Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151762
- eISBN:
- 9781400842599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151762.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter explores how the phantasmagoria of the Muslim is drawn from certain culinary and dietary habits, most clearly stereotyped in the meat eater or butcher. This stereotype manifests in the ...
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This chapter explores how the phantasmagoria of the Muslim is drawn from certain culinary and dietary habits, most clearly stereotyped in the meat eater or butcher. This stereotype manifests in the explanations of three separate members of three different communities: Jain, Rajput, and Dalit. While they share membership in the city's middle class, these communities differentiate themselves in their relation to diet and other practices. Stereotypes always carry a kernel of truth, as their power lies primarily in the psychological material they can evoke. In the pogrom, they work as residues of individual subjective experiences that became articulated collectively. When this residue takes on a stable form by being projected onto the Muslim, that figure becomes an embodiment of the most pronounced form of perceived threat, and a danger that appears confined to this figure, controllable despite its blurred and shifting nature.Less
This chapter explores how the phantasmagoria of the Muslim is drawn from certain culinary and dietary habits, most clearly stereotyped in the meat eater or butcher. This stereotype manifests in the explanations of three separate members of three different communities: Jain, Rajput, and Dalit. While they share membership in the city's middle class, these communities differentiate themselves in their relation to diet and other practices. Stereotypes always carry a kernel of truth, as their power lies primarily in the psychological material they can evoke. In the pogrom, they work as residues of individual subjective experiences that became articulated collectively. When this residue takes on a stable form by being projected onto the Muslim, that figure becomes an embodiment of the most pronounced form of perceived threat, and a danger that appears confined to this figure, controllable despite its blurred and shifting nature.
Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151762
- eISBN:
- 9781400842599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151762.003.0010
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This concluding chapter looks at the aftermath of the pogrom in 2002. Since then, almost every year has seen small altercations such as stone throwing between residents in specific areas of the city. ...
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This concluding chapter looks at the aftermath of the pogrom in 2002. Since then, almost every year has seen small altercations such as stone throwing between residents in specific areas of the city. Most of these skirmishes never make it into the newspapers and are part of a strange local status quo—the nooks and crannies of local communal aggregation in urban space. To allude to these episodes too directly makes one suspicious, as it disturbs the comfortable arrangement of low-intensity tension in designated urban areas, which can be manipulated whenever the need arises. It also confirms stereotypes about Dalit and Muslim communities that circulate locally. Those who talk of the violence might be accused of being instruments of some malignant anti-Gujarati plots intended to deride the state's fabulous economic development or, worse, of being anti-Hindu.Less
This concluding chapter looks at the aftermath of the pogrom in 2002. Since then, almost every year has seen small altercations such as stone throwing between residents in specific areas of the city. Most of these skirmishes never make it into the newspapers and are part of a strange local status quo—the nooks and crannies of local communal aggregation in urban space. To allude to these episodes too directly makes one suspicious, as it disturbs the comfortable arrangement of low-intensity tension in designated urban areas, which can be manipulated whenever the need arises. It also confirms stereotypes about Dalit and Muslim communities that circulate locally. Those who talk of the violence might be accused of being instruments of some malignant anti-Gujarati plots intended to deride the state's fabulous economic development or, worse, of being anti-Hindu.
Badri Narayan Tiwari
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071877
- eISBN:
- 9780199080724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071877.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter documents the Dalit politics of remembrance of Pandit Nehru in village Shahabpur. Since Shahabpur was a part of the Phulpur parliamentary constituency from where Nehru contested and won ...
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This chapter documents the Dalit politics of remembrance of Pandit Nehru in village Shahabpur. Since Shahabpur was a part of the Phulpur parliamentary constituency from where Nehru contested and won all the elections, he was a well-known figure in the village. Even today, many marginalized and Dalit people have vivid memories of Nehru, whom they saw during his election campaigns. The chapter explores election days as a site of remembrance for Dalits and the marginalized in contemporary times, and tries to understand the processes and politics of Dalit remembrances of Nehru. It reveals that while remembering Nehru and the elections in his parliamentary constituency, the marginalized and Dalits tell their own politics of emancipation from oppressive norms, the power and social structure, and their inherent desire for better living conditions, freedom, social respect, and equality.Less
This chapter documents the Dalit politics of remembrance of Pandit Nehru in village Shahabpur. Since Shahabpur was a part of the Phulpur parliamentary constituency from where Nehru contested and won all the elections, he was a well-known figure in the village. Even today, many marginalized and Dalit people have vivid memories of Nehru, whom they saw during his election campaigns. The chapter explores election days as a site of remembrance for Dalits and the marginalized in contemporary times, and tries to understand the processes and politics of Dalit remembrances of Nehru. It reveals that while remembering Nehru and the elections in his parliamentary constituency, the marginalized and Dalits tell their own politics of emancipation from oppressive norms, the power and social structure, and their inherent desire for better living conditions, freedom, social respect, and equality.
Jayshree P. Mangubhai
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198095453
- eISBN:
- 9780199082650
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198095453.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This book is based on ethnographic fieldwork in three villages in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Dalit women engage in struggles to secure or protect livelihood entitlements such as ...
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This book is based on ethnographic fieldwork in three villages in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Dalit women engage in struggles to secure or protect livelihood entitlements such as housing land or work. The research examines the processes of these women organising and evolving collective action strategies to claim access to and control over livelihood resources in different contexts where they face social exclusion. By analysing the power dynamics between these women and non-state and state actors, centred on intersecting caste, class, and gender structures, the research exposes the multiple enabling and constraining factors that condition these women’s agency. An understanding of agency is thus developed that can adequately take into account multiple, complex power relations. This supports an understanding of human rights as practice, focusing on context and power attendant collective action strategies based on actors’ perceptions regarding their just entitlements. Through exercising their agency to overcome unequal power relations and secure entitlements and freedoms, such actors then generate discourses that are constitutive of human rights. The book thus highlights an important shift required in the focus of human rights: that is, recognition that bottom-up approaches to human rights complement top-down approaches by emphasizing people’s agency and the creation of socio-political environments that enable people to effectively realise both socio-economic and civil-political rights.Less
This book is based on ethnographic fieldwork in three villages in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Dalit women engage in struggles to secure or protect livelihood entitlements such as housing land or work. The research examines the processes of these women organising and evolving collective action strategies to claim access to and control over livelihood resources in different contexts where they face social exclusion. By analysing the power dynamics between these women and non-state and state actors, centred on intersecting caste, class, and gender structures, the research exposes the multiple enabling and constraining factors that condition these women’s agency. An understanding of agency is thus developed that can adequately take into account multiple, complex power relations. This supports an understanding of human rights as practice, focusing on context and power attendant collective action strategies based on actors’ perceptions regarding their just entitlements. Through exercising their agency to overcome unequal power relations and secure entitlements and freedoms, such actors then generate discourses that are constitutive of human rights. The book thus highlights an important shift required in the focus of human rights: that is, recognition that bottom-up approaches to human rights complement top-down approaches by emphasizing people’s agency and the creation of socio-political environments that enable people to effectively realise both socio-economic and civil-political rights.
Aishwary Kumar
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780804791953
- eISBN:
- 9780804794268
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804791953.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
It is by now clear that the rhetoric and practice of democracy in the modern nonwest has irreversibly transformed the European meanings of the concept. Crucial to this transformation has been the ...
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It is by now clear that the rhetoric and practice of democracy in the modern nonwest has irreversibly transformed the European meanings of the concept. Crucial to this transformation has been the persistence of religion in nineteenth and twentieth century anticolonial struggles. But what does “religion” in the singular stand for in these diverse and divisive contexts? B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of India’s constitution, and M.K. Gandhi, the Indian nationalist, two figures whose thought and practices have decisively shaped the relationship between religion and politics in India, are typically considered antagonists who held irreconcilable views on empire, morality, and freedom. This book reassesses their complex relationship, focusing on their commitment to unconditional equality, which for them remained inseparable from anticolonial struggles for sovereignty. Ambedkar and Gandhi inherited the concept of equality from modern humanism, but their ideas marked a radical turn in humanist conceptions of politics. Kumar recovers the philosophical foundations of their thought in Indian and Western traditions, religious and secular alike. Attending to moments of difficulty in their theories of justice and ethics of resistance, he probes the nature of risk that radical democracy’s desire for inclusion opens within modern (nationalist) thought. In excavating Ambedkar and Gandhi’s intellectual kinship, Radical Equality allows them to shed light on each other, even as it places them within a global constellation of moral and political visions. The story of their struggle against inequality and violence thus transcends national boundaries and unfolds within a new universalism of citizenship and dissidence.Less
It is by now clear that the rhetoric and practice of democracy in the modern nonwest has irreversibly transformed the European meanings of the concept. Crucial to this transformation has been the persistence of religion in nineteenth and twentieth century anticolonial struggles. But what does “religion” in the singular stand for in these diverse and divisive contexts? B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of India’s constitution, and M.K. Gandhi, the Indian nationalist, two figures whose thought and practices have decisively shaped the relationship between religion and politics in India, are typically considered antagonists who held irreconcilable views on empire, morality, and freedom. This book reassesses their complex relationship, focusing on their commitment to unconditional equality, which for them remained inseparable from anticolonial struggles for sovereignty. Ambedkar and Gandhi inherited the concept of equality from modern humanism, but their ideas marked a radical turn in humanist conceptions of politics. Kumar recovers the philosophical foundations of their thought in Indian and Western traditions, religious and secular alike. Attending to moments of difficulty in their theories of justice and ethics of resistance, he probes the nature of risk that radical democracy’s desire for inclusion opens within modern (nationalist) thought. In excavating Ambedkar and Gandhi’s intellectual kinship, Radical Equality allows them to shed light on each other, even as it places them within a global constellation of moral and political visions. The story of their struggle against inequality and violence thus transcends national boundaries and unfolds within a new universalism of citizenship and dissidence.
Geetha B. Nambissan and S. Srinivasa Rao
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198082866
- eISBN:
- 9780199082254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198082866.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
This chapter examines the sociology of schooling in India, and describes the contours of this field of research. It highlights the failure to realize the full potential of sociological research in ...
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This chapter examines the sociology of schooling in India, and describes the contours of this field of research. It highlights the failure to realize the full potential of sociological research in India, and to open up the so-called black box of schooling. The author feels that Indian schools and classrooms are among the most under-researched segments of the sociology of education (SoE), and this neglect has led to a glossing over of complex processes that mediate school experiences and influence learning in children. She stresses the need for sociologists to study learning contexts and schooling processes in order to better understand the potential and limitations of the institution of formal education in India. In this context, the author discusses the complex practices and processes of discrimination, disadvantage, as well as spaces that provide opportunities for exclusion of lower caste students, or dalits, within educational institutions. The author feels that SoE has a critical role to play in bringing in the language of possibility for the equitable inclusion of such excluded groups. For this, the building of a theoretical and empirical understanding of schools as institutions within Indian society—keeping in mind their linkages with the larger social context—becomes very important.Less
This chapter examines the sociology of schooling in India, and describes the contours of this field of research. It highlights the failure to realize the full potential of sociological research in India, and to open up the so-called black box of schooling. The author feels that Indian schools and classrooms are among the most under-researched segments of the sociology of education (SoE), and this neglect has led to a glossing over of complex processes that mediate school experiences and influence learning in children. She stresses the need for sociologists to study learning contexts and schooling processes in order to better understand the potential and limitations of the institution of formal education in India. In this context, the author discusses the complex practices and processes of discrimination, disadvantage, as well as spaces that provide opportunities for exclusion of lower caste students, or dalits, within educational institutions. The author feels that SoE has a critical role to play in bringing in the language of possibility for the equitable inclusion of such excluded groups. For this, the building of a theoretical and empirical understanding of schools as institutions within Indian society—keeping in mind their linkages with the larger social context—becomes very important.
Nathaniel Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288812
- eISBN:
- 9780520963634
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288812.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
To Be Cared For offers a unique window into the conceptual and moral world of slum-bound Dalits (“untouchables”), in the south Indian city of Chennai. It focuses on decisions by many women there to ...
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To Be Cared For offers a unique window into the conceptual and moral world of slum-bound Dalits (“untouchables”), in the south Indian city of Chennai. It focuses on decisions by many women there to embrace locally specific forms of Pentecostal Christianity. Nathaniel Roberts challenges dominant anthropological understandings of religion as a matter of culture and identity, as well as Indian nationalist narratives of Christianity as a “foreign” ideology that disrupts local communities. Far from being a divisive force, he argues, these conversions serve to integrate the slum community as a whole, Christians and Hindus alike, by addressing hidden moral fault lines in the slum that subtly pit women against one another and render them vulnerable in their own homes. Christians and Hindus in the slum are not in opposed camps; they are united in a shared struggle to survive in a national context that renders Dalits as outsiders in their own country.Less
To Be Cared For offers a unique window into the conceptual and moral world of slum-bound Dalits (“untouchables”), in the south Indian city of Chennai. It focuses on decisions by many women there to embrace locally specific forms of Pentecostal Christianity. Nathaniel Roberts challenges dominant anthropological understandings of religion as a matter of culture and identity, as well as Indian nationalist narratives of Christianity as a “foreign” ideology that disrupts local communities. Far from being a divisive force, he argues, these conversions serve to integrate the slum community as a whole, Christians and Hindus alike, by addressing hidden moral fault lines in the slum that subtly pit women against one another and render them vulnerable in their own homes. Christians and Hindus in the slum are not in opposed camps; they are united in a shared struggle to survive in a national context that renders Dalits as outsiders in their own country.
Badri Narayan Tiwari
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071877
- eISBN:
- 9780199080724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071877.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter examines the relationship between conversations, histories, and politics. It explores the politics of different caste groups while talking about the historic role of the villagers in ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between conversations, histories, and politics. It explores the politics of different caste groups while talking about the historic role of the villagers in India’s national movement. It examines the multiple memories of the nationalist past of the village that exist among the various communities that are either contesting, interfacing, and/or interacting with each other, with a special focus on the remembrances of the Dalits. It also studies how these memories have become a part of the everyday life of Dalit communities in the village and inspire them, instilling social confidence in their everyday struggle. It observes how these nationalist memories have constructed a ‘political’ awareness among marginal communities in independent India, and are also linked, directly or indirectly, with their contemporary Bahujan identity.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between conversations, histories, and politics. It explores the politics of different caste groups while talking about the historic role of the villagers in India’s national movement. It examines the multiple memories of the nationalist past of the village that exist among the various communities that are either contesting, interfacing, and/or interacting with each other, with a special focus on the remembrances of the Dalits. It also studies how these memories have become a part of the everyday life of Dalit communities in the village and inspire them, instilling social confidence in their everyday struggle. It observes how these nationalist memories have constructed a ‘political’ awareness among marginal communities in independent India, and are also linked, directly or indirectly, with their contemporary Bahujan identity.
Badri Narayan Tiwari
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071877
- eISBN:
- 9780199080724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071877.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter discusses the politicization of an illiterate old woman, Jhuria, who belonged to the Chamar caste of Shahabpur, got influenced by the ongoing Bahujan–Dalit politics. It narrates the ...
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This chapter discusses the politicization of an illiterate old woman, Jhuria, who belonged to the Chamar caste of Shahabpur, got influenced by the ongoing Bahujan–Dalit politics. It narrates the process of Jhuria’s politicization and how she became an active participant in the Nara–Maveshi Movement (NMM) during the 1970s. It analyzes the trajectory of the transformation of her Chamar identity into a Dalit identity and the process of formation of new memories around Dalitness. The story of the dissemination of Dalit consciousness in various ways, both direct and indirect, to Jhuria, and other illiterate women of north India, and their responses to such political influences is one of the main focuses of the chapter.Less
This chapter discusses the politicization of an illiterate old woman, Jhuria, who belonged to the Chamar caste of Shahabpur, got influenced by the ongoing Bahujan–Dalit politics. It narrates the process of Jhuria’s politicization and how she became an active participant in the Nara–Maveshi Movement (NMM) during the 1970s. It analyzes the trajectory of the transformation of her Chamar identity into a Dalit identity and the process of formation of new memories around Dalitness. The story of the dissemination of Dalit consciousness in various ways, both direct and indirect, to Jhuria, and other illiterate women of north India, and their responses to such political influences is one of the main focuses of the chapter.
Badri Narayan Tiwari
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071877
- eISBN:
- 9780199080724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071877.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter discusses how Kabir and Ravidasi consciousness were external forces in Shahabpur village for the Dalits and how these gradually transformed into people’s belief. Largely, the focus is on ...
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This chapter discusses how Kabir and Ravidasi consciousness were external forces in Shahabpur village for the Dalits and how these gradually transformed into people’s belief. Largely, the focus is on outside influences, such as the Bahujan political discourses, which spread through rallies, meetings, oral communications, and the like, and how these formed the elements of consciousness ‘from above’ and mingled with the consciousness ‘below’. It documents the various interpolations and mixtures of Dalit language and shows how the factors from ‘above’ are involved in creating the grassroots language. It also considers how and to what depths contemporary Dalit politics and emancipation have been internalized in their consciousness.Less
This chapter discusses how Kabir and Ravidasi consciousness were external forces in Shahabpur village for the Dalits and how these gradually transformed into people’s belief. Largely, the focus is on outside influences, such as the Bahujan political discourses, which spread through rallies, meetings, oral communications, and the like, and how these formed the elements of consciousness ‘from above’ and mingled with the consciousness ‘below’. It documents the various interpolations and mixtures of Dalit language and shows how the factors from ‘above’ are involved in creating the grassroots language. It also considers how and to what depths contemporary Dalit politics and emancipation have been internalized in their consciousness.
Badri Narayan Tiwari
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071877
- eISBN:
- 9780199080724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071877.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter discusses the participation of the Dalit communities in Shahabpur village in the 2009 Parliamentary elections. It shows how Dalit politics works at the grassroots level in a north Indian ...
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This chapter discusses the participation of the Dalit communities in Shahabpur village in the 2009 Parliamentary elections. It shows how Dalit politics works at the grassroots level in a north Indian village in the electoral sphere, and how the culture of democracy circulates at the margins of the village society.Less
This chapter discusses the participation of the Dalit communities in Shahabpur village in the 2009 Parliamentary elections. It shows how Dalit politics works at the grassroots level in a north Indian village in the electoral sphere, and how the culture of democracy circulates at the margins of the village society.
Badri Narayan Tiwari
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071877
- eISBN:
- 9780199080724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071877.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter discusses the development and current state of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It describes the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party around 25 years ago, which swept the polls in ...
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This chapter discusses the development and current state of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It describes the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party around 25 years ago, which swept the polls in the UP Assembly elections and is presently ruling the state, with Mayawati, the leader of BSP, ensconced as the Chief Minister of UP. It identifies a new and surprising phenomenon emerging in UP: the radical leftist forces’ use of Dalit icons as a tool to mobilize Dalit community. It also details the political challenges faced by Mayawati.Less
This chapter discusses the development and current state of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It describes the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party around 25 years ago, which swept the polls in the UP Assembly elections and is presently ruling the state, with Mayawati, the leader of BSP, ensconced as the Chief Minister of UP. It identifies a new and surprising phenomenon emerging in UP: the radical leftist forces’ use of Dalit icons as a tool to mobilize Dalit community. It also details the political challenges faced by Mayawati.
Hugo Gorringe
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199468157
- eISBN:
- 9780199088829
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468157.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change, Social Movements and Social Change
In the late 1990s, a group representing Dalits in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu called the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi—or Liberation Panthers Party—shook the established social and political ...
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In the late 1990s, a group representing Dalits in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu called the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi—or Liberation Panthers Party—shook the established social and political structures. For over a decade they boycotted elections, questioning the legitimacy of institutions that failed to implement constitutional provisions and allowed casteism to persist. The Panthers conducted mass awareness campaigns for Dalit liberation, instilling a sense of empowerment in a hitherto marginalized population. Eventually, labelled as extremists and alienated by the State, the Panthers were pushed into electoral politics. How the Panthers mobilized themselves and managed to effect changes in Tamil Nadu’s politics is the main premise of this ethnographic account. Looking into the processes of transition therein, the author discusses how caste considerations inform and underpin politics in the state and whether the Panthers will erode or adapt to hegemonic caste power. With its micro-empirical focus on identity politics in Tamil Nadu, the book also explores diverse dimensions of mobilization and ways in which contentious politics alters political regimes.Less
In the late 1990s, a group representing Dalits in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu called the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi—or Liberation Panthers Party—shook the established social and political structures. For over a decade they boycotted elections, questioning the legitimacy of institutions that failed to implement constitutional provisions and allowed casteism to persist. The Panthers conducted mass awareness campaigns for Dalit liberation, instilling a sense of empowerment in a hitherto marginalized population. Eventually, labelled as extremists and alienated by the State, the Panthers were pushed into electoral politics. How the Panthers mobilized themselves and managed to effect changes in Tamil Nadu’s politics is the main premise of this ethnographic account. Looking into the processes of transition therein, the author discusses how caste considerations inform and underpin politics in the state and whether the Panthers will erode or adapt to hegemonic caste power. With its micro-empirical focus on identity politics in Tamil Nadu, the book also explores diverse dimensions of mobilization and ways in which contentious politics alters political regimes.
Marie Lecomte-Tilouine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198089384
- eISBN:
- 9780199082483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198089384.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter focuses on how a locality on the outskirts of the Maoist base region was ‘captured’ by the party and transformed into a ‘model village’. It is based both on a long-term anthropology ...
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This chapter focuses on how a locality on the outskirts of the Maoist base region was ‘captured’ by the party and transformed into a ‘model village’. It is based both on a long-term anthropology tracing back over the political history of the community and on a series of interviews held in 2009. Backed by relevant figures, it highlights two phenomena that contributed to the spread of the movement—the impoverishment of the Dalits and the massive departure of the male population. It stresses the radical nature of the methods used by Maoist cadres in this area of conquest and the profound effects of the revolution on the Dalits, who ceased to reproduce the logic of domination inherent to the caste system within their own castes.Less
This chapter focuses on how a locality on the outskirts of the Maoist base region was ‘captured’ by the party and transformed into a ‘model village’. It is based both on a long-term anthropology tracing back over the political history of the community and on a series of interviews held in 2009. Backed by relevant figures, it highlights two phenomena that contributed to the spread of the movement—the impoverishment of the Dalits and the massive departure of the male population. It stresses the radical nature of the methods used by Maoist cadres in this area of conquest and the profound effects of the revolution on the Dalits, who ceased to reproduce the logic of domination inherent to the caste system within their own castes.
Anustup Basu
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748641024
- eISBN:
- 9780748651245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748641024.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book is an inquiry into the new Indian media world of the 1990s and the concomitant universe of commercial Hindi film. How did this period of titanic, techno-financial modernisation also witness ...
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This book is an inquiry into the new Indian media world of the 1990s and the concomitant universe of commercial Hindi film. How did this period of titanic, techno-financial modernisation also witness paradoxically the rise of a ‘pre-modern’ ideology of Hindutva, hitherto languishing among the urban petit bourgeois and some agrarian-feudal quarters of north India? What is the assembling process in popular Hindi cinema, and what exactly happens when cinematic assembling becomes ‘informatic’ in a global sense? This book is not just an excursion into film and media theory, but also a political analysis of the globalisation of culture and urban life in a third world situation. It first examines the philosophy of the Indian cinematic assemblage and indicates how the assembling processes have always responded to ecological shifts in politics, media and fields of knowledge. First, it considers the realism debate and the definition of cinematic assemblage before discussing assemblages of totality and temporality as well as the thing-in-the-assemblage. It also looks at the body-in-the-assemblage, focusing on Dalit and the woman.Less
This book is an inquiry into the new Indian media world of the 1990s and the concomitant universe of commercial Hindi film. How did this period of titanic, techno-financial modernisation also witness paradoxically the rise of a ‘pre-modern’ ideology of Hindutva, hitherto languishing among the urban petit bourgeois and some agrarian-feudal quarters of north India? What is the assembling process in popular Hindi cinema, and what exactly happens when cinematic assembling becomes ‘informatic’ in a global sense? This book is not just an excursion into film and media theory, but also a political analysis of the globalisation of culture and urban life in a third world situation. It first examines the philosophy of the Indian cinematic assemblage and indicates how the assembling processes have always responded to ecological shifts in politics, media and fields of knowledge. First, it considers the realism debate and the definition of cinematic assemblage before discussing assemblages of totality and temporality as well as the thing-in-the-assemblage. It also looks at the body-in-the-assemblage, focusing on Dalit and the woman.
Kristin C. Bloomer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190615093
- eISBN:
- 9780190615123
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190615093.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions, History of Christianity
This interlude serves as a transition from the busy urban Chennai of the previous chapters to the rural quiet of Mātāpuram, a small village in inland Sivagangai District. It also marks the second ...
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This interlude serves as a transition from the busy urban Chennai of the previous chapters to the rural quiet of Mātāpuram, a small village in inland Sivagangai District. It also marks the second part of the book, which follows the 2004 Asian Tsunami, only briefly mentioned. The village is the home of Dhanam, the woman introduced in the first chapter, a Dalit Roman Catholic and illiterate agricultural worker who was first possessed by Mary at the age of eighteen. The rural setting suggests a different experience by both Marian devotees and the author here than in Chennai, and hints of long-standing local caste conflicts. Families lie sleeping while a few women pray late into the night. References to the Rosary, to Caṇkam poetry, and to a cosmic mother goddess pervade. .Less
This interlude serves as a transition from the busy urban Chennai of the previous chapters to the rural quiet of Mātāpuram, a small village in inland Sivagangai District. It also marks the second part of the book, which follows the 2004 Asian Tsunami, only briefly mentioned. The village is the home of Dhanam, the woman introduced in the first chapter, a Dalit Roman Catholic and illiterate agricultural worker who was first possessed by Mary at the age of eighteen. The rural setting suggests a different experience by both Marian devotees and the author here than in Chennai, and hints of long-standing local caste conflicts. Families lie sleeping while a few women pray late into the night. References to the Rosary, to Caṇkam poetry, and to a cosmic mother goddess pervade. .
Pradeep Chhibber and Harsh Shah
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190125837
- eISBN:
- 9780190991456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190125837.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Jignesh Mevani is an independent legislator in the Indian state of Gujarat. A former journalist, he joined electoral politics to address issues of social justice and economic equality. Unlike many ...
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Jignesh Mevani is an independent legislator in the Indian state of Gujarat. A former journalist, he joined electoral politics to address issues of social justice and economic equality. Unlike many other politicians in India, Mevani does not come from a political family. He is almost the antithesis of an Indian politician, eschewing party politics trappings and building a political career through one of the established Indian parties. He remains sharply critical of unrepentant capitalism and caste injustices while deeply self-reflective of his limitations.Less
Jignesh Mevani is an independent legislator in the Indian state of Gujarat. A former journalist, he joined electoral politics to address issues of social justice and economic equality. Unlike many other politicians in India, Mevani does not come from a political family. He is almost the antithesis of an Indian politician, eschewing party politics trappings and building a political career through one of the established Indian parties. He remains sharply critical of unrepentant capitalism and caste injustices while deeply self-reflective of his limitations.
Jayshree P. Mangubhai
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198095453
- eISBN:
- 9780199082650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198095453.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter presents a successful struggle by Dalit women to secure housing entitlements in a general mixed-caste context. It shows how these women’s perspectives and agency, informed by structural ...
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This chapter presents a successful struggle by Dalit women to secure housing entitlements in a general mixed-caste context. It shows how these women’s perspectives and agency, informed by structural conditions of disentitlement, are reshaped by external development interventions organizing these women to secure livelihood entitlements. This is achieved by introducing new knowledge and discourses that disturb dominant, disempowering discourses and thus transform the women’s understandings of entitlements and agency. The spaces created by exclusion then facilitate their collective action. Equally important as these struggles for material resources are struggles for symbolic resources and recognition that enable Dalit women to construct a positive collective identity and interests. Nonetheless, successful acquisition of livelihood entitlements does not necessarily end the process of dislodging gender inequalities embedded in social customs surrounding control over those resources.Less
This chapter presents a successful struggle by Dalit women to secure housing entitlements in a general mixed-caste context. It shows how these women’s perspectives and agency, informed by structural conditions of disentitlement, are reshaped by external development interventions organizing these women to secure livelihood entitlements. This is achieved by introducing new knowledge and discourses that disturb dominant, disempowering discourses and thus transform the women’s understandings of entitlements and agency. The spaces created by exclusion then facilitate their collective action. Equally important as these struggles for material resources are struggles for symbolic resources and recognition that enable Dalit women to construct a positive collective identity and interests. Nonetheless, successful acquisition of livelihood entitlements does not necessarily end the process of dislodging gender inequalities embedded in social customs surrounding control over those resources.
Jayshree P. Mangubhai
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198095453
- eISBN:
- 9780199082650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198095453.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter analyses a semi-feudal context marked by an informal governance system controlled by a dominant caste community. Dalit women cultivators here are engaged in an on-going struggle to ...
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This chapter analyses a semi-feudal context marked by an informal governance system controlled by a dominant caste community. Dalit women cultivators here are engaged in an on-going struggle to secure agricultural land title. The struggle demonstrates the interaction between formal and informal institutions, which produces competing notions of rights, entitlements, and obligations. In particular, informal power holders seek to preserve patronage relations within a shifting socio-political context by influencing state entitlement arrangements. This creates distinct strategic pathways for Dalit women to secure entitlements: they turn to state institutions in order to advance their claims while simultaneously delinking from informal institutions. An analysis of the organisational and collective action strategies in this adverse environment indicates the ways in which women negotiate multiple layers of relations and interactions in claiming value-laden resources such as land. In order to do this, external brokerage is necessary to overcome the women’s knowledge/power limitations.Less
This chapter analyses a semi-feudal context marked by an informal governance system controlled by a dominant caste community. Dalit women cultivators here are engaged in an on-going struggle to secure agricultural land title. The struggle demonstrates the interaction between formal and informal institutions, which produces competing notions of rights, entitlements, and obligations. In particular, informal power holders seek to preserve patronage relations within a shifting socio-political context by influencing state entitlement arrangements. This creates distinct strategic pathways for Dalit women to secure entitlements: they turn to state institutions in order to advance their claims while simultaneously delinking from informal institutions. An analysis of the organisational and collective action strategies in this adverse environment indicates the ways in which women negotiate multiple layers of relations and interactions in claiming value-laden resources such as land. In order to do this, external brokerage is necessary to overcome the women’s knowledge/power limitations.
Jayshree P. Mangubhai
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198095453
- eISBN:
- 9780199082650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198095453.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter examines an unsuccessful struggle undertaken by Dalit fisherwomen to protect their existing entitlements to traditional fishing work, good health, and decent living standards by stopping ...
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This chapter examines an unsuccessful struggle undertaken by Dalit fisherwomen to protect their existing entitlements to traditional fishing work, good health, and decent living standards by stopping the operation of a shrimp farm in their coastal village. It shows how these women’s collective strategies are not only continuously (re)shaped by their encounters with state and non-state actors, but also play out on an unequal political and economic terrain. Their relative lack of power and economic resources obstructs their ability to protect their meagre entitlements when these entitlements conflict with the state’s macro-economic policies. The disjuncture between state laws/policies and state practices, especially corruption, ingrains Dalit women’s exclusion and social inequalities in new ways. Concurrently, multiple interventions by NGO development brokers generate shifting entitlement discourses among the women, with consequences for the meanings women attribute to collective action.Less
This chapter examines an unsuccessful struggle undertaken by Dalit fisherwomen to protect their existing entitlements to traditional fishing work, good health, and decent living standards by stopping the operation of a shrimp farm in their coastal village. It shows how these women’s collective strategies are not only continuously (re)shaped by their encounters with state and non-state actors, but also play out on an unequal political and economic terrain. Their relative lack of power and economic resources obstructs their ability to protect their meagre entitlements when these entitlements conflict with the state’s macro-economic policies. The disjuncture between state laws/policies and state practices, especially corruption, ingrains Dalit women’s exclusion and social inequalities in new ways. Concurrently, multiple interventions by NGO development brokers generate shifting entitlement discourses among the women, with consequences for the meanings women attribute to collective action.
