Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Scheduled Caste (SC) is an administrative term comprising touchable and untouchable groups of people. SCs are defined as ‘homogeneous’ classes under Article 341 for all constitutional purposes. It emerged as an official term for the recognition of groups to have preferential treatment in the form of compensatory measurements in the educational, governmental and legislative sectors. The emergence of the term ‘Scheduled Castes’ ignores the viable differentiation among them, existing on the basis of their status and identity. On the other hand, the problem of nomenclature among SCs is indirectly related to their social identification at the societal and community levels. The article will delve into the discourses of naming and renaming of SCs/Dalits/untouchables and various other terminologies that emerged as an imperative to represent them. Therefore, it is significant to understand the dilemma of homogeneity versus the heterogeneous nature of the identity of SCs.