From Stigma to Assertion : Untouchability, Identity and Politics in Early Modern India

When the constitution of independent India took effect in 1950 this meant a break with a more than two thousand year legacy of Untouchability – a set of discriminative practices that bound the lowest castes to low-status jobs and restricted their social mobility. For centuries large sections of Indian society had lived under the many forms of discrimination connected with this stigma. In order to compensate for the social and economic setback caused by discrimination, a reservation policy that guaranteed the former Untouchables access to education and jobs was introduced. These measures have changed the life conditions of the targeted groups, but they have also created tensions in a society where many other groups experience economic stress. The preservation of caste itself as something that matters in the competition for economic benefits thus creates today’s paradox: that caste assertiveness has become a means to counter inequalities. This collection of articles, written by distinguished scholars in the field, addresses these and other important pre- and post-independence developments impinging on the notion of Untouchability and the Hindu caste system. By putting these developments in a wider temporal perspective – covering pre-colonial textual material as well as recent debates over the rights and identity of the Untouchables – this volume can be seen as a significant contribution to an understanding of why caste continues to play an important role in contemporary India. Mikael Aktor is Associate Professor of History of Religion at the University of Southern Denmark. Robert Deliège is Professor at ACLA Unité d’anthropologie culturelle et du langage, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Contributors: Mikael Aktor, Simon Charsley, Jocelyn Clarke, Robert Deliège, Kathinka Frøystad, Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky, Andrew Wyatt, Eleanor Zelliot.