Caste in Everyday Life: Experience and Affect in Indian Society

Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Glossary and Abbreviations
1: Caste in Everyday Life: Experience and Affect in Indian Society
	Introduction
		Conceptualising Caste
		Performing Caste
		Experiencing Caste
		Psycho-social Violence
		Exclusion in Education
		Caste, Stigma and Subject Formation
		Banal Casteism: Everyday Assertions of Superiority
		Economies of Caste: Employment and Environment
	Conclusion: Caste and Everyday Life
	References
Part I: Psycho-social Violence
	2: Persistence of Caste Violence in Contemporary India: Psychosocial Underpinnings
		Introduction
		Methodological Approaches
		Caste Violence in India: Some Reflections
		Why Caste Violence? Tracing Dominant Perspectives
		Caste Violence: Socio-psychological Perspectives
		Understanding Caste Violence: Insights from Empirical Evidence
			Intergroup Relations and Vulnerability to Caste Violence
			Causes of Caste Violence: Empirical Evidence
		Impacts of Caste Violence on Everyday Life
		Conclusions
		References
	3: Caste and Everyday University Life: Psycho-emotional Experiences of Dalit Students
		Introduction
		Methodology
		Caste, University Space and Identity Formation
		Caste in Hostels and University Living Spaces
		Caste in University Resource Use
		Untouchability, Unseeability and Performative Caste
		Caste, Ill Treatment and Humiliation
		Caste in Classroom Transactions
		Caste and Psycho-emotional Consequences
			Psycho-emotional States and Academic Failure
			Deprivation and Mental Health
			Thoughts of Leaving the Course
			Self-Harm and Suicidal Tendencies
		Conclusion: Bitter Experiences
		References
Part II: Exclusion in Education
	4: Caste in Schools: Experiences of Dalit Children
		Introduction
			Caste and Dalit Education
		Study Methods
			Village Selection
			Participant Selection
		Framework to Study Caste Discrimination in Schools
		Findings and Discussions
			Access to Schools, Facilities and Resources
			School Infrastructure and School Choice
			Caste in Mid-Day Meals (MDMs)
			Participation in Different Spheres of Curricular and Co-curricular Activities
		Classroom Teaching and Learning
			Syllabus and Year-End Examinations
			Participation in Responsibilities, Tasks and Different Events
			Social Relations with Teachers and Peers
			Resisting Change
		Discussion
		References
	5: (Re)-production of Caste Prejudices: Viva-Voce Examination in Higher Education in Eastern Uttar Pradesh
		Introduction
		Objective and Research Questions
		Methodological Considerations
		Insights from Theories on Caste Prejudice and Discrimination in Higher Education
		Experiences of Caste on University Campuses
		Caste Prejudice and Discrimination in Viva-Voce Examinations
		Conclusion
		References
Part III: Caste, Stigma and Subject Formation
	6: Living Memories of Caste: The Thoti’s Stick
		Introduction
		Dalits and Casteplaining
		The Thoti’s Stick
		Everyday Semiotics
		Geographies of Power
		Village Panchayats/Caste (Kula) Panchayats
		Everyday Cycles of Exclusion
		Access to Public Space
		Representing the Margins
		Cultural Scavengers
		The Institutionalisation of Identity
		Whither Dalit Agency?
		References
	7: The Pulluvans, Sacred Serpents and Performative Healing in Kerala
		Introduction
		Methodology
		Reverence for Serpents in Kerala
		The Pulluvan Community
			Performer and Ritual
			Performance and Materiality
		References
	8: Whose Freedom? Interrogating the Free Hindu Temples Campaign, Caste Politics and Dalit Contestations of Temple Space in Tamil Nadu
		Introduction
		Methodology
		Dalit Experiences of Caste Discrimination in Temple Spaces
		Government Control and Religious Freedom: Exploring the Free Hindu Temples Campaign
		Freeing Temples: State, Community and Hindu Religious Space
		Community Control and Caste Oppression in the Temple Space
		In Search of Freeing Hindu Temples from Caste Control
		References
Part IV: Banal Casteism: Everyday Assertions of Superiority
	9: Brahmins’ ‘Touch’ in Digital Branding: Food, Taste and Identity
		Introduction
			Methodology
		Food Politics in Present-Day India
		From Exclusivity to Modernity
		Identity, Ideology and Culinary Practices in the Cosmopolitan Sphere
		Caste, Taste and Purity: Consuming Brahmins Foods
		Reproduction of Caste Ideology in a Digital Space with Modern Branding Techniques?
		Conclusion
		References
	10: Practising Family, Intimacy and Caste: Narratives of Dalit Women in Non-endogamous Marriages
		Introduction
		Methodology
		Uma’s Mantra Mangalya: Negotiating Cross-Caste Marriage and Anxiety
		Pushpa’s Arranged Marriage: Everyday Humiliation and Negotiation
		Surekha’s Love Marriage: Caste, Violence and Struggles to Belong
		Lata’s Self Marriage: Transformative Possibilities of Anti-caste Intimacy
		Conclusion: On Caste, Marriage and Intimacy
		References
	11: ‘Do Not Talk Like the Other Castes’: Language and Everyday Casteism in a Marathi Brahmin Household in Mumbai
		Introduction
		Historical Context of Language Standardisation
		Locating the Study and the Researcher’s Position
		Caste, Hierarchy and Language
		Methodology
		Language and Everyday Casteism in a Marathi Brahmin Household
		Standardisation of Language: Production and Reproduction of Hierarchies
		Blending in, Erasing Memories and Experiences
		Conclusion
		References
Part V: Economies of Caste: Employment and Environment
	12: (Re)Constructing Spatial and Social Relations: Valmikis of Mumbai and Their Everyday Challenge to Caste
		Introduction
		History of Samta Nagar: From Funeral Ground to Residential Settlement
		Overcoming Resistance to Spatial Proximity
		Contemporary Life in Samta Nagar
		Making a De-stigmatised Place and Self
		Challenging Everyday Caste in Samta Nagar
		Conclusion
		References
	13: Caste, Labour, and Migration: Everyday Pains of Dalits in Brick Kilns
		Introduction
		Methodology
		Migrant Labour and Migration Trends
			Caste, Migration, and Brick Kilns
		Political Economy of Land
			Dalits in Brick Kiln Jobs
		Conclusion
		References
Afterword by Surinder Jodhka
Index