Series statement from cover.

This comprehensive body of work illuminates the new ways to remember caste and comprehend the enduring anguish it has imposed upon individuals across generations, thereby paving the way for a more informed understanding of its profound impact on Dalit lives throughout the annals of time. This work not only adds depth to the existing discourse but also serves as a catalyst for broader understanding and appreciation of the complexities inherent in Dalit experiences and their representation or (mis)representation. In doing so, the volume challenges the traditional social order's ability to address caste-based discrimination effectively and also makes an attempt to find alternative ways to understand the conundrum of caste. It delves into the necessity of alternative discourse, particularly the significance of Dalit discourse, and hence the imperative need for diverse and inclusive discourses. The volume represents the individual voices of the editors and contributors, who are eminent academics, and provides a more holistic approach to the examination of the socio-economic, cultural and political landscape of the Dalit community in contemporary India. Their contribution enriches the current body of literature on Dalit Studies, with a specific focus on the evolving dynamics within politics, academia, popular culture, digital culture, political economy, ideological perspectives, and representation or (mis)representation, among others. The chapters also demonstrate the profound impact of various modern influences on the lives of the younger generation of Dalits. In doing so, it sheds light on how access to information technology, the pervasive use of social media- digital media, the influential role of music and cinema in cultural resistance, and the discourse of protest politics collectively shape the experiences and perspectives of the young Dalit community. This literary work presents an invaluable opportunity for scholars, researchers, and students, and a methodological aid for classroom adoption for discerning readers to immerse themselves in an exploration of a significant community in India and its multifaceted presence within contemporary literature and culture.

Spanning A Range Of Topics-Print Culture And Oral Tales, Drama And Gender, Library Use And Publishing History, Theatre And Audiences, Detective Fiction And Low-Caste Novels-This Book Will Appeal To Historians, Cultural Theorists, Sociologists And All Interested In Understanding The Multiplicity Of India`S Cultural Traditions And Literary Histories.

This volume studies the ways in which modernity has been conceived, practiced, and performed in Indian literatures from the 18th to 20th century. It brings together essays on writings in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and languages from Northeast India, which form a dialogical relationship with each other in this volume. The concurrence and contradictions emerging through these studies problematize the idea of modernity afresh. The book challenges the dominance of colonial modernity through socio-historical and cultural analysis of how modernity surfaces as a multifaceted phenomenon when contextualized in the multilingual ethos of India. It further tracks the complex ways in which modernism in India is tied to the harvests of modernity. It argues for the need to shift focus on the specific conditions that gave shape to multiple modernities within literatures produced from India. A versatile collection, the book incorporates engagements with not just long prose fiction but also lesser-known essays, research works, and short stories published in popular magazines. This unique work will be of interest to students and teachers of Indian writing in English, Indian literatures, and comparative literatures. It will be indispensable to scholars of South Asian studies, literary historians, linguists, and scholars of cultural studies across the globe.

This Volume Brings Together Fourteen Essays Written By Literary Critics, Historians And Political Theorists Which Look At The Early Novels In Different Indian Languages And The Circumstances Of Their Production. Most Of The Essays Challenge The Old Assumption That The Novel In India Was A Genre Directly Imported From The West, And Address The Issues Of Plural Heritage And The Economic And Social Determinants That Interacted To Make The Shaping Of This Literary Form A Tangled And Complex Process In Our Languages.

This book explores how, in early modern Malayalee society, the emerging notion of the individual (as distinct from an identity based on jati, region etc.) was linked to the vision of a society based on gender differences. The process of individualizing thus also became a process of en-gendering. Social reform claimed to set `free people, to make them free individuals. In fact this process of individualization was implicated in institutions (education, home-making, parenting, political work etc) that were seen to be gender specific. As such men and women came to occupy separate, complementary domains, that were seen as `natural while education was seen, paradoxically, as a way to realize these `naturally gendered selves. The book explores how social reform, notions of the individual, and the creation of a `gendered individual came together in early modern Kerala.

A text book on Social Science