Protective Discrimination Policy And Social Change

Contributed seminar articles with reference to India.

The book discusses the educational achievements and occupational mobility among the Scheduled Castes in India, the group that is a large section of Indian population (called as Dalit), was deprived of their basic legitimate and human rights to live with dignity. The book shows that, the second generation of Scheduled Castes is highly mobile as compared to their fathers’ generation. It also attempts to measure the impact of Inclusive Policy provided by the Government of India. In this book, author found that, after the religious conversion under the leadership of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Mahars converted to Buddhism. Therefore, the Buddhist community is more aware about the occupational development as compared to other communities. Hence, the development of the Buddhists could be treated as an ideal model for all the Backward Classes in India.

The complete alienation of Dalits from resources like land, water, and agricultural implements has led to the collective demand for an equal share in productivity. This book discusses the range of socio-economic and cultural problems faced by the Dalit community. The movement advancing the rights of Dalits took place both before and after independence, however they varied in intensity, and concerned land ownership and fair wages, self-respect, social dignity, and the demand for equal rights. This movement appeared to have significantly changed the very mindset and attitude of upper caste people to restrain themselves and not to resort to any discrimination or humiliation of Dalits. However, this seems to have been only a temporary phenomenon, and the practice of suppression and humiliation continues today. This book explores the circumstances of Dalits in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and the current efforts attempting to achieve more social equality for the caste here.

The linguistic origin of the term Dalit is Marathi, and pre-dates the militant-intellectual Dalit Panthers movement of the 1970s. It was not in popular use till the last quarter of the 20th century, the origin of the term Dalit, although in the 1930s, it was used as Marathi-Hindi translation of the word "Depressed Classes". The changing nature of caste and Dalits has become a topic of increasing interest in India. This edited book is a collection of originally written chapters by eminent experts on the experiences of Dalits in India. It examines who constitute Dalits and engages with the mainstream subaltern perspective that treats Dalits as a political and economic category, a class phenomenon, and subsumes homogeneity of the entire Dalit population. This book argues that the socio-cultural deprivations of Dalits are their primary deprivations, characterized by heterogeneity of their experiences. It asserts that Dalits have a common urge to liberate from the oppressive and exploitative social arrangement which has been the guiding force of Dalit movement. This book has analysed this movement through three phases: the reformative, the transformative and the confrontationist. An exploration of dynamic relations between subalternity, exclusion and social change, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of sociology, political science and contemporary India.

This volume delves into the study of the world’s emerging middle class. With essays on Europe, the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the book studies recent trends and developments in middle class evolution at the global, regional, national, and local levels. It reconsiders the conceptualization of the middle class, with a focus on the diversity of middle class formation in different regions and zones of world society. It also explores middle class lifestyles and everyday experiences, including experiences of social mobility, feelings of insecurity and anxiety, and even middle class engagement with social activism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the book provides a sophisticated analysis of this new and rapidly expanding socioeconomic group and puts forth some provocative ideas for intellectual and policy debates. It will be of importance to students and researchers of sociology, economics, development studies, political studies, Latin American studies, and Asian Studies.

Globalization and Social Change takes a refreshing new perspective on globalization and widening social and spatial inequalities. Diane Perrons draws on ideas about the new economy, risk society, welfare regimes and political economy to explain the growing social and spatial divisions characteristic of our increasingly divided world. Combining original argument with a clear exposition of the underlying processes, Perrons illustrates her points through a series of case studies linking people in rich and poor countries. She places strong emphasis on the socio-economic aspects.

This second, revised and enlarged edition looks back at the aspirations and struggle of the marginalised Dalit masses and looks forward to a new humanity based on equality, social justice and human dignity. Within the context of Dalit emancipation, it explores the social, economic and cultural content of Dalit transformation in modern India. These articles, by some of the foremost researchers in the field, are presented in four parts: Part I deals with the historical material on the origin and development of untouchability in Indian civilisation. Part II contests mainstream explanations and shows that the Dalit vision of Indian society is different from that of the upper castes. Part III offers a critique of the Sanskritic perspective of traditional Indian society, and fieldwork-based portraits of the Hinduisation of Adivasis in Gujarat, Dalit patriarchy in Maharashtra and Dalit power politics in Uttar Pradesh. Part IV concentrates on the economic condition of the Dalits.