Untouchable citizens : Dalit movements and democratisation in Tamil Nadu 9788132101994, 8132101995

This book, the fourth in the series Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge, examines the mode of organisation an

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Untouchable citizens : Dalit movements and democratisation in Tamil Nadu
 9788132101994, 8132101995

Table of contents :
Introduction: Untouchability undone? --
Mapping the movement: introducing the Liberation Panthers --
Democracy, demonstrations and disorder: social mobilisation and socio-political change --
Victimisation, violence and valour: the context of Dalit activism in Tamil Nadu --
Costs, coercion and caste: the material context of Dalit protest --
Identity, space and power: the spatial bases and practices of DPI --
Dalit women and Dalit movements: agency, autonomy and activism --
Leaders and leadership: movement organisation and membership debates --
The move to politics: the institutional self-transformation of the Liberation Panthers --
'Voting for ourselves': Dalit politics and the 1999 elections in Tamil Nada --
Conclusion: Critical citizens: the Liberation Panthers and democratisation in India --
Appendix: [a summary of important incidents: a reader's guide].

Citation preview

UNTOUCHABLE CITIZENS

Cultural Subordination and the Daht Challenge Series Editors: Simon R. Charsley and G.K. Karanth Across much of the contemporary world, culturally distinct sections of the national populations that have been the victims of systematic repression and institutionalised maltreatment are acquiring a new consciousness and developing new strategies to contest their disadvantaged condition.

Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge is a series that explores-for Indian and other parts of the world-both the processes of cultural repression and the ways in which they are being overcome.

It explores the different forms that repression has taken in different societies. In some, there has been a denial of recognition, of opportunities (both social and political), and of cultural autonomy. In others, it has been the ascription of a stigmatised status on various bases such as class, gender, age, race, religion and caste. This series examines the assistance which has been attempted through policies of positive discrimination, the strategies pursued by the disadvantaged themselves to transform their situation, and the opportunities and problems of the future of their societies. The coverage of the series is both historical as well as contemporary, and brings together economic, political, social and cultural studies and those that necessarily transcend these distinctions.

Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge will provide an academic perspective to bring about an understanding of the real problems of the contemporary world where an informed analysis is so urgently needed.

Other Titles in this Series Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution (2002) Sudha Pai Dalit Identity and Politics (2001) Ghanshyam Shah (ed.) Challenging Untouchability (1998) Simon R. Charsley and G.K. Karanth (eds)

UNTOUCHABLE CITIZENS Dalit MoveInents and DeInocratisation In TaInil Nadu

Cultural Subordination and the Dalit Challenge, Volmne 4

Hugo Gorringe

SAGE Publications New Delhi IThousand Oal