Caste Dynamics Among the Bengali Hindus
Author: Jyotirmoyee Sarma
Publisher: Calcutta : Firma KLM
Published: 1980
Total Pages: 206
ISBN-13:
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The Tribes and Castes of Bengal
Author: Sir Herbert Hope Risley
Publisher:
Published: 1891
Total Pages: 486
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCultural Constellations, Place-Making and Ethnicity in Eastern India, c. 1850-1927
Author: Swarupa Gupta
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2017-11-01
Total Pages: 422
ISBN-13: 9004349766
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn Cultural Constellations, Place-Making and Ethnicity in Eastern India, c. 1850-1927, Swarupa Gupta outlines a fresh paradigm moving beyond stereotypical representations of eastern India as a site of ethnic fragmentation. The book traces unities by exploring intersections between (1) cultural constellations; (2) place-making and (3) ethnicity. Centralising place-making, it tells the story of how people made places, mediating caste / religious / linguistic contestations. It offers new meanings of ‘region’ in Eastern Indian and global contexts by showing how an interregional arena comprising Bengal, Assam and Orissa was forged. Using historical tracts, novels, poetry and travelogues, the book argues that commonalities in Eastern India were linked to imaginings of Indian nationhood. The analysis contains interpretive strategies for mediating federalist separatisms and fragmentation in contemporary India.
Caste, Culture and Hegemony
Author: Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 2004-08-19
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9780761998495
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIt is widely believed that, because of its exceptional social development, the caste system in colonial Bengal differed considerably from the rest of India. Through a study of the complex interplay between caste, culture and power, this book convincingly demonstrates that Bengali Hindu society preserved the essentials of caste discrimination in colonial times, even while giving the outward appearance of having changed. Using empirical data combined with an impressive array of secondary sources, Dr Bandyopadhyay delineates the manner in which Hindu caste society maintained its cultural hegemony and structural cohesion. This was primarily achieved by frustrating reformist endeavours, by co-opting the challenges of the dalit, and by marginalising dissidence. It was through such a process of constant negotiation in the realm of popular culture, argues the author, that this oppressive social structure and its hierarchical ideology and values have survived. Starting with an examination of the relationship between caste and power, the book examines early cultural encounters between `high' Brahmanical tradition and the more egalitarian `popular' religious cults of the lower castes. It moves on to take a close look at the relationship between caste and gender showing the reasons why the reform movement for widow remarriage failed. It ends with an examination of the Hindu `partition' campaign, which appropriated dalit autonomous politics and made Hinduism the foundation of an emergent Indian national identity. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay breaks with many of the assumptions of two important schools of thought - the Dumontian and the subaltern - and takes instead a more nuanced approach to show how high caste hegemony has been able to perpetuate itself. He thus takes up issues which go to the heart of contemporary problems in India's social and political fabric. This important and original contribution will be widely welcomed by historians, sociologists and political scientists.
Caste, Marginalisation, and Resistance
Author: Kunal Debnath
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2023-11-13
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9004689389
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe identity politics of the householder Naths (Yogis), on the one hand, is one of the oldest and most persistent identity assertions in Bengal and Assam. On the other, for an array of reasons, the identity assertion of the householder Naths of Bengal and Assam has failed to draw academic curiosity so far. Since the late nineteenth century, a segment of the Naths, largely educated and elite, has been crafting their identity as Brahman grounded on their “origin myth”, negotiating with the British colonial administration through different census enumerations, as well as internal social reforms. One of the primary reasons for their current lagging is that the Naths never politicised their identity and demands, and did not mobilise themselves in the democratic political arena.
The Decline of the Caste Question
Author: Dwaipayan Sen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-05-31
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 1108287085
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis revisionist history of caste politics in twentieth-century Bengal argues that the decline of caste-based politics in the region was as much the result of coercion as of consent. It traces this process through the political career of Jogendranath Mandal, the leader of the Dalit movement in eastern India and a prominent figure in the history of India and Pakistan, over the transition of Partition and Independence. Utilising Mandal's private papers, this study reveals both the strength and achievements of his movement for Dalit recognition, as well as the major challenges and constraints he encountered. Departing from analyses that have stressed the role of integration, Dwaipayan Sen demonstrates how a wide range of coercions shaped the eventual defeat of Dalit politics in Bengal. The region's acclaimed 'castelessness' was born of the historical refusal of Mandal's struggle to pose the caste question.
Buildings and Society
Author: Anthony D. King
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2003-10-04
Total Pages: 194
ISBN-13: 1135795282
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBuildings are essentially social and cultural products. They result from social needs and accommodate a variety of functions - economic. social. political. religious. Their size. appearance. location and form result not simply from physical factors such as materials. climate or technology. nor from architects· designs. but from a society's ideas. its forms of economic and social organisation. and the beliefs and values which prevail at any one time. Society produces its buildings and the buildings help to maintain many of its social forms.
The Politics of Caste in West Bengal
Author: Uday Chandra
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-09-25
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 1317414772
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume offers for the first time a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the making and maintenance of a modern caste society in colonial and postcolonial West Bengal in India. Drawing on cutting-edge multidisciplinary scholarship, it explains why caste continues to be neglected in the politics of and scholarship on West Bengal, and how caste relations have permeated the politics of the region until today. The essays presented here dispel the myth that caste does not matter in Bengali society and politics, and make possible meaningful comparisons and contrasts with other regions in South Asia. The work will interest scholars and researchers in sociology, social anthropology, politics, modern Indian history and cultural studies.
Who Were the Shudras?
Author: Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Publisher:
Published: 2024-10-05
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9789360804701
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCaste, Culture and Hegemony
Author: Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 2004-08-19
Total Pages: 254
ISBN-13: 0761998497
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIt is widely believed that, because of its exceptional social development, the caste system in colonial Bengal differed considerably from the rest of India. Through a study of the complex interplay between caste, culture and power, this book convincingly demonstrates that Bengali Hindu society preserved the essentials of caste discrimination in colonial times, even while giving the outward appearance of having changed. Using empirical data combined with an impressive array of secondary sources, Dr Bandyopadhyay delineates the manner in which Hindu caste society maintained its cultural hegemony and structural cohesion. Starting with an examination of the relationship between caste and power, the book examines early cultural encounters between `high` Brahmanical tradition and the more egalitarian `popular` religious cults of the lower castes. It moves on to take a close look at the relationship between caste and gender showing the reasons why the reform movement for widow remarriage failed. It ends with an examination of the Hindu `partition` campaign, which appropriated dalit autonomous politics and made Hinduism the foundation of an emergent Indian national identity. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay breaks with many of the assumptions of two important schools of thoughte"the Dumontian and the subalterne"and takes instead a more nuanced approach to show how high caste hegemony has been able to perpetuate itself. He thus takes up issues which go to the heart of contemporary problems in India`s social and political fabric.
