The Pariah Problem Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India

393 Pages·2014·3.15 MB·English

by  Rupa Viswanath

THE PARIAH PROBLEM
Cultures of History
CULTURES OF HISTORY
Nicholas Dirks, Series Editor
The death of history, reported at the end of the twentieth century, was clearly premature. It has
become a hotly contested battleground in struggles over identity, citizenship, and claims of
recognition and rights. Each new national history proclaims itself as ancient and universal, while
the contingent character of its focus raises questions about the universality and objectivity of any
historical tradition. Globalization and the American hegemony have created cultural, social, local,
and national backlashes. Cultures of History is a new series of books that investigates the forms,
understandings, genres, and histories of history, taking history as the primary text of modern life
and the foundational basis for state, society, and nation.
Shail Mayaram, Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins
Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Monuments, Objects, Histories: Institutions of Art in Colonial and
Postcolonial India
Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics
Ahmad H. Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod, editors, Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory
Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700–1960
Laura Bear, Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy, and the Intimate Historical
Self
Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia
Bernard Bate, Tamil Oratory and the Dravidian Aesthetic: Democratic Practice in South India
Partha Chatterjee, Lineages of Political Society: Studies in Postcolonial Democracy
The Pariah Problem
Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India
RUPA VISWANATH
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press All rights reserved E-ISBN 978-0-231-53750-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Viswanath, Rupa.
The pariah problem : caste, religion, and the social in modern India / Rupa Viswanath.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16306-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53750-6 (ebook) 1. Pariahs—
History. 2. Pariahs—Social conditions. 3. Caste—India—History. 4. India—Social conditions. 5.
India—History. I. Title.
DS432.P25V57 2014
305.5'6880954—dc23
2013047446
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
Cover Photo: © Bridgeman Art Library Cover Design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee References to
websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University
Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was
prepared.
For the Dalit women, children, and men who were the
targets of the official policies and unofficial strategems this
book describes, and for their descendants
Mitunter aber verlangt eben dasselbe Leben, das die Vergessenheit
braucht, die zeitweilige Vernichtung dieser Vergessenheit; dann soll es
eben gerade klar werden, wie ungerecht die Existenz irgend eines
Dinges, eines Privilegiums, einer Kaste, einer Dynastie zum Beispiel ist,
wie sehr dieses Ding den Untergang verdient. Dann wird seine
Vergangenheit kritisch betrachtet.…Denn da wird nun einmal die
Resultate früherer Geschlechter sind, sind wir auch die Resultate ihrer
Verirrungen, Leidenschaften und Irrthümer, ja Verbrechen…
Sometimes this same life that requires forgetting demands a temporary
destruction of this forgetfulness; it wants to be clear as to how unjust the
existence of something—a privilege, a caste, a dynasty, for example—is,
and how greatly this thing deserves to perish. Then its past is regarded
critically.…Since we are the outcome of earlier generations, we are also
the outcome of their aberrations, passions and errors, and indeed of their
crimes…
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The epigraph is taken from the R. J. Hollingdale translation of Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations
(ed. Daniel Breazeale, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 76. I have slightly altered
the translation.
CONTENTS
PREFACE ON TERMINOLOGY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
Introduction
Chapter 1
Land Tenure or Labor Control? The Agrarian Mise-en-
Scène
Chapter 2
Conceptualizing Pariah Conversion: Caste, Spirit,
Matter, and Penury
Chapter 3
The Pariah–Missionary Alliance: Agrarian Contestation
and the Local State
Chapter 4
The State and the Cēri
Chapter 5
Settling Land, Sowing Conflict; or, The Rise and Rise
of Religious Neutrality
Chapter 6
The Marriage of Sacred and Secular Authority: New
Liberalism, Mission–State Relations, and the Birth of
Authenticity
Chapter 7
Giving the Panchama a Home: Creating “a Friction
Where None Exists”
Chapter 8
Everyday Warfare: Caste, Class, and the Public
Chapter 9
The Depressed Classes, Rights, and the Embrace of
the Social
Conclusion:
The Pariah Problem’s Enduring Legacies
GLOSSARY
NOTES
ARCHIVAL SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX