The word ‘Dalit’ was derived from the Sanskrit word ‘dal’ means broken, ground-down, downtrodden or depressed. They constituting seventeen percentage of the total population this term are mostly used to describe communities that have been subjected to untouchability. Dalit or the group of people traditionally regarded as the untouchables were always remain as marginalized and subjected to exploitation. “Caste Outcaste”, you meet others who face the same challenge and you do, and you get to know that you are not alone”. The Dalit activists are part of something, that may be seen as global ‘counter public’ and along with their sympathisers they acted on a global scale. Their message was spread across the world. The present globalization and privatization provides lots of job opportunities for the upper caste, but for the Dalits it was provides unemployment.

Bringing together scholars and activists, this volume examines the many facets of on-going Dalit struggles to improve their position. Focusing on identity assertion and collective action, the contributors discuss the nature of Dalit politics, and the challenges and dilemmas that they face in contemporary India.

For women at the early modern courts, clothing and jewellery were essential elements in their political arsenal, enabling them to signal their dynastic value, to promote loyalty to their marital court and to advance political agendas. This is the first collection of essays to examine how elite women in early modern Europe marshalled clothing and jewellery for political ends. With essays encompassing women who traversed courts in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Habsburg Austria, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, the contributions cover a broad range of elite women from different courts and religious backgrounds as well as varying noble ranks.

The Revised Edition Of The History Of Non-Brahmin Assertion To Brahmin Hegemony In The Old Madras Presidency Argues That This Complex And Layered Pst Has To Be Critically Reclaimed For Our Times. An Analytical Study Of The Gestation Of The Movement, Of Its Forebears Like Lyothee Thass And His Contemporaries, The Book Also Provides An Incisive Discussion On The Contributions Of Periyar, E. V. Ramasami, The Pathbreaking Founder Of The Self-Respect Movement.

The nineteenth century saw the beginning of a violent and controversial movement of protest amongst western India's low and untouchable castes, aimed at the effects of their lowly position within the Hindu caste hierarchy. This study concentrates on the first leader of this movement, Mahatma Jotirao Phule.

The Indian constitution seeks to prevent the perpetuation of caste and build a casteless social system. But in over half a century since Indian independence, this has not been achieved and does not seem likely in the near future. Therefore, no understanding of Indian politics is possible without a thorough understanding of the complexities of the caste system. The aim of this four-part book is to bring about such an understanding. It begins by examining the various meanings attached to the notion of caste. The essay and book extracts in this first section include classic writings on caste such as those by G S Ghurye, Louis Dumont, Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar. The second part consists of essays that demonstrate the relationship between caste and power. The third part comprises material that investigates caste and various Indian political practices on the ground. The fourth, on caste and social transformation, includes discussion on one of the most salient topics in contemporary Indian politics, namely, the issue of reservations for socially backward castes.

Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s. "Joothan" refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid. Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his heroic struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar. A document of the long-silenced and long-denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is a major contribution to the archives of Dalit history and a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

"This book, the first critical work by an eminent Dalit writer to appear in English, is a provocative and thoughtful account of the debates among Dalit writers on how Dalit literature should be read. This book includes an extensive interview with the author, an exhaustive bibliography, and a critical commentary by the translator. Originally published in Marathi, this is the first English translation of the book."--Provided by publisher.

Annotation. This volume of essays looks into the dynamic interconnection of class, caste and gender in the Indian political process. The focus is on interconnection (that is a relationship involving more than one category), while at the same time trying to understand each category by itself. The complex issues of caste, gender and class have been studied through a collection of essays that look into the people's struggle for social equality. Social oppression has been analyzed in the context of protests against such exploitation. Anti-caste movements and women's movements have been studied in much detail. The volume is divided into five sections and well-known specialists have contributed pertinent essays. This important book will contribute immensely in the understanding of the contemporary Indian political process.

In this volume of sixteen essays, D. R. Nagaraj, the foremost non-Brahmin intellectual to emerge from India's non-English-speaking world, presents his vision of the Indian caste system in relation to Dalit politics--the Dalit being a self-designation for many groups in the lower castes of India. Nagaraj argues that the Dalit movement rejected the traditional Hindu world and thus dismissed untouchable pasts entirely; but he believes rebels too require cultural memory. Their emotions of bewilderment, rage, and resentment can only be transcended via a politics of affirmation. He theorizes the caste system as a mosaic of disputes about dignity, religiosity, and entitlement. Examining moments of caste defiance, he argues for a politics of cultural affirmation and creates a new cultural identity for Dalits. More significantly, he argues against self-pity and rage in artistic imagination, and for recreating the banished worlds of gods and goddesses. Nagaraj's importance lies in consolidating and advancing some of the ideas of India's leading Dalit thinker and icon, B. R. Ambedkar. He suggests an inclusivist framework to build an alliance of all the oppressed communities of India.