Spotted Goddesses

Roja Singh's critical ethnography on caste and gender is rooted in interactions, and lived experiences in communities of Dalit women in Tamil Nadu, India. Situated in transnational feminist discourses, Singh's perspective as a Dalit woman, provides an intersectional social analysis of power structures that sustain caste dominance in South India today. She describes strategies of social change in Dalit women's activism as rooted in subversive applications of imposed identities of "difference" thwarting social boundaries and punishment traditions. The core of this Interdisciplinary work is Dalit women's songs, oral and written testimonial narratives, including Singh's personal story.

Jobymon Skaria, an Indian St Thomas Christian Scholar, offers a critique of Indian Christian theology and suggests that constructive dialogues between Biblical and dissenting Dalit voices – such as Chokhamela, Karmamela, Ravidas, Kabir, Nandanar and Narayana Guru – could set right the imbalance within Dalit theology, and could establish dialogical partnerships between Dalit Theologians, non-Dalit Christians and Syrian Christians. Drawing on Biblical and socio-historical resources, this book examines a radical, yet overlooked aspect of Dalit cultural and religious history which would empower the Dalits in their everyday existences.

This book aims to be a comprehensive resource that will apprise readers of the complex dynamics of the psychological interiors of women and others in the sex and gender spectrum, as they grapple with sociopolitical and cultural constraints. Going beyond the ambit of mainstream psychology, this volume draws from interdisciplinary fields of women’s/gender studies to highlight power imbalances, their intersectional nature, and the ways in which they shape the psychology of gender relations. The book illuminates three focal themes of identities, well-being, and relations, which illustrate the psychological, contextualised in the backdrop of social, political, and cultural developments in contemporary India. The first theme explores the building of identities in the changing dynamics of work–family interfaces, non-normative sexualities, and genders and the intersections of caste, gender, and social hierarchies. The second theme focuses on the gendering of mental health, including the intervention of feminist counselling. The third theme highlights conceptualisations and practices of masculinities and the role of agency, empowerment, and collective action in the pathways to equitable gender relations and social transformation. This book will be of interest to students, teachers, researchers of psychology, and of women’s/gender studies. It will also be useful for anyone who is interested to learn about recent psychological scholarship in India, informed and imbued with a feminist perspective on women as well as other genders.

Bama is a Tamil Dalit feminist writer and novelist. Her autobiographical novel Karukku, which chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu, catapulted her to fame. As a prolific writer, she has experimented with all kinds of genres, such as novels, short stories, poems, autobiographical writing, children’s literature, and discursive essays. This book presents a dedicated study of Bama’s work as a writer and activist and situates her in the context of Dalit literature in general and Tamil Dalit literature in particular. It recognises Bama as writer of great relevance especially in bringing to the fore the problematics of Dalit issues and their possible modes of aesthetic articulation through a new Dalit language. Part of the Writer in Context series, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of Indian literature, Dalit Literature, Dalit Studies, Tamil literature, English literature, comparative literature, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, Green studies. global south studies and translation studies.

This book explores the complex assemblage of biopolitics, citizenship, ethics and human rights concerns in South Asia focusing specifically on women poets, writers and artists and their explorations on marginalisation, violence and protest. The book traces the origins, varied historiographies and socio-political consequences of women’s protests and feminist discourses. Bringing together narratives of the Landais from Afghanistan, voices from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Miya women poets writing from Assam, and stories of Dalit and queer women across the region, it analyses the diverse modes of women’s protests and their ethical and humanitarian cartographies. The volume highlights the reconfiguration of female voices of protest in contemporary literature and popular culture in South Asia and the formation of closely-knit female communities of solidarity, cooperation and collective political action. The book will be of interest to students and researchers of gender studies, literature, cultural studies, sociology, minority and indigenous studies, and South Asian studies.

This volume represents the first exploration of caste in the field of curriculum studies, challenging the ongoing silence around the issue of caste in education and curriculum theory. Presenting comprehensive critical examination of caste as a category of domination and oppression in the colonial power matrix, chapters confront Eurocentric educational epistemologies which deny the existence and influence of caste. The book examines the impact of such silence in educational policy, praxis, and curriculum, and draws from leading scholars to illustrate the fluidity of power and oppression in the caste system. By challenging historical, cultural, and institutional origins of caste and foregrounding perspectives from outside Western epistemological frameworks, the book pioneers a critical approach to integrating caste in educational debate to interrupt social and cognitive injustices. In so doing so, the volume advocates for an alternative, non-derivative curriculum reason, through an itinerant curriculum theory as a path toward the emergence of a critical Dalit educational theory. As such, it makes a vital contribution for scholars and researchers looking to refine and enhance their knowledge of curriculum studies by highlighting the importance of theorizing caste in the role of education.

The World Yearbook of Education 2023 centers on the intersection of racialization, inequality, and education. It critically examines how racial formation and its associated logics about citizenship, belonging, justice, equality, and humanity manifest in early childhood education, primary, secondary, and higher education, as well as non-formal, community-based education settings. The chapters offer multisited perspectives into how racialization has and continues to shape educational inequality, with an eye towards the agency and resistance of youth and communities in contesting such forms of domination and marginalization. Across three sections, the book examines how forces of imperialism, white supremacy, and colonization have shaped racialization in distinct locations and how education was historically utilized as a site for both the creation and/or reification of difference. It reveals the lingering effects of processes of racialization in distinct locations globally and their intersections with educational policies, ideologies, systems, and realities. Inviting readers to learn, reflect, and engage with the layered and complex realities of racialization and inequality in education across the globe, World Yearbook of Education 2023 is a timely and important contribution to discussions of racialization and provides the field with a robust foundation for future critical inquiry and engagement with the themes of race, racialization, inequality, and education.

This is a history of goddess-worship. Written like a graphic novel, this well-researched book shows how goddess worship "morphed" through the centuries until it climaxed in its present most common form: the worship of the Virgin Mary. In different cultures, the names were different, but the goddess was the same. She was the Queen of Heaven, the mother of the god. She became the Mediatrix through whom all must go to reach their god.Author David Daniels is a stickler for research, so no one will be surprised to find a 30-page section of End Notes, as well as annotated bibliography. You can check out his facts for yourself! It's a heavy subject, but the illustrations by Jack T Chick help to make the story flow, and a lot easier for the casual reader to understand.