Caste Discrimination And Exclusion In Modern India

A comprehensive assessment of the broad issues that underpin social exclusion in India This book posits the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) vis-à-vis their upper-caste Hindu peers and establishes how caste is a lived reality in everyday life in modern India. It explores areas where caste and religious exclusion are most visible, such as human development, inequality, poverty, educational attainments, child malnutrition, health, employment, wages, gender, and access to public goods. With an in-depth theoretical foundation and empirical analysis, it establishes that in each of these sectors, the performance of upper-caste Hindu households is far better compared to that from the SC, ST, and Muslim households.

This book explores contemporary patterns of economic discrimination faced by Dalits and religious minorities like Muslims in urban labour market as well as other markets in rural areas. It examines reasons contributing to inequality, consequences of exclusion, and suggests possible remedies.

Inspired by egalitarian doctrines, the Dalit communities in India have been fighting for basic human and civic rights since the middle of the nineteenth century. In this book, Shailaja Paik focuses on the struggle of Dalit women in one arena - the realm of formal education – and examines a range of interconnected social, cultural and political questions. What did education mean to women? How did changes in women’s education affect their views of themselves and their domestic work, public employment, marriage, sexuality, and childbearing and rearing? What does the dissonance between the rhetoric and practice of secular education tell us about the deeper historical entanglement with modernity as experienced by Dalit communities? Dalit Women's Education in Modern India is a social and cultural history that challenges the triumphant narrative of modern secular education to analyse the constellation of social, economic, political and historical circumstances that both opened and closed opportunities to many Dalits. By focusing on marginalised Dalit women in modern Maharashtra, who have rarely been at the centre of systematic historical enquiry, Paik breathes life into their ideas, expectations, potentials, fears and frustrations. Addressing two major blind spots in the historiography of India and of the women’s movement, she historicises Dalit women’s experiences and constructs them as historical agents. The book combines archival research with historical fieldwork, and centres on themes including slum life, urban middle classes, social and sexual labour, and family, marriage and children to provide a penetrating portrait of the actions and lives of Dalit women. Elegantly conceived and convincingly argued, Dalit Women's Education in Modern India will be invaluable to students of History, Caste Politics, Women and Gender Studies, Education Studies, Urban Studies and Asian studies.

In recent years exclusionary policies of the Indian state have raised questions concerning social harmony and economic progress. During the last few decades the emergence of identity politics has given new lease of life to exclusionary practices in the country. Castes, communities and ethnic groups have re-emerged in almost every sphere of social life. This book analyses different aspects of social exclusion in contemporary India. Divided into three sections – 1. New Forms of Inclusion and Exclusion in Contemporary India; 2. Religious Identities and Dalits; 3. Ethnicity and Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion in the North-eastern Frontier – the book shows that a shift has taken place in the discourse on inclusion and exclusion. Chapters by experts in their fields explore issues of inclusion and exclusion that merit special attention such as dalit identity, ethnicity, territoriality and minorities. Authors raise questions about developmental programmes of the state aimed at making India more inclusive and discuss development projects initiated to alleviate socio-economic conditions of the urban poor in the cities. As far as North-east region is concerned, the authors argue that there is a tendency to highlight the homogenizing nature of the Indian culture by stressing one history, one language, one social ethos. Diversity is hardly accepted as a social reality, which has adversely affected the inclusive nature of the state. Against this development the final part of the book looks at questions regarding ethnic minorities in the northeast. Offering new insights into the debate surrounding social exclusion in contemporary India, this book will be of interest to academics studying anthropology, sociology, politics and South Asian Studies.

"This book studies the exclusion and discrimination that is meted out to Scheduled Caste (SC) students in the Indian Higher Education system, and the psycho-social consequences of such practices. It foregrounds the conceptual debates around caste, exclusion, and reservations in Indian academia, discussing the social dominance and the roots of prejudices in the university spaces. The volume reflects upon the fragile social world in which students from the margins struggle for survival in the academic space. It reveals that these students navigate the various facets of academia like classrooms, pedagogy, scholarships, hostels, peer groups, and teachers, only to find the academic space a dystopian universe. The book also sheds light on suicide cases committed by the marginalized groups as a testimony of protest. Based on in-depth ethnographic research, this book will be of interest to teachers, students, and researchers of education, sociology, political science, psychology, and exclusion studies. It will also be useful for policymakers, social activists, NGOs, research centers, and those working in higher education, reservations, public policy, caste, and exclusion studies"--

Is the caste system disappearing? Are traditional hierarchies being replaced by competing equalities? Do globalization and liberalization automatically result in diminishing disparities? Are modern labour markets intrinsically meritocratic and efficient? Challenging the dominant discourse and demolishing various myths, this book provides answers to these and other critical questions on caste in its contemporary avatar. Linking the economics of caste with its politics, sociology, and history, this innovative book provides a stimulating assessment of continuities and changes in caste disparities over the last two decades. Deshpande uses rich empirical data to uncover how contemporary, formal, urban sector labour markets reflect a deep awareness of caste, religious, gender, and class cleavages. She convincingly argues that discrimination is neither a relic of the past nor is it confined to rural areas, but is very much a modern, formal sector phenomenon. This insightful book is an important step towards a multidisciplinary dialogue for understanding (and mitigating) inequalities based on birth and descent.

This book attempts to make a holistic assessment and a humble intervention on the prevalent multiple social exclusion of dalits. The study is based in modern India, with a focus on Punjab in particular. It further substantiates that how caste and other exclusions are a lived reality. Challenging entrenched ideas, it uses multi-disciplinary perspectives/methodologies and lived experiences to comprehend dalits social exclusion, inter-sectionalities and social inequalities. It further interrogates linkages between key determinants, like, landlessness, educational attainment, asset ownership, gender discrimination, caste-based segregation and discrimination, employment, economic activity, development, state intervention policy, untouchability, political exclusion, diaspora effect, parallel sites of assertion, dalit consciousness, heterogeneities amongst dalits with social exclusion/inclusion. The salient feature of the book that it has covered all the regions of the state and 15 out of the total 39 scheduled castes. Drawing on Mixed Methods approach, multi-regional fieldwork and bottom-up perspective, this volume puts forward a perceptive analysis. It will be of great interest to researchers working in the fields of Social Exclusion, Sociology, Gender Studies, Dalit Studies, Caste Studies, Social Anthropology, Indian Politics, Economics, Public Administration, Public Policy, Social Work, Human Rights, Rural Development, Life Long Learning, Development Studies, Laws, and Police Administration.