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DALIT STUDIES This page intentionally left blank D A L I T S T U D I E S RAMNARAYAN S. RAWAT & K. SATYANARAYANA, EDITORS Duke University Press • Durham and London • 2016 © 2016 Duke University Press All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞. Designed by Courtney Leigh Baker and Typeset in Scala, Scala Sans, and Minion Pro by Westchester Publishing Services Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Rawat, Ramnarayan S., editor. | Satyanarayana, K., editor. Title: Dalit studies / Ramnarayan S. Rawat and K. Satyanarayana, editors. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2015040886| isbn 9780822361138 (hardcover : alk. paper) | isbn 9780822361329 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780822374312 (e- book) Subjects: lcsh: Dalits— India. | Caste— India. Classification: lcc ds422.c3 d2016 | ddc 305.5/688—d c23 lc rec ord available at http:// lccn. loc. gov/ 2015040886 Cover art: Courtesy of Laxman Aelay, Secular Song, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 72" × 48". Laxman Aelay is a contemporary artist from Telangana. To Dalit men and women who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of human dignity This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowle dgments • ix introduction. Dalit Studies: New Perspectives on Indian History and Society • 1 ramnarayan s. rawat and k. satyanarayana 1 The Indian Nation in Its Egalitarian Conception • 31 gopal guru part i. Probing the Historical 2 Colonial Archive versus Colonial Sociology: Writing Dalit History • 53 ramnarayan s. rawat 3 Social Space, Civil Society, and Dalit Agency in Twentieth-C entury Kerala • 74 p. sanal mohan 4 Dilemmas of Dalit Agendas: Po liti cal Subjugation and Self- Emancipation in Telugu Country, 1910–50 • 104 chinnaiah jangam 5 Making Sense of Dalit Sikh History • 131 raj kumar hans part ii. Probing the Present 6 The Dalit Reconfiguration of Modernity: Citizens and Castes in the Telugu Public Sphere • 155 k. satyanarayana 7 Q uestions of Repre sen ta tion in Dalit Critical Discourse: Premchand and Dalit Feminism • 180 laura brueck 8 S ocial Justice and the Question of Categorization of Scheduled Caste Reservations: The Dandora Debate in Andhra Pradesh • 202 sambaiah gundimeda 9 Caste and Class among the Dalits • 233 d. shyam babu 10 From Zaat to Qaum: Fluid Contours of the Ravi Dasi Identity in Punjab • 248 surinder s. jodhka Bibliography • 271 Contributors • 293 Index • 295 viii • contents AC KNOW LEDG MENTS Dalit studies has recently emerged as a new field of study in India. As we explain in the introduction to this volume, a number of factors have contrib- uted to the rise of this exciting field. Perhaps the most striking is the entry of Dalit intellectuals into academic institutions. Since the late nineteenth century there has been a long tradition of Dalit activist- scholars outside academia. This volume brings a new group of scholars and activist- scholars to academic attention in North Amer i ca and the West more generally. The rise of the field of Dalit studies has been propelled by the emergence of a new generation of Dalit activists and intellectuals since the 1990s. This develop- ment coincided with the discussions of caste inequities in the Indian media and academia. In Indian—or, more broadly, South Asian— academia, histori- cal and anthropological research in the first two de cades of the twenty-fi rst century yielded information about previously unacknowledged struggles by Dalit groups, tribal people, women, and other marginal sections of Indian society. This period also coincided with new research in the disciplines of re- ligious and literary studies and in historical and contemporary fields, which further highlighted the role of marginal social groups in sustaining dif er ent forms of devotion and protest. The exciting new research in the past two de cades, especially the rise of Dalit studies and new attention paid to B. R. Ambedkar, also coincided with the formal end of the subaltern studies col- lective. It is in this new exciting moment that Dalit Studies raises a new set of questions, focusing on Dalits as subjects of study and on Dalit studies as a location of marginality to be studied in Indian history. The book seeks to draw attention to the per sis tence of practices that sustain caste inequality and its relationship with the unraveling of modernity in India. The last two hun- dred years of Indian history seems to suggest, as several essays in this volume argue, that commitments to equality can not only coexist, but can be made
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