Rethinking Social Exclusion in India: Castes, Communities and the State

187 Pages·2018·4.66 MB·English

by  Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta

Rethinking Social Exclusion
in India
In recent years, exclusionary policies of the Indian state have raised questions
concerning social harmony and economic progress. During the last few decades,
the emergence of identity politics has given new lease of life to exclusionary
practices in the country. Castes, communities and ethnic groups have re-emerged
in almost every sphere of social life.
This book analyses different aspects of social exclusion in contemporary India.
Divided into three sections – (1) New Forms of Inclusion and Exclusion in Con-
temporary India, (2) Religious Identities and Dalits and (3) Ethnicity and Politics
of Inclusion and Exclusion in the North-Eastern Frontier – the book shows that
a shift has taken place in the discourse on inclusion and exclusion. Chapters by
experts in their fields explore issues of inclusion and exclusion that merit special
attention such as Dalit identity, ethnicity, territoriality and minorities. Authors
raise questions about developmental programmes of the state aimed at making
India more inclusive and discuss development projects initiated to alleviate socio-
economic conditions of the urban poor in the cities. As far as the north-east region
is concerned, the authors argue that there is a tendency to highlight the homog-
enizing nature of the Indian culture by stressing one history, one language, one
social ethos. Diversity is hardly accepted as a social reality, which has adversely
affected the inclusive nature of the state. Against this development, the final part
of the book looks at questions regarding ethnic minorities in the north-east.
Offering new insights into the debate surrounding social exclusion in contem-
porary India, this book will be of interest to academics studying anthropology,
sociology, politics and South Asian studies.
Minoru Mio is associate professor at the Department of Globalization and
Humanity and director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the National
Museum of Ethnology, Japan.
Abhijit Dasgupta is a professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics,
University of Delhi, India.
Routledge New Horizons in South Asian Studies
Series Editors: Crispin Bates, Edinburgh University;
Akio Tanabe, University of Tokyo; Minoru Mio, National
Museum of Ethnology, Japan
Democratic Transformation and the Vernacular Public Arena in India
Edited by Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Akio Tanabe and Shinya Ishizaka
Cities in South Asia
Edited by Crispin Bates and Minoru Mio
Human and International Security in India
Edited by Crispin Bates, Akio Tanabe and Minoru Mio
Rethinking Social Exclusion in India
Castes, Communities and the State
Edited by Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta
Rethinking Social Exclusion
in India
Castes, Communities and the State
Edited by
Minoru Mio and
Abhijit Dasgupta
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 selection and editorial material, Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta;
individual chapters, the contributors
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mio, Minoru, editor. | Dasgupta, Abhijit, editor.
Title: Rethinking social exclusion in India : castes, communities and the
state / [edited by] Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. |
Series: Routledge new horizons in South Asian studies | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017015779 | ISBN 9781138282179 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315270821 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Marginality, Social—India. | Social integration—India. |
Caste—India. | India—Social policy.
Classification: LCC HN690.Z9 M2665755 2018 | DDC 306.0954—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015779
ISBN: 978-1-138-28217-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-27082-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on contributors x
Introduction 1
MINORU MIO AND ABHIJIT DASGUPTA
PART I
New forms of inclusion and exclusion in contemporary India 9
1 Conditions of ‘developmental democracy’: new logic
of inclusion and exclusion in globalizing India 11
AKIO TANABE
2 Streets as spaces of social inclusion and exclusion: the case
of street vendors in Ahmedabad 30
AYAKO IWATANI
3 The nation-states and exclusion of minorities in India: the case
of Gujarati Muslims 53
KAZUYA NAKAMIZO
PART II
Religious identities and Dalits 71
4 Belonging and being: unpacking Dalit Christian identity 73
ANDERSON H. M. JEREMIAH
5 Excluding themselves? Dalits converting to Buddhism 88
KENTA FUNAHASHI
vi Contents
 6  Affirmative action and exclusion of the Muslim outcastes 
in West Bengal 102
ABHIJIT DASGUPTA
7 Marginalization and subversive religious rites: worship
of Dharmathakur in West Bengal 111
RITA BANERJEE
PART III
Ethnicity and politics of inclusion and exclusion
in the north-eastern frontier 123
 8  The forest as a site of conflict: struggles over Indigenous 
territory in the Bodo areas of Assam 125
MAKIKO KIMURA
9 Insurgency, citizenship, and entitlements amongst Indian
migrant labourers in Nagaland 136
MICHAEL HENEISE
10 Moral geographies: the problem of sovereignty and
indigeneity amongst the Nagas 147
ARKOTONG LONGKUMER
Index 169
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Voter turn out in Indian parliamentary elections 16
1.2 Increasing representation of people from different castes 16
1.3 Increasing number of political parties: Lok Sabha elections
1952–2009 17
1.4 Vote share of national and regional parties: Lok Sabha elections
1984–2009 17
1.5 Gini index (%) in Brazil, China and India 22
3.1 Hindu-Muslim riots in India (1950–95) 58
5.1 The population composition of Village V by ‘caste’ 92
5.2 The genealogy of Aman’s family 95
Photographs
2.1 Three Gates 36
2.2 Street vendors in Manek Chowk 40
2.3 A shop resembling a street stall 41
2.4 Vendors on the Sabarmati riverbank 43
2.5 Collecting scraps from a gated community 45
5.1 A statue of Ravidas in Ravidas Mandir in Colony A 93
5.2 The rituals during Aman’s second daughter’s wedding ceremony 96
5.3 Karvā Chauth day 97
5.4 The funeral of a Buddhist in Village V 98
Tables
2.1 Sales items of stalls at the Bhadra Market (10:00~16: 00,
19 April, 2011) GR: Gandhi Road 39
2.2 Street vendors and their sales items 40
2.3 Customers at the Bhadra Market (30 December 2012) 42
2.4 Customers at the Gujari Bazar (December 2012) 46
3.1 Poverty incidence across socio-religious categories in 2004–05 61
viii Illustrations
3.2 Achievement of Garib Kalyan Mela (2009–11) 61
3.3 Shares of Muslim employees in selected state governments 63
3.4 Share of Muslim employees in selected state government
departments 63
Maps
5.1 Village V 91
5.2 A rough map of Village V 94
8.1 Proposed union territory of Udayachal 128
8.2 Bodoland territorial autonomous district 130
Acknowledgements
The chapters in this volume examine some aspects of inclusion and exclusion in
contemporary India. Scholars from Japan, UK and India contributed in various
ways towards publication of this book.
Most of these chapters were presented in an international conference held at
Japfu Christian College, Kohima, Nagaland, on 21 and 22 of December 2012.
The conference was funded by the Young Researcher Overseas Visits Program for
Accelerating Brain Circulation Scheme by the Japan Society for the Promotion
of Science, the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka and the Northeast Centre
of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. We express our gratitude to
these funding organizations. We thank Prof. Visakhonuo Hibo, principal of the
Nagaland Christian College, for hospitality and for ensuring all possible logistical
support to the participants of the conference. It was just the right location for the
conference: an excluded space in the true sense of the term. A large number of
scholars from the north-east universities joined the conference and took an active
part in the discussions. We are grateful to the rappoteurs Dr. Dulali Nag (Indian
Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management), Dr. Suryakant Waghmore
(Tata Institute of Social Science) and commentators Dr. Hia Sen (Presidency Uni-
versity, Kolkata), Dr. Riho Isaka (University of Tokyo), Dr. Toshie Awaya (Tokyo
University for Foreign Studies) and Dr. Shinya Ishizaka (Kyoto University) of
this conference.
For additional assistance, we owe a great deal to Ms. Sohini Ghosh, and to Ms.
Prama Mukhopadhyay for preparing the index.
Minoru Mio
Abhijit Dasgupta