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This book probes into the marginalized communities of the Indian society through historical and contemporary societal perspectives. It discusses socio-cultural aspects of the experiences of Scheduled Castes, Dalits, Scheduled Tribes/tribal communities, Other Backward Classes, linguistic minorities, religious minorities and the queer/LGBT as sexual minorities.Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach, it looks at all these segments of Indian society through historical and societal perspectives. Divided into three broad sections – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and minorities, this book provides historical perspective backed by the contemporary situation and emerging social changes among these communities. Written in a lucid manner, the book aims to reach and impact readers without having any prior academic exposure to this subject area.This book would be useful to the students, researchers and teachers of sociology, social work, history, economics, political science, and other interdisciplinary courses in social sciences. The book will also be valuable reading for those interested in South Asian studies, especially contemporary Indian society.

This book draws upon nearly seven decades of first-hand experiences from the ground to understand social exclusion, and movements and efforts for social justice in India. The author, a renowned champion of social justice for deprived social classes, delves into the roots of discrimination in Indian society as well as explains why caste discrimination still persists and how it can be effectively countered. The volume: examines the caste system and its socio-economic ramifications from the perspective of Dalits, and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes; explores the nuances of the Gandhi–Ambedkar debate on the status and liberation of Dalits and synthesis of the approaches of Gandhi, Ambedkar, Narayana Guru and Marx in resolving certain key issues; analyses legal, economic, social and cultural frameworks to understand caste system and related concepts such as ‘untouchability', atrocities, reservation, etc. in contemporary India; and provides practical insights into the Constitution-based comprehensive measures required to remedy the consequences of caste system and establish social equality in a holistic manner. The book will interest scholars and researchers of social exclusion and social justice, Dalit, Adivasi and Backward Classes studies, sociology and social anthropology, politics, law and human rights, as well as policy-makers, think tanks and NGOs in the field.

In India as elsewhere, peripheries have frequently been viewed through the eyes of the centre. This book aims at reversing the gaze, presenting the perspectives of low castes, tribes, or other subalterns in a way that amplifies their ability to voice their own concerns. This volume takes a multidimensional perspective, citing political, economic and cultural factors as expressions of the autonomous assertions of these groups. Questioning the exclusive definitions of the Brahmanical, folk and tribal elements, the articles bring together the empowering possibilities enabled by three recent theoretical developments: of anthropologies questioning the fringes of mainstream society in India; critically engaged histories from below, which problematize subaltern identities; and a conceptual emphasis on everyday ethnography as an arena for negotiations and transactions which contest wider networks of power and hegemony.This book will be useful to those in sociology, anthropology, politics, history, study of religions, minority studies, cultural studies and those interested in social development, and issues of marginality, tribes and subaltern identity.

This book unmasks the cultural and gender stereotypes that inform the legal regulation of the migrant. It critiques the postcolonial perspective on how belonging and non-belonging are determined by the sexual, cultural, and familial norms on which law is based as well as the historical backdrop of the colonial encounter, which differentiated overtly between the legitimate and illegitimate subject. The complexities and layering of the migrant's existence are seen, in the book, to be obscured by the apparatus of the law. The author elaborates on how law can both advance and impede the rights of the migrant subject and how legal interventions are constructed around frameworks rooted in the boundaries of difference, protection of the sovereignty of the nation-state, and the myth of the all-embracing liberal subject. This produces the ‘Other'and reinforces essentialised assumptions about gender and cultural difference. The author foregrounds the perspective of the subaltern migrant subject, exposing the deeper issues implicated in the debates over migration and the rights claims of migrants, primarily in the context of women and religious minorities in India.