal of imaginative work to occupy the tribal role through which they are recognized as worthy and needy of affirmative action benefits. This ethnography brings the reader into that imaginative work by exploring a range of settings, from intimate household interactions to tribal council meetings to historical narratives to group wedding festivals, and highlights what Dhanka women and men hope and strive for in each. It argues that collective aspiration is a highly gendered process requiring very different dreams and dispositions for men and women, both of which are essential to the community’s ability to invent and articulate alternative visions for the future and to move away from the stigma of adivasi-ness, a state that becomes tentatively relegated to the past: we were adivasis
Megan Moodie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226252995
- eISBN:
- 9780226253183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226253183.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The Introduction lays out the central themes of the book. It argues that the Dhanka, like other tribal communities in India, must undertake a great deal of imaginative work to occupy the tribal role ...
More
The Introduction lays out the central themes of the book. It argues that the Dhanka, like other tribal communities in India, must undertake a great deal of imaginative work to occupy the tribal role through which they are recognized as worthy and needy of affirmative action benefits. One of the ways in which the Dhanka perform this balancing act is by narrating tribal-ness or “adivasi-ness” in the past tense through the phrase “We were adivasis.” The assertion that “we were adivasis” allows the Dhanka to both index their adivasi-nessand distance themselves from the stigma of primitivity or militancy by placing this quality of tribal-ness in the past. Understanding this basic Dhanka claim illuminates why they undertake the particular kinds of identity-building efforts that they have embraced in recent years, particularly their annual collective weddings known as samuhikvivahasammelan, Dhanka men and women must embrace stigma and backwardness in order to avail themselves of the benefits of ST identity, which includes the ability to enact the marriage and family practices of other, non-tribal middle-class Hindus; thus, their practices of collective aspiration have deeply gendered effects. The Introduction also introduces the Shiv Nagar Basti, a slum area in Jaipur, Rajasthan.Less
The Introduction lays out the central themes of the book. It argues that the Dhanka, like other tribal communities in India, must undertake a great deal of imaginative work to occupy the tribal role through which they are recognized as worthy and needy of affirmative action benefits. One of the ways in which the Dhanka perform this balancing act is by narrating tribal-ness or “adivasi-ness” in the past tense through the phrase “We were adivasis.” The assertion that “we were adivasis” allows the Dhanka to both index their adivasi-nessand distance themselves from the stigma of primitivity or militancy by placing this quality of tribal-ness in the past. Understanding this basic Dhanka claim illuminates why they undertake the particular kinds of identity-building efforts that they have embraced in recent years, particularly their annual collective weddings known as samuhikvivahasammelan, Dhanka men and women must embrace stigma and backwardness in order to avail themselves of the benefits of ST identity, which includes the ability to enact the marriage and family practices of other, non-tribal middle-class Hindus; thus, their practices of collective aspiration have deeply gendered effects. The Introduction also introduces the Shiv Nagar Basti, a slum area in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Megan Moodie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226252995
- eISBN:
- 9780226253183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226253183.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The last chapter expands the scope of the ethnographic account to reflect on aspiration and affirmative action as important sites of political inquiry in the contemporary world. Focusing on the ...
More
The last chapter expands the scope of the ethnographic account to reflect on aspiration and affirmative action as important sites of political inquiry in the contemporary world. Focusing on the creativity of subaltern citizenship, it argues that such creativity emerges because of, not in spite of, proximity to those state institutions from which subalterneity is often seen as an exclusion. Looking at struggles for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category in Rajasthan and new uses of the Right to Information Act, the conclusion proposes that the ongoing work of feminist ethnography demands that we attend to how projects for social uplift can be both collective and differentially experienced based on axes of gender, age, and religious devotion.Less
The last chapter expands the scope of the ethnographic account to reflect on aspiration and affirmative action as important sites of political inquiry in the contemporary world. Focusing on the creativity of subaltern citizenship, it argues that such creativity emerges because of, not in spite of, proximity to those state institutions from which subalterneity is often seen as an exclusion. Looking at struggles for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category in Rajasthan and new uses of the Right to Information Act, the conclusion proposes that the ongoing work of feminist ethnography demands that we attend to how projects for social uplift can be both collective and differentially experienced based on axes of gender, age, and religious devotion.
