The Making of the Dalit Public in North India

Description

The Making of the Dalit Public in North India is a detailed commentary on politics and political consciousness, participation, and mobilization among the Dalits in northern India. Based on extensive fieldwork at the village level in eastern Uttar Pradesh, it deals with the social and political history of Dalits in the state from 1950 to the present. Using alternative sources—stories and narratives—alive in the oral tradition and ‘collective memory’ of the oppressed and marginalized Dalits, Narayan documents various social upheavals that have taken place in post-Independence India. He also examines the process of politicization of Dalit communities through their internal social struggles and movements, and their emergence as a ‘political public’ in the State-oriented democratic political setting of contemporary India.

Table of contents

List of Figures
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Margin and the Politics: Introduction

1. Conversations, Histories, and Politics
2. Telling Nehru and Aspiring for Freedom
3. History Produces Politics: A Narrative of the Nara–Maveshi Movement in Uttar Pradesh
4. The Politicization of Dalit Women: Jhuria’s Story
5. A Book Also Travels: Circulating Small Booklets in Dalit Poorva
6. Dalit Public and Political Power: Grassroots Pressures on Democracy
7. Popular Sects and Politics : An Exploration of Intersections
8. Hearing Dalit Talk : The Functioning of Electoral Democracy in a village