Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Adivasi people form the most marginalized strata in Indian society. They are mostly underrepresented and are widely ignored while formulating public policies. The present form of the criminal justice system was an outcome of British domination over the Indian subcontinent and is equally applicable to the Adivasi people in most of the pockets. It is often felt that the justice system is alien to the conditions of this country. Adivasi people who have a unique, distinct culture might have felt the same way about this system as well. Here, in the present research article, the author, after conducting non-doctrinal research, has made certain points regarding the interface between Adivasi and criminal courts. An impactful study with clear policy decisions is the need of the hour in order to stop the marginalization of Adivasi people even in the name of providing them justice. A community that has totally different perceptions about crime and justice must be given the liberty to do justice among themselves.
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Perception of Subjective Well-being of the Lodha Tribe in West Bengal
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This article discusses the subjective perception of the well-being of the people of the Lodha tribe in West Bengal, India. Relying on the qualitative method of research, this study interviewed participants (n = 53) from the Lodha tribal community of West Bengal in eastern India. Positive effect, happiness and domain satisfaction were the framework to capture the subjective perception of well-being. The study finds that there are four major themes emerged as the perception of subjective well-being: health, traditional knowledge, festivals and social connectedness. Further, this study conclusively suggests not only that policies should be incorporated that can improve the material benefit (housing, livelihood and biological health) but focus should also be made beyond it (promotion of mental health, indigenous knowledge and social connectedness).
This article discusses the subjective perception of the well-being of the people of the Lodha tribe in West Bengal, India. Relying on the qualitative method of research, this study interviewed participants (n = 53) from the Lodha tribal community of West Bengal in eastern India. Positive effect, happiness and domain satisfaction were the framework to capture the subjective perception of well-being. The study finds that there are four major themes emerged as the perception of subjective well-being: health, traditional knowledge, festivals and social connectedness. Further, this study conclusively suggests not only that policies should be incorporated that can improve the material benefit (housing, livelihood and biological health) but focus should also be made beyond it (promotion of mental health, indigenous knowledge and social connectedness).
Bowed, Bent and Broken: Investigating Enrolments of Scheduled Castes/Tribes to Technical Higher Education Programmes in Kerala
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The Kerala model of development is well regarded in the literature, with numerous authors citing how it brought forth high social development and egalitarianism into the state. Kerala, unlike its neighbours, has traditionally resisted private expansion of higher education, arguing for the cause of social equity, fairness and justice for deprived sections. However, post the millennium, growth in technical institutions offering professional higher education courses have been prolific in the state. Against this backdrop, this study investigates how the most backward sections of the state comprising Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have fared in enrolments to such programmes. Using data retrieved from the available public records, the analysis finds that SC/ST sections are grossly under-represented across the entire spectrum of professional higher education courses in the state that offer technical programmes. The enrolments are far below the expected levels, underperforming all other South Indian states and the national average by a significant margin. The study suggests that this data is deliberately withheld by the government to the public. The research argues that Kerala is at a critical juncture, where in the absence of disruptive government intervention, the situation would worsen. These findings severely dent Kerala’s claims on being an inclusive society and its narrative on development orientation. A phenomenon of social exclusion encountered in the state is explained and illustrated. Thereafter, the article discusses the implications of the findings, while suggesting policy initiatives and regulatory actions that can help provide respite and relief for the deprived SC/ST communities.
The Kerala model of development is well regarded in the literature, with numerous authors citing how it brought forth high social development and egalitarianism into the state. Kerala, unlike its neighbours, has traditionally resisted private expansion of higher education, arguing for the cause of social equity, fairness and justice for deprived sections. However, post the millennium, growth in technical institutions offering professional higher education courses have been prolific in the state. Against this backdrop, this study investigates how the most backward sections of the state comprising Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have fared in enrolments to such programmes. Using data retrieved from the available public records, the analysis finds that SC/ST sections are grossly under-represented across the entire spectrum of professional higher education courses in the state that offer technical programmes. The enrolments are far below the expected levels, underperforming all other South Indian states and the national average by a significant margin. The study suggests that this data is deliberately withheld by the government to the public. The research argues that Kerala is at a critical juncture, where in the absence of disruptive government intervention, the situation would worsen. These findings severely dent Kerala’s claims on being an inclusive society and its narrative on development orientation. A phenomenon of social exclusion encountered in the state is explained and illustrated. Thereafter, the article discusses the implications of the findings, while suggesting policy initiatives and regulatory actions that can help provide respite and relief for the deprived SC/ST communities.
Closet Dalithood: Traumatized Caste Performativity and the Making of an Urban Aesthetics of Caste in Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit (2019)
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
With the publication of Yashica Dutt’s (2019) Coming Out as Dalit, a clear shift in Dalit autobiographical writing tradition is becoming visible, and this article tries to capture that shift by locating it within a global discourse on marginality and discrimination. This shift enables Dutt to rebrand a certain understanding of caste from a birth-marked identity to a more free-floating and performative understanding of caste. The emphasis on the performative aspect of caste provides it the necessary synergetic value to attach with multiple global discourses around marginality, discrimination, sexuality, and race. The article highlights how Dutt’s text is trying to develop a new urban aesthetics of caste to capture the sensibilities of a dominantly urban and global audience, and at the same time, expanding and signifying the understanding of caste. The article argues that it is this attempt to develop a new aesthetic formulation of caste that can explain the use of what is primarily a queer symbol of expression ‘coming out’ to couch the expression of caste discrimination. The article further indicates how similar synergies are developed with racial discourses and, finally, argues how these attempts can be understood as part of a global response to inequalities and the right to the city, making and expanding Dalit literature’s participation in the category of protest literature.
With the publication of Yashica Dutt’s (2019) Coming Out as Dalit, a clear shift in Dalit autobiographical writing tradition is becoming visible, and this article tries to capture that shift by locating it within a global discourse on marginality and discrimination. This shift enables Dutt to rebrand a certain understanding of caste from a birth-marked identity to a more free-floating and performative understanding of caste. The emphasis on the performative aspect of caste provides it the necessary synergetic value to attach with multiple global discourses around marginality, discrimination, sexuality, and race. The article highlights how Dutt’s text is trying to develop a new urban aesthetics of caste to capture the sensibilities of a dominantly urban and global audience, and at the same time, expanding and signifying the understanding of caste. The article argues that it is this attempt to develop a new aesthetic formulation of caste that can explain the use of what is primarily a queer symbol of expression ‘coming out’ to couch the expression of caste discrimination. The article further indicates how similar synergies are developed with racial discourses and, finally, argues how these attempts can be understood as part of a global response to inequalities and the right to the city, making and expanding Dalit literature’s participation in the category of protest literature.
Book review: Servant’s Pasts, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century South Asia
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Servant’s Pasts, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century South Asia, Vol.1. Edited by Nitin Sinha, Nitin Varma and Pankaj Jha. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2019, 440 pp., ₹1350 (Hardback).
Servant’s Pasts, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century South Asia, Vol.1. Edited by Nitin Sinha, Nitin Varma and Pankaj Jha. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2019, 440 pp., ₹1350 (Hardback).
Book review: Ashoka Kumar Sen, The Making of a Village: The Dynamics of Adivasi Rural Life in India
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Ashoka Kumar Sen, The Making of a Village: The Dynamics of Adivasi Rural Life in India. London and New York, Routledge, 2021, 227, pp., ₹995 (Hardback). ISBN: 978–0–367–37403–7.
Ashoka Kumar Sen, The Making of a Village: The Dynamics of Adivasi Rural Life in India. London and New York, Routledge, 2021, 227, pp., ₹995 (Hardback). ISBN: 978–0–367–37403–7.
Tracing the Contours of Hate Speech in India in the Pandemic Year: The Curious Case of Online Hate Speech against Muslims and Dalits During the Pandemic
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Though India is no stranger to either epidemics or hate speech, the COVID-19 crisis brought to the surface many of the pre-existing schisms and prejudices that subsequently led to both the Muslim minority community and the Dalit community being cast as miasmic and constant agitators against the central government. In the case of hate speech against the Muslim community, it has led to a peculiar situation wherein the invisible but pervasive Islamophobia that has been plaguing the country from the colonial times has risen it ugly head particularly across regional news channels and social media networks, making the phenomena hyper-visible. The Hindutva politicians from the extreme right parties have been indulging in spreading anti-Muslim propaganda, moulding the image of the Muslim community as not only disease-bearers and super-spreaders of COVID-19 virus but also as being anti-national, as the central government has proclaimed ‘a war against the COVID virus’ (The Print, 2020, 26 April).During the initial spread of the virus throughout the country, there was an increasing tendency to show the Muslim community as intentionally spreading the disease or as being ignorant of current medical practices, with multiple TV channels airing the views that the Tablighi Jamaat event (a religious congregation held in March 2020) was marked as a super-spreader event, and with multiple politicians engaging in rumour-mongering and hate-speech against the Muslims, framing the community as a miasmic community that needs to be cleared from India.On the other hand, the hate speech against Dalits in India is much more nuanced, indirect and layered. It began as WhatsApp and Facebook messages extolling the caste system and justifying the discriminatory practice of untouchability using the logic of social distancing and progressed to painting Dalits and Dalit spaces as unhygienic disease-scapes. This consequently led to the denial of livelihoods to thousands of domestic workers and unskilled workers who belonged to lower caste groups as they found themselves without jobs as most middle caste upper caste families and business owners fired their employees without notice. The study involves a hermeneutical analysis of news reports of the spread of COVID from newspapers and electronic media in English as well as interviews with at least 100 members of groups on social media (WhatsApp and Facebook) that propagate extremely communal and casteist material.
Though India is no stranger to either epidemics or hate speech, the COVID-19 crisis brought to the surface many of the pre-existing schisms and prejudices that subsequently led to both the Muslim minority community and the Dalit community being cast as miasmic and constant agitators against the central government. In the case of hate speech against the Muslim community, it has led to a peculiar situation wherein the invisible but pervasive Islamophobia that has been plaguing the country from the colonial times has risen it ugly head particularly across regional news channels and social media networks, making the phenomena hyper-visible. The Hindutva politicians from the extreme right parties have been indulging in spreading anti-Muslim propaganda, moulding the image of the Muslim community as not only disease-bearers and super-spreaders of COVID-19 virus but also as being anti-national, as the central government has proclaimed ‘a war against the COVID virus’ (The Print, 2020, 26 April).During the initial spread of the virus throughout the country, there was an increasing tendency to show the Muslim community as intentionally spreading the disease or as being ignorant of current medical practices, with multiple TV channels airing the views that the Tablighi Jamaat event (a religious congregation held in March 2020) was marked as a super-spreader event, and with multiple politicians engaging in rumour-mongering and hate-speech against the Muslims, framing the community as a miasmic community that needs to be cleared from India.On the other hand, the hate speech against Dalits in India is much more nuanced, indirect and layered. It began as WhatsApp and Facebook messages extolling the caste system and justifying the discriminatory practice of untouchability using the logic of social distancing and progressed to painting Dalits and Dalit spaces as unhygienic disease-scapes. This consequently led to the denial of livelihoods to thousands of domestic workers and unskilled workers who belonged to lower caste groups as they found themselves without jobs as most middle caste upper caste families and business owners fired their employees without notice. The study involves a hermeneutical analysis of news reports of the spread of COVID from newspapers and electronic media in English as well as interviews with at least 100 members of groups on social media (WhatsApp and Facebook) that propagate extremely communal and casteist material.
A Sociopolitical Alternative for Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and Expectation From It
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
In Indian electoral elections, Uttar Pradesh is one of those states that has witnessed a significant emergence of Dalit political awareness in past few decades. Yet in the current electoral climate, they have only been a passing cloud, which further necessitates an overhaul in their political leadership and style of politics. It is in this regard that a discussion on the alternatives for the Dalit politics becomes more important than ever. In such a discussion, one leader who cannot be overlooked is Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’. Thus, this commentary aims to address the question, what should this alternative represent?
In Indian electoral elections, Uttar Pradesh is one of those states that has witnessed a significant emergence of Dalit political awareness in past few decades. Yet in the current electoral climate, they have only been a passing cloud, which further necessitates an overhaul in their political leadership and style of politics. It is in this regard that a discussion on the alternatives for the Dalit politics becomes more important than ever. In such a discussion, one leader who cannot be overlooked is Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’. Thus, this commentary aims to address the question, what should this alternative represent?
Making of the Sacred in India: Religious or Social Othering?
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Sacred in ecclesiastical terms is understood as something kept apart towards attainment of ‘real’ for the social group where real is transcendental. The group is generally considered as one unit, and, therefore, religion in this way becomes instrumental in attainment of higher end of all. Hinduism, when analysed as a religion, provides an epistemic reality of othering in the society and sacred text becomes basis for origin and continuation of peculiar social stratification in India. Looking in this way, Hinduism defies some universal characteristics assigned to the term ‘religion’, especially on the progressive count, and appears to be static and status quoist. This paper is an attempt to highlight such an aspect with the help of a meticulous and erudite analysis by Dr B. R. Ambedkar.
Sacred in ecclesiastical terms is understood as something kept apart towards attainment of ‘real’ for the social group where real is transcendental. The group is generally considered as one unit, and, therefore, religion in this way becomes instrumental in attainment of higher end of all. Hinduism, when analysed as a religion, provides an epistemic reality of othering in the society and sacred text becomes basis for origin and continuation of peculiar social stratification in India. Looking in this way, Hinduism defies some universal characteristics assigned to the term ‘religion’, especially on the progressive count, and appears to be static and status quoist. This paper is an attempt to highlight such an aspect with the help of a meticulous and erudite analysis by Dr B. R. Ambedkar.
The Dalit Soldiers and the Colonial Apparatus: Lived Experiences of the Paraiyans in the Madras Presidency Army, 1801–1895
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The article deals with the Paraiyans, one of the Dalit sub-caste of the Madras Presidency, and their transformation from a marginalized group to one which was believed to be one of the worthwhile recruits for the colonial army. The narrative delves on their exalted status as a military subaltern within the general set up of the army department and also traces their subsequent socio-political positions in the southern society under the colonial rule after the 1880s. Despite their primary dependence on agriculture for their survival, several of them preferred to be enlisted in the army under the colonial rule in India for better livelihood and social standing. The official/archival documents highlighted that the Madras Presidency army had given much benefit to them and became a source of their social occupational mobility. Thus, It has been given them a new sense of identity and power and their empowerment as a caste.
The article deals with the Paraiyans, one of the Dalit sub-caste of the Madras Presidency, and their transformation from a marginalized group to one which was believed to be one of the worthwhile recruits for the colonial army. The narrative delves on their exalted status as a military subaltern within the general set up of the army department and also traces their subsequent socio-political positions in the southern society under the colonial rule after the 1880s. Despite their primary dependence on agriculture for their survival, several of them preferred to be enlisted in the army under the colonial rule in India for better livelihood and social standing. The official/archival documents highlighted that the Madras Presidency army had given much benefit to them and became a source of their social occupational mobility. Thus, It has been given them a new sense of identity and power and their empowerment as a caste.