Showing papers on "Caste published in 2012"

Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern India

Abstract: This volume argues that the Indian society is characterized by multiple forms of discrimination and exclusion that create profound barriers to upward mobility and freedom from structures of deprivation The essays study widespread patterns of discrimination and underlying attitudinal orientations that contribute to inequality in various aspects of life Based on archival research, field surveys, and interviews, the contributors explore practical aspects of economic discrimination and social exclusion in India They also discuss some of the theoretical issues related to social exclusion in general and economic discrimination in particular, to provide conceptual backdrop and to place the empirical studies in necessary theoretical perspective The book investigates historic patterns of discrimination with factors like reservation in private sector, globalization, caste and employment, ownership of private enterprises, labour market, poverty, health care, education, food security, and creation of Dalit identities as well as the consequences of discrimination and possible remedies

Caste in 21st Century India: Competing Narratives.

Abstract: Recent debates regarding inclusion of caste in 2011 Census have raised questions about whether caste still matters in modern India. Ethnographic studies of the mid-20th century identified a variety of dimensions along which caste differentiation occurs. At the same time, whether this differentiation translates into hierarchy remains a contentious issue as does the persistence of caste, given the economic changes of the past two decades. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 41,554 households conducted in 2005, this paper examines the relationship between social background and different dimensions of well-being. The results suggest continued persistence of caste disparities in education, income and social networks.

Children Associate Racial Groups with Wealth: Evidence from South Africa

Abstract: Group-based social hierarchies exist in nearly every society, yet little is known about whether children understand that they exist. The present studies investigated whether 3- to 10-year-old children (N = 84) in South Africa associate higher status racial groups with higher levels of wealth, one indicator of social status. Children matched higher value belongings with White people more often than with multiracial or Black people and with multiracial people more often than with Black people, thus showing sensitivity to the de facto racial hierarchy in their society. There were no age-related changes in children’s tendency to associate racial groups with wealth differences. The implications of these results are discussed in light of the general tendency for people to legitimize and perpetuate the status quo. Nearly every human society includes groups of people who vary in social status (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). History is replete with examples of societies in which groups are clearly delineated by status, from the caste systems of India and New Spain to the Jim Crow policies of the American South. The country at the center of the present article—South Africa—was home to one of the most notorious examples of legally sanctioned social hierarchy: apartheid. From 1948 to 1994, the South African government built upon and strengthened an existing race- and privilege-based social hierarchy created by the Dutch and British colonial administrations. Apartheid laws enforced a strict race-based hierarchy with Whites as the highest status group, Blacks as the lowest status group, and groups like Coloureds (people of mixed racial heritage) and Indians in between (Finchilescu & Tredoux, 2010). Even societies without de jure hierarchy delineations often feature de facto groupbased hierarchies (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). Most children are born into and develop in societies with legally enforced or culturally implied group-based hierarchies. The present article investigates whether or not children in South Africa are sensitive to group-based social hierarchies in their society. We focus in particular on children’s perceptions of wealth, one observable aspect of social status. Determining whether children represent differences between the relative status of different racial groups is important, given evidence that people tend to believe that the way things are is the way they ought to be (e.g., Jost & Banaji, 1994; Kahneman, Knetsch, & Thaler, 1991; Lerner, 1980; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). Observing status hierarchies in their society may lead children to see higher status racial groups as more deserving of their status; even more insidiously, children may set their own aspirations according to their perception of their group’s status in society. We focus on children in South Africa, a country with a long history of race-based status differences, including wealth disparities that persist to the present day.

Inequality of opportunity in earnings and consumption expenditure: the case of indian men

Abstract: The paper associates inequality of opportunities with outcome differences that can be accounted by predetermined circumstances which lie beyond the control of an individual, such as parental education, parental occupation, caste, religion, and place of birth. The non-parametric estimates using parental education as a measure of circumstances reveal that the opportunity share of earnings inequality in 2004–05 was 11–19 percent for urban India and 5–8 percent for rural India. The same figures for consumption expenditure inequality are 10–19 percent for urban India and 5–9 percent for rural India. The overall opportunity share estimates (parametric) of earnings inequality due to circumstances, including caste, religion, region, parental education, and parental occupation, vary from 18 to 26 percent for urban India, and from 16 to 21 percent for rural India. The overall opportunity share estimates for consumption expenditure inequality are close to the earnings inequality figures for both urban and rural areas. The analysis further finds evidence that the parental education specific opportunity share of overall earnings (and consumption expenditure) inequality is largest in urban India, but caste and geographical region also play an equally important role when rural India is considered.

Financial literacy, information flows, and caste affiliation: Empirical evidence from India.

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates the relevance of social interaction and caste affiliation for individual awareness of financial instruments and investment behavior of households in India. The results of our empirical analysis, which is based on a large scale survey on saving patterns of Indians, suggest a positive relationship between financial literacy and social interaction. However, especially backward caste people living in regions with a large fraction of backward castes have a lower probability of being aware of various financial instruments. In contrast, we find only weak empirical evidence for a direct effect of caste affiliation and social interaction on investment behavior.

India Today: Economy, Politics and Society

Abstract: List of Figures and Tables vii Abbreviations ix Preface and Acknowledgements xiii 1 Making Sense of India Today 1 Part I: Economy 2 When and Why Did India Take Off? 23 3 How Have the Poor Fared (and Others Too)? 47 4 Why Hasn t Economic Growth Delivered More for Indian Workers? 80 5 Is the Indian State Delivering on Promises of 'Inclusive Growth' and Social Justice? 100 Part II: Politics 6 How Did a 'Weak' State Promote Audacious Reform? 121 7 Has India's Democracy Been a Success? 140 8 Is Government in India Becoming More Responsive? 158 9 Has the Rise of Hindu Nationalism Halted? 177 10 Rural Dislocations:Why Has Maoism Become Such a Force in India? 197 Part III: Society 11 Does India Have a Civil Society? 221 12 Does Caste Still Matter in India? 239 13 How Much Have Things Changed for Indian Women? 258 14 Can India Benefi t From Its Demographic Dividend? 286 15 Afterword: India Today, and India in the World 302 Glossary 307 Bibliography 309 Index 361

Consumption and social identity: Evidence from India

Abstract: We examine spending on consumption items which have signaling value in social interactions across groups with distinctive social identities in India, where social identities are defined by caste and religious affiliations. Using nationally representative micro data on household consumption expenditures, we find that disadvantaged caste groups such as Other Backward Castes spend 8 percent more on visible consumption than Brahmin and High Caste groups while social groups such as Muslims spend 14 percent less, after controlling for differences in permanent income, household assets and household demographic composition. The differences across social groups are significant and robust and these differences persist within different sub populations. We find that the higher spending of OBC households on visible consumption is diverted from education spending, while Muslim households divert spending from visible consumption and education towards greater food spending. Additionally, we find that these consumption patterns can be partly explained as a result of the status signaling nature of the consumption items. We also discuss alternative sources of differences in consumption patterns across groups which stem from religious observance.

Bound Lives: Africans, Indians, and the Making of Race in Colonial Peru

Abstract: Bound Lives chronicles the lived experience of race relations in northern coastal Peru during the colonial era. Rachel Sarah O Toole examines the construction of a casta (caste) system under the Spanish government, and how this system was negotiated and employed by Andeans and Africans. Royal and viceregal authorities defined legal identities of Indian and Black to separate the two groups and commit each to specific trades and labor. Although they were legally divided, Andeans and Africans freely interacted and depended on each other in their daily lives. Thus, the caste system was defined at both the top and bottom of society. Within each caste, there were myriad subcategories that also determined one s standing. The imperial legal system also strictly delineated civil rights. Andeans were afforded greater protections as a threatened native population. Despite this, with the crown s approval during the rise of the sugar trade, Andeans were driven from their communal property and conscripted into a forced labor program. They soon rebelled, migrating away from the plantations to the highlands. Andeans worked as artisans, muleteers, and laborers for hire, and used their legal status as Indians to gain political representation. As slaves, Africans were subject to the judgments of local authorities, which nearly always sided with the slaveholder. Africans soon articulated a rhetoric of valuation, to protect themselves in disputes with their captors and in slave trading negotiations. To combat the ongoing diaspora from Africa, slaves developed strong kinship ties and offered communal support to the newly arrived. Bound Lives offers an entirely new perspective on racial identities in colonial Peru. It highlights the tenuous interactions of an imperial power, indigenous group, and enslaved population, and shows how each moved to establish its own power base and modify the existing system to its advantage, while also shaping the nature of colonialism itself."

Marriage, Love, Caste and Kinship Support: Lived Experiences of the Urban Poor in India

Abstract: This book makes use of interesting case studies and photographs to describe everyday life in a squatter settlement in Delhi. The book helps to understand the marital experiences of these people most of whom belong to the Scheduled Caste and live in one identified geographical space. The author describes the shifts within their marriages, remarriages and other kinds of unions and their striking diversities, which have been described with care. Shalini Grover also examines the close ties of married women with their mothers and natal families. An important contribution of the book lies in the unfolding of the role of women-led informal courts, Mahila Panchayats and their influence in conflict resolution. This takes place in a distinctly different mode of community-based arbitration against the backdrop of mainstream legal structures and male-dominated caste associations. The book will be of interest to students of sociology and social anthropology, gender studies, development studies, law and psychology. Activists and family counsellors will also find the book useful.

Social Identity and Educational Attainment: The Role of Caste and Religion in Explaining Differences between Children in India

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to gauge the size of the educational gap between children, aged 8-11 years, belonging to the different social groups in India. It is well established that educational attainments vary considerably between India's caste and religious groups with Muslims, Dalits (the Scheduled Castes), Adivasis (the Scheduled Tribes), and the ‘Other Backward Classes’ (the OBC) being the most backward. Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey of 2005 - which tested over 12,300 children, aged 8-11, for their ability to read, write, and do arithmetic at different levels of competence - this study examines inequalities within social groups in the test scores of children to argue that inter-group comparisons of educational attainment should take into account not just the mean level of achievement of the children in a group but, also, the degree of inequality in the distribution of achievements between children in the group. The paper then proceeds to enquire why different children have different levels of educational achievement. The central conclusion is that, after controlling for a number of parental, household and school-related factors, children from all the different social groups, when compared to Brahmin children, were disadvantaged, in some or all of the three competencies of reading, arithmetic, and writing. However, this disadvantage was greatest for Muslim, Dalit, and Adivasi children. These children were disadvantaged with respect to all three competencies and their disadvantage embraced failure as well as success. Using a decomposition analysis, the paper quantifies the “structural advantage” that Brahmin and High Caste children enjoyed over their Dalit and Muslim counterparts.

Waiting for change: youth, caste and politics in India

Abstract: This paper examines waiting, caste and politics through reference to the cultural and political practices of educated unemployed young men in India. We show through ethnographic fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh how a shared sense of young male limbo sometimes erodes caste divides. While waiting in poorly provisioned north Indian universities, young men develop novel cultures that bridge caste, class and religion. They also collaborate across class, caste and religious boundaries in protests against the state and university bureaucracies. At the same time, some students have responded to a sense of ‘waiting’ by developing collusive relationships with local government and university bureaucrats. Waiting emerges not as a passive condition but as a seed-bed for new cultural and political forms.

Ethnicity, Caste and Religion: Implications for Poverty Outcomes

Abstract: In the factors that affect income and poverty outcomes, there are some features unique to India. Caste, ethnicity, religion and even regional origins all influence income outcomes. Therefore while examining individual poverty, the influence of social belongings on the level and the nature of access to economic endowments and the individual’s ability to utilise them freely are of considerable significance. This paper examines to what extent some ethnic,religious and caste minorities suffer from chronic impoverishment, especially in rural India. What economic endowments are owned by whom and by how much? What is the level of education and occupational skill across different social groups? The analysis is based on the 61st round (2004-05) of the National Sample Survey Organisation’s Consumption-Expenditure Survey.

Population Differentiation of Southern Indian Male Lineages Correlates With Agricultural Expansions Predating the Caste System

Abstract: Previous studies that pooled Indian populations from a wide variety of geographical locations, have obtained contradictory conclusions about the processes of the establishment of the Varna caste system and its genetic impact on the origins and demographic histories of Indian populations. To further investigate these questions we took advantage that both Y chromosome and caste designation are paternally inherited, and genotyped 1,680 Y chromosomes representing 12 tribal and 19 non-tribal (caste) endogamous populations from the predominantly Dravidian-speaking Tamil Nadu state in the southernmost part of India. Tribes and castes were both characterized by an overwhelming proportion of putatively Indian autochthonous Y-chromosomal haplogroups (H-M69, F-M89, R1a1-M17, L1-M27, R2-M124, and C5-M356; 81% combined) with a shared genetic heritage dating back to the late Pleistocene (10–30 Kya), suggesting that more recent Holocene migrations from western Eurasia contributed <20% of the male lineages. We found strong evidence for genetic structure, associated primarily with the current mode of subsistence. Coalescence analysis suggested that the social stratification was established 4–6 Kya and there was little admixture during the last 3 Kya, implying a minimal genetic impact of the Varna (caste) system from the historically-documented Brahmin migrations into the area. In contrast, the overall Y-chromosomal patterns, the time depth of population diversifications and the period of differentiation were best explained by the emergence of agricultural technology in South Asia. These results highlight the utility of detailed local genetic studies within India, without prior assumptions about the importance of Varna rank status for population grouping, to obtain new insights into the relative influences of past demographic events for the population structure of the whole of modern India.

How Close Does the Apple Fall to the Tree?: Some Evidence on Intergenerational Occupational Mobility from India

Abstract: Using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005, we examine intergenerational occupational mobility in India, an issue on which very few systematic and rigorous studies exist. We group individuals into classes and document patterns of mobility at the rural, urban and all-India levels, and for different caste groups. We find substantial intergenerational persistence, particularly in the case of low-skilled and low-paying occupations, e.g. almost half the children of agricultural labourers end up becoming agricultural labourers. We also document differences across caste groups. Overall, our results suggest considerable inequality of opportunity in India.

Spaces of Discrimination Residential Segregation in Indian Cities

Abstract: Using ward-level data from Census 2001, this paper finds high levels of residential segregation by caste in India’s seven largest metro cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. In each of these cities, residential segregation by caste is more prominent than the level of segregation by socio-economic status. It offers some preliminary explanations for the observed differences in the level of residential segregation by caste across cities and highlights areas for future research.

Genomic view on the peopling of India.

Abstract: India is known for its vast human diversity, consisting of more than four and a half thousand anthropologically well-defined populations. Each population differs in terms of language, culture, physical features and, most importantly, genetic architecture. The size of populations varies from a few hundred to millions. Based on the social structure, Indians are classified into various caste, tribe and religious groups. These social classifications are very rigid and have remained undisturbed by emerging urbanisation and cultural changes. The variable social customs, strict endogamy marriage practices, long-term isolation and evolutionary forces have added immensely to the diversification of the Indian populations. These factors have also led to these populations acquiring a set of Indian-specific genetic variations responsible for various diseases in India. Interestingly, most of these variations are absent outside the Indian subcontinent. Thus, this review is focused on the peopling of India, the caste system, marriage practice and the resulting health and forensic implications.

The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India

Abstract: The Saint in the Banyan Tree is a nuanced and historically persuasive exploration of Christianity’s remarkable trajectory as a social and cultural force in southern India. Starting in the seventeenth century, when the religion was integrated into Tamil institutions of caste and popular religiosity, this study moves into the twentieth century, when Christianity became an unexpected source of radical transformation for the country’s ‘untouchables’ (dalits). Mosse shows how caste was central to the way in which categories of ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ were formed and negotiated in missionary encounters, and how the social and semiotic possibilities of Christianity lead to a new politic of equal rights in South India. Skillfully combining archival research with anthropological fieldwork, this book examines the full cultural impact of Christianity on Indian religious, social and political life. Connecting historical ethnography to the preoccupations of priests and Jesuit social activists, Mosse throws new light on the contemporary nature of caste, conversion, religious synthesis, secularization, dalit politics, the inherent tensions of religious pluralism, and the struggle for recognition among subordinated people.

Caste or Colony?: Indianizing Race in the United States

Abstract: Since the 1830s thinkers in both the United States and India have sought to establish analogies between their respective countries. Although many have felt the US black experience to have obvious parallels in India, there has been a fundamental disagreement about whether being black is comparable to being colonized or to being untouchable. By examining these two competing visions, this essay introduces new topics to the study of black internationalism, including the caste school of race relations, B. R. Ambedkar's anti-caste movement, and the changing significance of India for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Corporate Boards in India Blocked by Caste

Abstract: An examination of the caste diversity of Indian corporate boards of a thousand top Indian companies – accounting for four-fi fths of market capitalisation of all companies listed in the major stock indices in India – measured by the Blau index shows that their median score for 2010 is zero, indicating that there is no diversity at all. Indian corporate boards continue to remain “old boys clubs” based on caste affi liation rather than on other considerations (like merit or experience). E conomic disparities between various ethnic and racial groups brought the issue under the spotlight globally. In India, this debate is centred on the issue of how caste-based systems foster social discrimination and economic inequality (Srinivas 1962; Beteille 1992, 2012). Caste is an important determinant of social, economic, corporate and political power in contemporary India. There are a number of studies on caste differentials in consumption, income, education, occupation and development indices (Deshpande 2011; Siddique 2011; Thorat and Newman 2007, 2010; Munshi

Untouchable Fictions: Literary Realism and the Crisis of Caste

Abstract: Untouchable Fictions considers the crisis of literary realism- progressive, rural, regionalist, experimental- in order to derive a literary genealogy for the recent explosion of Dalit ("untouchable" caste) fiction Drawing on a wide array of fiction from Premchand and Renu in Hindi to Mulk Raj Anand and VS Naipaul in English, Gajarawala illuminates the dark side of realist complicity: a hidden aesthetics and politics of caste How does caste color the novel? What are its formal tendencies? What generic constraints does it produce? Untouchable Fictions juxtaposes the Dalit text, and its radical critique, with a history of progressive literary movements in South Asia Gajarawala reads Dalit writing dialectically, doing justice to its unique and groundbreaking literary interventions while also demanding that it be read as an integral moment in the literary genealogy of the 20th and 21st century How might we trace the origins of the rise of Dalit fiction in the critical "realism" of the Progressive Writers Association of the 1930s, or in the gaps laid bare by the peasant novel of the 1950s? And what kind of dialogue does "untouchable caste" writing with its more famous counterpart: the Anglophone fiction of the last few decades? Under Gajarawala's lens the aesthetic languages of Hindi and English are intertwined and caste becomes a central category of literary analysis This book, grounded in the fields of postcolonial theory, South Asian literatures, and cultural studies will be important for all readers interested in the problematic relations between aesthetics and politics, between social movements and cultural production Engaged as it is with contemporary theories of realism and the problem of aesthetics, it would also be of interest to students of English, comparative literature, contemporary Third World literature, and historians of literary movements More specifically, as a text that considers recent developments in genre theory and South Asian fiction, it would interest scholars of the Indian and Indian Anglophone novel Finally, this project, as an interrogation of caste politics in the cultural sphere, is an important contribution to the burgeoning field of Dalit studies

Resurrecting Seva (Social Service): Dalit and Low-caste Women Party Activists as Producers and Consumers of Political Culture and Practice in Urban North India

Abstract: This article examines Dalit (ex-untouchable) and low-caste women activists within the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Underrepresented in Indian political history, these women frequently portray political activities as seva or social service, thus recalling upper caste/class notions of self-sacrifice and philanthropy of colonial memory. Seva, however, finds no place within the history of Dalit politics articulated through a language of rights. This article argues there exists an interlocking relation between the resurgence of seva and the process of upward class mobility that was a precondition to both the creation of the BSP and women's political participation within it. Further, it suggests that women activists appropriate and re-enact gender idioms and models coined in colonial India, refashioning them for the exigencies of contemporary politics. In turn, this points to the presence of shared structures of gendered political agency cutting across time, class, and caste among Dalit/low-caste communities usually considered as “other.” In addition, this ethnographic focus on agency challenges the usual trope of Dalit/low-caste women as “victims,” offering a critique of the burgeoning field of Dalit studies.

The Varieties of Democracy

Abstract: Professor Beteille was formerly the Chair of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and was made National Research Professor in 2006 and Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1992. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. His research and writings have focused on social inequality, especially the relationship between caste, class, and power, and also explored the theme of inequality in agrarian social structures arising from the ownership, control, and use of land. His later writings have focused on institutions and processes.

Caste, sexuality and labour: The troubled connection

Abstract: This article examines the troubled connection between feminist research and activism. As a member of the autonomous feminist collective Forum Against Oppression of Women, in Mumbai, the author draws on her participation in the ongoing discussions and dialogue, both within the group and with other organizations, and uses the case of feminist thinking on caste and sexual labour to discuss the challenges and prospects of linking research with practice. The article begins by briefly outlining the relationship between caste, labour and sexuality, drawing particularly on Dalit feminists’ reflections of the lived experience of caste. It highlights the dialogues between multiple women including those involved in different forms of sexual labour. The article seeks to capture the challenges of linking research and practice as feminists attempt to generate dialogue through multiple viewpoints to guide feminist understanding and actions. This endeavour is still ongoing and therefore a process.

The Caste-Class Association in India: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract: This paper empirically analyzes the association between caste and class in India. I find a tentative congruence between castes and classes at the extremes of the caste system and a slight weakening in this association over time. Although Scheduled Castes have low upward mobility, higher castes are not entirely protected from downward mobility.

‘Ridiculed for Not Having Anything’: Children’s Views on Poverty and Inequality in Rural India

Abstract: This chapter reports on research carried out with boys and girls, aged 12 to 15, participating in Young Lives in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It focuses on young people’s descriptions, explanations, and experiences of poverty and inequality in two contrasting rural communities and highlights implications for research, policy and practice, and rights. Young people growing up in poor communities are generally alert to inequalities and injustices, and to their own disadvantaged situations (see for example, Chapter 11 by Gillian Mann; Bissell 2009; Camfield 2010; or Witter 2002). The research presented here indicates that children perceive material inequalities as indicative of wider differences in power and position, of which they are very much a part. Children’s concerns, explanations, and experiences of the effects of poverty may differ from those of adults, and children often have distinct roles and responsibilities within their families for managing hardship and risk related to household poverty (for example, caring for siblings, carrying out essential household chores, working for pay, and going to school). There may also be important differences in patterns of children’s awareness and under-standing of inequality, reflecting their varied positioning in the social hierarchy and the range of social expectations they manage (related, for example, to age, gender, class, and ethnicity, or caste).

The Legacy of Racial Caste An Exploratory Ethnography

Abstract: With the racial progress the nation has made over the past half century, including the growth of the black middle class and the election of a black president, many are now prepared to proclaim the United States a postracial society, where egalitarian values most often prevail; race is no longer a significant barrier to power, privilege, and prestige; and racial prejudice is mostly a thing of the past. When observed ethnographically, the lived experience of race relations suggests a different view and conceptual framework. As the legacy of racial caste, the color line persists in social interaction and is evident in racially determined perspectives and local working conceptions that order race relations and contribute to persistent racial inequality. Indeed, the claim of a postracial society is an ideological discourse that denies continuing patterns of race relations.

Is Caste Destiny? Occupational Diversification Among Dalits in Rural India

Abstract: The caste system – a system of elaborately stratified social hierarchy – distinguishes India from most other societies. Among the most distinctive factors of the caste system is the close link between castes and occupations, especially in rural India, with Dalits or Scheduled Castes (SC) clustered in occupations that were the least well paid and most degrading in terms of manual labour. Along with the Scheduled Tribes (STs), the SCs have the highest incidence of poverty in India, with poverty rates that are much higher than the rest of the population. Since independence, the Indian government has enacted affirmative action policies in educational institutions and public sector employment for SCs and STs. In addition, in the more populous states of India, political parties have emerged that are strongly pro-SC in their orientation in the more populous states of India. We use five rounds of all-India employment data from the National Sample Survey quinquennial surveys from 1983 to 2004 to assess whether these political and social changes has led to a weakening of the relationship between low caste status and occupational segregation that has existed historically in India. We find evidence that the occupational structure of the SC households is converging to that of the non-scheduled households. However, we do not find evidence of a similar occupational convergence for ST households.

India and the British Empire

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. State, Power, and Colonialism 3. The Indian Economy and the British Empire 4. Knowledge Formation in Colonial India 5. Colonialism and Social Identities in Flux: Class, Caste, and Religious Community 6. Nationalisms in India 7. Law, Authority, and Colonial Rule 8. Networks of Knowledge: Science and Medicine in Early Colonial India 9. Environment and Ecology under British Rule 10. Material and Visual Culture of British India 11. Literary Modernity in South Asia 12. Gendering of Public and Private Selves in Colonial Times 13. The Desi Diaspora: Politics, Protest, and Nationalism 14. The Political Legacy of Colonialism in South Asia