The Oxford Handbook of Caste

Description

Beginning with the 1990s, the subject of caste has seen a profound increase in interest among scholars. What was until then approached as a fossilized tradition of the ritual-obsessed Hindus refusing to see the progressive spirits of the emerging world and studied as a branch of anthropology, suddenly began to be seen as a complex reality deeply embedded in a range of institutions and social practices, attracting scholars from a wide range of disciplines—sociology, political science, history, literature, and even economics. Underlying this opening of the subject of caste were many factors: epistemic, empirical, and political. Caste is no longer approached through the classical binaries of 'traditional' and 'modern'; the 'East' and the 'West'; or the 'closed' and 'open' systems of stratification. With the growing consolidation of caste-based identities among those ranked lower down in the hierarchy since the 1990s, raising questions of citizenship and dignity, the subject has acquired a new salience. As the emerging research shows, the realities of caste on the ground have always been diverse across regions, often contested and ever changing. This Handbook presents a wide range of essays written by authors representing diverse academic disciplines and perspectives, bringing together the emerging trends in the research, imaginations, and lived realities of caste.

About the authors:

Surinder S. Jodhka is a Professor of Sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Jules Naudet is a CNRS Associate Research Professor at the Center for South Asian Studies, EHESS, Paris, and a CASBS Fellow at Stanford University (2021-2022). 

Table of contents

Acknowledgements
Notes on Editors and Contributors
Introduction—Studying Caste: Conceptual Currents and Emergent Perspectives, Surinder S. Jodhka and Jules Naudet
SECTION I: CONCEPTUAL FRAMES
Editors' Introduction
1:The Idea of Caste through the Ages: Concept, Words, and Things, Roland Lardinois
2:Hierarchy, Martin Fuchs
3:The Jajmani System, Peter Mayer
4:Caste and Capital, Carol Upadhya
5:Caste and Class, Jules Naudet
6:Caste and Kinship, Janaki Abraham
SECTION II: HISTORY, STATE, AND THE SHAPING OF CASTE
Editors' Introduction
7:Caste and Kingship, Harald Tambs- Lyche
8:Transformations of Caste in Colonial India, Dilip Menon
9: Census, Caste Enumeration, and the British Legacy, Leigh Denault
10:Caste Disputes in Colonial India: Conflicts and the Legal Shaping of Caste, Julie Marquet
11:Caste and the Law, Gautam Bhatia
12:Reservations and Affirmative Action, Ashwini Deshpande
13:Backwardness, S. Anandhi and Kalpana Kannabiran
SECTION III: CASTE AND THE RELIGIOUS REALM
Editors' Introduction
14:Hinduism and Caste System, Mathieu Claveyrolas
15:Hindu Sects and Caste in South Asia, Raphaël Voix
16:Sanskritization: The Inheritance of an Ideational Category, George Kunnath
17:Caste and Hindutva, Joel Lee
18:Caste among Muslims in North India and Pakistan, Julien Levesque
SECTION IV: LOCAL POWER AND THE POLITICAL PROCESS
Editors' Introduction
19:The Dominant Caste, Nicolas Martin
20:Caste Associations and the Post-Mandal Politics of Caste, Rajeshwari Deshpande
21:Do Indians Vote Their Caste or Their Jati, or Their Class, or . . .?, Christophe Jaffrelot
22:Caste, Patronage, and Criminalization of Politics, Lucia Michelutti
SECTION V: COMMUNITY PROFILES AND REGIONAL TRAJECTORIES
Editors' Introduction
23:How to Write New Histories of Caste, Ramnarayan Rawat
24:The Brahmins of Urban India, Haripriya Narasimhan
25:Agarwal Banias of Delhi, Ujithra Ponniah
26:Caste Logos: A View from Tamil Nadu, Zoe E. Headley
27:The Invisibility of Caste in Bengal, Sarbani Bandhopadhyay
28:Caste in Punjab, Surinder S. Jodhka
29:Caste, Ethnicity, and the State in Nepal, David N. Gellner
SECTION VI: DALIT LIVES AND PREDICAMENTS OF CHANGE
Editors' Introduction
30:Ambedkar's Legacy, Anand Teltumbde
31:Changing Dynamics of Untouchability, Suryakant Waghmore
32:Dalit Movements in India, Hugo Gorringe and Karthikeyan Damodaran
33:The Mahars and Dalit Movement of Maharashtra, Harish Wankhede
34:Dalit Activism and Transnational Mobilization, Eva-Maria Hardtmann
35:Caste, Race, and Ethnicity, Deepa S. Reddy
36:Caste and Tribe, Jai Prasad
37:Denotified Communities, Kalpana Kannabiran
SECTION VII: EMERGING ENTANGLEMENTS OF CASTE
Editors' Introduction
38:The Economics of Caste, Guilhem Cassan
39:Caste and Merit, Ajantha Subramanian
40:Caste and Mobility, Divya Vaid
41:Caste and Gender, Pushpesh Kumar
42:Caste and the Diaspora, Radha Modi
Name Index
Subject Index