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Contemporary Voice of Dalit
Number of Followers: 0  
 
  Full-text available via subscription Subscription journal
ISSN (Print) 2455-328X - ISSN (Online) 2456-0502
Published by Sage Publications Homepage  [1176 journals]
  • Editorial

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Debi Chatterjee
      Pages: 7 - 7
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Volume 15, Issue 1, Page 7-7, May 2023.

      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-01T12:12:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231168451
      Issue No: Vol. 15, No. 1 (2023)
       
  • Book review: Asit Biswas and Shubh Brat Sarkar (Eds.), Dalit Poems, Songs
           and Dialogues from Bengal in English Translation

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      Authors: Bidisha Pal
      Pages: 134 - 136
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Volume 15, Issue 1, Page 134-136, May 2023.
      Asit Biswas and Shubh Brat Sarkar (Eds.), Dalit Poems, Songs and Dialogues from Bengal in English Translation (Kolkata: Ababil Books, 2019), 266 pp., ₹495, ISBN: 978-8-1939-3923-9 (Paperback).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-01T12:12:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221148914
      Issue No: Vol. 15, No. 1 (2023)
       
  • Book review: Juned Shaikh, Outcaste Bombay: City Making and the Politics
           of the Poor

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      Authors: P. G. Jogdand
      Pages: 136 - 137
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Volume 15, Issue 1, Page 136-137, May 2023.
      Juned Shaikh, Outcaste Bombay: City Making and the Politics of the Poor. Orient BlackSwan Private Ltd, 2021, 227 pp., ₹995.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-01T12:12:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231169621
      Issue No: Vol. 15, No. 1 (2023)
       
  • How did COVID-19 Pandemic Affect the Rural (Tribal) Livelihoods' A Case
           Study of Khaprakhol Block

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      Authors: Baijayanti Rout
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The COVID-19 epidemic has devastated human existence over the planet, shocking people with the new sickness and almost bringing countries to their knees. It was a never-before-seen scene of limited human movements and changing behaviours. Although the good consequences benefit the environment and wild animals by reducing pollution, the adverse effects have a direct impact on the economic status of human beings. The situation was new to all living beings, and difficulties were generated globally, irrespective of rural and urban. The study attempts to discover the key problems of the rural people faced during the lockdown and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their livelihoods. This article also aims to figure out the difficulties faced by rural living for their livelihood. This study is based on primary data and the data collected from the rural living of Balangir (khaprakhol block) district of Odisha. The data collection method was based on random sampling, and a total number of 100 rural living households were interviewed. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics and suitable statistical tools. The outcome of this study is that rural living has faced movement difficulties and trouble for getting work. It has been witnessed that they could not get the marketing facilities to sell their agricultural products. Moreover, rural households were paid higher prices for daily stuff in their locality or village shops. As a result, it was a terrible period for them since employment and money resources made it possible to cope with the increased market price of everyday items. Though the study area is near the forest area and situated in the foothill of Gandhamardan hill, most of the local people depend on forest products as their source of income. The collection of forest products is also affected badly during the collection season by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Regardless of the movement concerns, they were unable to work. Due to employment loss, the disturbance altered the dietary and nutrition profile of rural residents. At the same time, they claimed that MGNREGS work was ongoing but that it was not preferable to work owing to late payment to the bank account. Finally, this article focuses on the rural residents’ livelihoods, which were negatively impacted by the lockdown, and job loss was a constraint for them during the lockdown.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-17T06:22:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221150560
       
  • Does Economic Basis of Reservation Weaken Constitutionalism in India'

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      Authors: Venkatanarayanan Sethuraman
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Reservations and affirmative action are significant Constitutional intervention in India to compensate the historical injustices based on discriminatory caste system. The independent India saw various challenges to these policies and has further strengthened the foundations of them. But the recent judgement in upholding the reservation for economically weaker sections has challenged some of the founding principles of social justice in India, by moving away from compensatory discrimination basis of our reservation policy. This article explains the foundations of reservations in India and questions the Constitutional validity of the recent judgement in upholding reservation based solely on economic criteria.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-17T06:09:11Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231168546
       
  • An Answer to Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak' A Study of Marginalized
           Women’s Autobiographies

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      Authors: Muhammad Imran, Shouket Ahmad Tilwani, Morve Roshan K.
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article discusses marginalized women’s resistance to patriarchal norms in a male-dominated Afghan society. This study analyses the literary modes of selected autobiographies—Fawzia Koofi’s The Favored Daughter, Sarina Sarwari’s Sokhan-i Del-i Yek Zan (Words from the Heart of a Woman) and Hadisa Osmani’s Pursuing My Dreams as an Afghan Woman—with Spivak’s essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak'’ In this article, Spivak’s idea of subaltern has been deconstructed and needs to be re-read and understood in the context of Afghan women’s autobiographies. In answer to Spivak, yes, the subaltern can speak to resist patriarchal voices, speak against women’s subjugated situation and talk about women’s emancipation. This can be demonstrated by examining Afghan women’s autobiographies. Afghan women’s autobiographies focus on women’s courage and emancipation to resist social victimization and verbal and physical violence. It further states that numerous contemporary Afghan women have highlighted women’s issues due to the absence of a strong feminist voice. Therefore, it demonstrates Afghan women’s gradual awakening, as well as their resolution to resist victimization, subjugation, oppression and violence in a patriarchal and culturally complex male-dominant society. Hence, the present study appraises Afghan women’s struggle to give them recognition and a contribution to the literature, giving a positive light to other women. These women are promoting awareness and giving a feminist message as a women’s strong voice is necessary for a progressive and gender-equality-based society. Afghan women’s writing testifies to finding an answer to Spivak’s question, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak'’
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-13T04:18:24Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231166999
       
  • Accessibility of Water (H2O) and Untouchability in India

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      Authors: Kunal Sinha
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Caste has always played an imperative role in shaping and reshaping the trajectories of any development in India. Scheduled Castes, or the lower castes, signify the categories devoid of resources generally confined to the upper caste in the social structure of Indian society. Due to the role of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in drafting the Indian Constitution, some rights and safeguards were granted to the lower castes, which comprise 16.6% of the total Indian population. From the 2001 census to 2011, the Scheduled Castes population increased by 20.8% (Express News Service, 2013). Through their policies, science, technology and innovation have often brought societal transformation by generating various avenues. The opportunity has remarkably influenced people’s habits and way of life. The hate and hate crime associated with the caste identity are practised explicitly and implicitly depending upon the circumstances. The so-called lower caste people are aware of the situation and cannot do anything to change the mindset of the so-called upper caste people.The paper is not suggestive but engages primarily by referring to the context of discrimination meted out to the Scheduled Castes people for accessibility of water (H2O-two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen). The untouchables, or the untouchability associated with them, have been subjected to and made to amalgamate with cultural, social and political status and interaction. Lower caste people are humiliated and killed for touching, entering temples, drawing water (H2O) from upper caste people’s wells, or, for that matter, lower caste children being segregated from other children in the school for the Mid-Day Meals have become so functional and way of life that it does not allow the society to come together and address barbaric mindsets and practices. The paper is based on secondary sources.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-11T12:53:49Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221147450
       
  • Education, Social Exclusion and Inclusive Framework: A Perspective from
           Dalit Women

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      Authors: Jyoti, Hawaldar Bharti
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The modest attempt of this article is to understand the social exclusion of women in general and Dalit women in particular. This article intends to argue that education is a key instrument for the development of Dalit women to get liberation from the oppressive structures of Hindu caste-patriarchy. Education ultimately ensures the re-establishment of a new social order based on inclusive values. As it is noted that women are one of the largest socially segregated groups in the world. Among them, Dalit women are most segregated and excluded from all the public and private spheres. It is found that Dalit women in India are placed at the bottom of society due to unjust social order. They are segregated and excluded based on their caste, class and gender identity. Every day, approximately four Dalit women and girls are being gang-raped and brutally murdered. It can be argued that Dalit women as an identity but also their issues and concerns are segregated and excluded. This article explores the mechanisms of segregation and exclusion of Dalit women’s identity and their issues. Along with this, the article traces the role of education in the social exclusion and emancipation of Dalit women. Further, this article explores the kind of perspective and framework that Dalit women need to overcome their historical exclusion and marginalization.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-07T11:42:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221148931
       
  • Revisiting Multiculturalism in Ambedkar’s Thought: A Theoretical
           Perspective

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      Authors: Artatrana Gochhayat
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) was not only the messiah of the downtrodden people in India but was also the champion of minority rights, women’s rights, farmer’s and labourer’s rights. He was an individualist as well as a communitarian. He was a modernist, rationalist and moralist. His philosophy covers a wide range of ideas including justice, liberty, equality, democracy, minority rights, women’s rights, group representation, social exclusion and inclusion, majority–minority conflicts, cultural and linguistic diversity and identity and recognition which offer a non-western experience of the early part of twentieth century to the present-day literature on multiculturalism. But his ideas have paid little scholarly attention both in western and Indian scholarships. The existing scholarships on B. R. Ambedkar largely highlight on his socio-economic, cultural, religious, political and constitutional ideas. But his multicultural ideas are hardly explored in academic discourses. This article thus attempts first to highlight on some leading theorists of multiculturalism and their views and then discusses Ambedkar’s multicultural ideas. The article, however, restricts itself to some selected theorists of multiculturalism for deliberation only with an aim to compare them with Ambedkar’s writings.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-05-01T08:48:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231157602
       
  • Dismantling Caste and Gender Hierarchy: Female-Dalit Alliance in Arundhati
           

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      Authors: Mohosin Mandal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The unique feature of the Indian patriarchal social structure is the existence of caste hierarchy in it, which is an alien concept for Western feminist theorists. Arundhati Roy and Meena Kandasamy in their novels ‘The God of Small Things and The Gypsy Goddess’ portray the caste and gender pyramid vividly, and their protagonists pose threat to this structure and show the way out. Caste classification utterly refutes the subjectivity of a person. His rank and his professions are decided by his birth, not by his skills. The article traces the origin of caste hierarchy established in the society and its functioning. It presents the idea that gender and caste hierarchies are interlinked, and in both these structures, the concept of purity is a pertinent theme. Myths, religious scriptures, laws of the society, and value systems function together to assert caste and sexual dominion. The research article raises the issue that a girl’s education and her aspiration to pursue an academic career have no significance to the male chauvinistic society. Education is also controlled by the larger institution of patriarchy. Like other institutions, it frames the psyche of women in favour of patriarchy. In our society, the way marriage has been glorified, with the same stature divorce has been scandalized. The work presents gender discrimination in the workspace and inheritance policy. In the end, the article proposes the way out of the patriarchy and casteism, which is ‘denial’. If women and lower caste men refuse to be part of this power structure, the whole system would collapse like a castle of cards.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-04-23T01:20:55Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221149302
       
  • Book review: Manju Bala, Dalit Kotha: The Subaltern Voice in a Bengali
           Woman’s Narratives

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      Authors: Nurul Islam
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Manju Bala, Dalit Kotha: The Subaltern Voice in a Bengali Woman’s Narratives.
      Authors Press, 2022, 168 pp., ₹995 (paperback). ISBN: 978-93-5529-370-1.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-04-23T01:19:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221150739
       
  • Centring the Adivasi Literature: Becoming and Being

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      Authors: Mohan Dharavath
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article looks at four instances of Adivasi (indigenous) writing in India. The texts have been selected to centre the various social and political expressions of the Adivasi subjectivity. What is of significance for this article is the complex modes of negotiation between the Adivasi subject and the elements that constitute modernity and development. It would appear that on the one hand, modernity widens the gap between the Adivasi and their social and cultural terrain. On the other hand, the structural discrimination internal to modernity makes it ever evasive towards the Adivasi. This article looks at the specific ways in which each text narrates the composite relationship with the modern. At the same time, this research shapes a conversation between the four writings, often complementing as well as challenging how each makes sense of their place in contemporary society and culture, and defines the unifying elements of the Adivasi experience in India.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-04-23T01:17:54Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221150562
       
  • Subversion of Casteism in Sajitha Madathil’s Kali Natakam: A Dalit
           Feminist Study

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      Authors: Sinu James
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The feminist play Kali Natakam by Sajitha Madathil explores the injustices encountered by women in a ‘progressive society’ through Mudiyettu, a ritual dance performed in Kali Temples in Central Kerala. But is gender inequality the only visible problem in the play' Do mainstream feminist studies overshadow the issue of caste discrimination' Madathil’s play, Kali Natakam, is studied using the framework of Dalit feminism to understand the triple oppression Dalit women experience based on their caste, gender and race differences. Through an amalgamation of the myth of Kali and Darika, and a portrayal of contemporary society, the play complicates the notion of gender and caste discrimination. This article uses the concept of ‘intersectionality,’ introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, to understand the play in the dimensions of gender, caste and race. The basis of Dalit feminism is the testimonies given by Dalit women revealing how their everyday lives differed from those of non-Dalit women. First-person narratives lead in building the canvas of feminist thought in connection with caste identity. And how monopolizing gender by sideling race and caste differences ends in shunning some of the significant concerns and problems of women of different communities, especially Dalits. Considering the gender and caste element, a Dalit feminist analysis becomes the most appropriate way to study the play instead of doing separate studies. Recognizing the intersectionality in the play leads to comprehending the complexities of discrimination operating at multiple levels.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-04-13T07:27:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231163713
       
  • What Ails Dalit Movement: Lessons Learnt from Farmer Movement

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      Authors: Rajeev Kumar Singh, Akshat Pushpam, Kiran
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The demand for equality and a ‘better’ share is always there for any ‘authoritative allocation of values’ and India is no exception. Farmers and Dalit movements present such demands with an aim to seek transformation in the existing power structure for better in political, social and economic spaces. However, one seems to be more organized and successful despite the existence of a multi-layered class structure, while the other remained fragmented and sporadic. It is, therefore, very pertinent to analyse why a considerable chunk of the citizenry is not able to get their due share and what ails their collective bargaining capacity. The present article is an attempt to draw certain commonalities between the ‘Farmer’ and ‘Dalit’ movements in India and identify the gaps—that the Dalit movement can fill by taking a cue from the farmer movement. Also, it attempts to analyse how with time all the farmers’ organizations collectively mobilized together on the pan-India level on a single platform to bargain for their common interest but why such consciousness is not being developed among Dalits even after 75 years of independence.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-04-01T12:41:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231157589
       
  • Book review: Ishita Mehrotra, Political Economy of Class, Caste and
           Gender: A Study of Rural Dalit Labourers in India

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      Authors: Anmol Mukhia
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Ishita Mehrotra, Political Economy of Class, Caste and Gender: A Study of Rural Dalit Labourers in India. Routledge India, 2022, ix + 213 pp., ₹1,295. ISBN: 978-1032425627.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-03-26T04:05:07Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221146615
       
  • ‘Can Subaltern Speak'’: Discourse Without Considering Caste an
           Exploitative Institution

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      Authors: Nitin Dhaktode
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Gramsci’s idea of Subaltern was applied by Indian subaltern study groups to analyse the struggle of the marginalized. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak raises the question of whether subalterns can speak considering their position in society. In contradictory, the social reform movement suggest they can speak about building their capabilities. The social reformers, such as Mahtma Phule, Chatarati Shahu Maharaj and Dr Ambedkar fought against caste and gender-based discrimination giving importance to empowering the marginalized through various ways and means. Education was considered the most effective tool to create consciousness about suffering and pain. The idea of justice is all about the pain and pleasure that once pain gives pleasure to the oppressor which was identified by these social reformers who worked to ensure justice by challenging the oppressive system. However, Spivak misses this perspective in the debates. Her arguments focus on gender, from a class perspective and consciously ignore the caste angel. The question she raises leads to a discussion on the basic idea of subaltern and marginalized groups. This article presents a critical discussion on the idea of ‘subaltern’ and its arguments.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-03-17T06:35:21Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221145597
       
  • Brahminic Ethic and the Spirit of Spiritual Fascism

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      Authors: Ram Shepherd Bheenaveni
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-03-12T10:26:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221146424
       
  • Games, Mimesis and the Environmental-Imagination: Childhood in Select
           Dalit Autobiographies

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      Authors: Kuruvella Babu Shankar Rao
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The theme of childhood remains an integral part of any life-writing narratives and, when it comes to Dalit autobiographies it is no exception. Strikingly, researchers on Dalit autobiographies have focused mostly on the ‘darker-side’ of the childhood by revealing only the socio-economic deprivations (food, clothes and shelter), plight, and the mental trauma and physical abuse, humiliation, and pain of the Dalit children, often overlooking the diversifying aspects of Dalit childhood. Though caste system pushes Dalit children to live in isolated ghettos, they still create their own imaginary world within the confines of their Dalit inhabitations by playing games with things available at hand, by role-playing some characters seen in their environs, by celebrating traditional festivals, and by listening to the elders’ stories! The article, therefore, attempts to examine how the playful activities of Dalit children, as represented in the autobiographies, embody an ecological imagination of interconnectedness. By inscribing their lived experience of subjugation in nature, Dalit children not only share a relationship of common oppression with the environment, but such an entanglement sheds new insights on the human–non-human relationship. I have chosen four Dalit autobiographies to exemplify the fact that through their games and play Dalit-children nurture an ‘intra-active’ communication between humans and the non-human environment which in turn makes ‘multispecies liveability possible’. The article draws insights from eco-criticism to reflect on the embodied experience of Dalit childhood.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-03-01T08:36:16Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221142933
       
  • Articulating Dalit Autobiographical Narratives in Social Work Education:
           Ideological Imperatives for Anti-Caste and Ubuntu Practice

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      Authors: Sudhir Maske
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit and subaltern literature have gained colossal space in the global academic community. This literature is prominently studied, analyzed and used in literary, cultural or linguistic studies in national and international universities. The use of literary texts such as autobiographical narratives in social work teaching, research and practice is a less researched area. In this article, the author has highlighted the importance of Dalit autobiographies and how they could be used as an indigenous knowledge source in social work teaching and practice to strengthen anti-caste/anti-oppressive perspectives among social work educators, students and practitioners. This emancipatory framework could also help to address the structural as well as micro-macro level issues to ensure the realization of social justice and human rights as a foundation and core principles of the social work profession.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-03-01T08:35:17Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X231160598
       
  • Inequality in Healthcare Access at the Intersection of Caste and Gender

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      Authors: Shakeel Ahmed, Sandhya Mahapatro
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Health equity is of particular concern in the Indian context in the light of widening economic inequality and healthcare reforms which have wider ramifications on healthcare access. Despite various programs and interventions, a wide gap in health condition is observed in society among different castes, groups and income-classes. In this article, the inequality in healthcare access is studied at the cross-section of gender (man and women) and social groups—Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (SC-ST), Other backward classes (OBC) and Others—and an attempt has been made to explore how much the women from SC-ST community are deprived of healthcare access in comparison to other gender-group intersections. To proceed with analysis, data on ‘National Sample Survey (NSS), 75th Round (2017–2018) on Health Consumptions’ are taken. Analyses are carried on in SPSS Ver.18 and Stata-16. Regression Analysis shows that women from SC-ST are 1.37 times more likely to non-access to healthcare services than men from the general category. Further, to measure the intensity of inequality in healthcare access, Wagstaff’s Concentration Index (CI) is calculated at –0.195 that shows income-related inequality highly persists among the poor. At last, the decomposition analysis of CI reveals that gender, income and social groups are some of the major contributory factors to CI, that is, health inequality. The results indicate despite the mandate of universal healthcare access, India is lagging in achieving equity in healthcare as the poor and marginalized are deprived of it.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-02-27T07:02:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221142692
       
  • Mapping the Poetics of Memory: A Critical Reading of Manoranjan
           Byapari’s Interrogating My Chandal Life as Cultural Archive

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      Authors: Arijit Mondal, Ujjwal Jana
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The article analyses the idea of a text as a cultural archive by mapping the question of personal and collective or social memory with particular reference to the acclaimed Bengali Dalit writer Manoranjan Byapari’s Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit. The memoir is a chronicler of the collective history of the marginal Namashudra community/ties of Bengal, their saga of pain and excruciating experiences of peripherality of existence that is perceived through the lens of the author. Located in the historical centre of the Dalit worldview, the autobiography investigates how the trajectories of collective histories, memories and shared identity of the Dalit community result in the emergence of what Derrida calls an ‘archive’ or a ‘palimpsest.’ Drawing on theories with regard to the role of cultural memory in the formation of a cultural archive, this article addresses questions as to how a text becomes a cultural archive and testimonies to history through the excavation and circulation of knowledge of the collective historical past.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-02-24T11:53:51Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221150558
       
  • Social Inclusion of Converted Christians in Kerala: Study of a Christian
           Family Converted from Pulaya Community

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      Authors: Jasmine Mathew, Jinu Francis, Ajailiu Niumai, Joseph M. K., Nycil Romis Thomas
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Regardless of the significant social reform, the deep-rooted caste system prevails in the landscape of Kerala. The extreme oppression that the Dalit community faced forced them to seek a new identity with religious conversions. However, the caste considerations straddled the religions and followed the converts. Moreover, the conversion failed to compensate for their material deprivations, and the converted identity denied the rightful privileges of Dalits, which hampered their social mobility. This article analyses the social inclusion of a Pulaya (a Dalit community) family converted to Christianity in Kerala. The analysis of the qualitative data collected through relational interviewing revealed the issues with the social inclusion of the converted Christians, despite the high moral code they adopted. Furthermore, the quantitative comparison of welfare programs and reservations for the Dalit community and the converts gives insight into the trending deconversion in Kerala.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-02-16T06:12:05Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221147456
       
  • Role of Women Participation in MGNREGA: A Study in Kethupura Gram
           Panchayat in Mysuru District, Karnataka

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      Authors: Pesala Peter
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The government of India provides a minimum of 100 days of employment through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This act will reduce migration and increase purchasing power parity. Based on the number of work days generated in a household, they can get the returns in terms of wage income. There is no wage discrimination between males and females in this work. The MGNREGA helps the livelihood in rural areas in general and particularly in a drought-prone state like Karnataka. Under this scheme, most of the women, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) people participated and benefited. Mysuru district was selected for the study. Thirty beneficiary households were selected through interaction with local officers throughout our field visits. Most of the poor, landless labours, marginal and small farmers participated in the MGNREGA scheme. All beneficiaries were having fewer economic assets, and low or marginalized communities participated in the scheme during our study. Among the social groups, SC female average income is higher than the other groups. The overall macro picture says that ST person days are very less as a proportion to their population. The study finds that the majority of the households informed that the participation of females in MGNREGA work is sufficient.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-02-13T06:30:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221146611
       
  • Quality of Life and Associated Determinants among Female Tea Garden
           Workers of Indigenous Communities in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India: A
           Cross- Sectional Mixed Methods

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      Authors: Suranjan Majumder, Indrajit Roy Chowdhury
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The purpose of this study was to examine the self-perceived quality of life (QOL) using World Health Organization quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument and associated controlling factors among socio-economically marginalized tribal female tea garden (TG) workers. A cross-sectional mixed-method research design involving both quantitative and qualitative techniques was employed on 378 study samples (18–60 years tribal female TG workers) between February and May 2022 across 10 TGs of Sub-Himalayan north Bengal, India. For the study, both summary statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and percentage distribution) and inferential statistics (Welch’s ANOVA, independent t-test, paired t-test and multivariate regression) were used to understand the dynamics of QOL and respondents narratives were facilitated to investigate the corresponding phenomenal scenario. Results: Findings indicate the QOL of the tribal female workers variably associated with different socioeconomic conditions and subjective well-being. The findings recommend that female tribal TG workers were perceived to have good ‘overall quality of life’ with a response rate of 33.1%, whereas more than 20% of participants respond that they were poor QOL on ‘overall quality of life’ and ‘general health’ items. The findings show lower summary statistics for most items in the environmental domain. Additionally, the study constructs a multivariate model that identifies several factors including socio-economy, neighbourhood, social relation, and others were significantly control the QOL of the study subjects. These outcomes may have important implications for future studies employing WHOQOL-BREF or similar instruments on different communities with distinctive sociocultural characteristics.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-02-01T12:04:14Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221150627
       
  • Dalit Discrimination in Higher Education: A Malady Without Remedies

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      Authors: T. Brahmanandam
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Education is one of the most potential variables and relates to different indicators of socio-economic development. Going beyond the campaign for universal literacy, which is otherwise supported by constitutional and statutory provisions, the article seeks to explore the presence as well as the dominance of Scheduled Castes (SC) in Higher Education and gets into the paradoxes of social and bureaucratic structures that facilitate or impede SC entry to and continue with higher education. At this juncture, it seems to be imperative to search for an alignment between constitutional mandates on one hand and social and bureaucratic constraints on the other. Moreover, the relevant methodological framework has been adopted to put facts and figures into perspective, to identify the reason for their slow progress in higher education and to locate the reasons why the reservation policy failed to assist them as per the expectations of the founding fathers of the constitution.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-01-27T05:23:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221144350
       
  • Dissimilarities in Access to Sanitation Facilities by Caste and Region in
           India and States

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      Authors: Vini Sivanandan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      In India, most people have been finding it challenging to maintain their quality of life, such as standard housing, access to basic minimum drinking water facilities, sanitation, public hygiene, etc. This study attempts to study the availability of housing and household amenities among social groups and identify the inter-rural−urban differences in basic sanitation facilities. Data from the Census of India, 2011, H-Series household amenities and assets, was used to measure the dissimilarity between inter-rural−urban differences by social groups. The present study aimed to explore the differentials across the region and social groups by the availability of different basic sanitation facilities. Analysis shows striking dissimilarities in rural areas of states such as Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Tripura and the union territory of Daman and Diu. Moreover, the intensity of dissimilarities is prominently observed between caste Others and ST in rural areas. However, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the dissimilarity in the availability of bathrooms without a roof is observed uniformly across regions and among social groups. Furthermore, the study emphasizes that although dissimilarity may not be visible at an aggregate level, it is very much visible at the sub-aggregate level across regions and between castes. Hence, it is proposed to conduct and collect data based on a holistic approach incorporating people’s behaviour, attitudes, cultural norms and biases while providing sanitation facilities and those who are availing them. Such research studies will provide a deeper insight into the root causes of such dissimilarities, which may be due to geographical location, the non-availability of water, cultural practices, biases, etc., or the intersection of all these factors. Identifying hotspots at the micro level will help accelerate the success of government schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Mission.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-01-16T07:59:46Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221144175
       
  • Education for the Marginalized: A Narrative of Public Sphere and NGOs at
           the Grassroots Gujarat of India

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      Authors: Ravindra Ramesh Patil
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Habermasian conceptualization of the public sphere as a bourgeoisie institution of private citizens emerged in eighteenth-century Europe as a ‘discursive space’ to deliberate on critical issues of the society. It is largely based on communitarian values to promote the common good and social change in the structure of the society. Apart from European society, such institutions have emerged in various countries including India. However, in the Indian context, the public sphere has been hegemonies by the dominant social groups, consequently the benefits of the common good too largely enjoyed by them, and therefore the representation of socioculturally excluded and marginalized has been neglected and subordinated by the dominant public sphere in the Indian society. It is in this context, the present paper tried to highlight the neglect of Dalit issues and the common good for Dalit by the dominant public sphere paved the way for the emergence of Dalit public sphere and civil society in Gujarat.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-01-05T10:21:04Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221140256
       
  • Caste and Cultural Politics in Akhila Naik’s Bheda: A Perspective on
           Dom Caste in Rural Odisha

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      Authors: Kuber Nag
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Caste has been a taboo subject in Odisha. Although there are multiple events of caste violence and atrocities against Dalits in Odisha, they hardly get any attention from the state, media and civil society. Like any other part of India, Dalits in Odisha also face the wrath of the caste system; sometimes, their houses are burnt down to ashes, or they are ostracized. Unfortunately, the everyday violence against Dalits is normalized by the cultural practices in Odisha. Popular religious cults and the Brahminic hegemony often overshadowed the caste issue and forced the Dalits to the boundary. Thus, their voice often goes unheard. Also, the rapid Hinduization of indigenous culture has served as a catalyst for caste violence and maintaining the caste order in rural Odisha. The successful integration of tribal and other backward communities into the Brahminical fold has made the life of Dalits more difficult. In most of the caste violence in Odisha, tribal and other backwards communities are pitted against the Dalits, which washed out the idea of ‘united subaltern groups’ or the Dalit-Bahujan unity. Thus, this article focuses on the cultural hegemony of the Brahmins and how it makes caste a complex affair in rural Odisha. In Akhila Naik’s Bheda, he unravels the caste questions in Odisha and how the arrivals of Brahmins and Marwaris in rural Odisha have corrupted the village ecosystem. The villagers are polarized in the name of caste and religion, and the village’s indigenous belief system and harmony are at stake.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2023-01-05T10:20:25Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221148089
       
  • Normative Influence of the Dalits: A Stigmatized Existence

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      Authors: S. P. Veroneka, V. Vijayalakshmi
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article discusses the behaviour of the Dalit who hides their identity of being a Dalit and pretends to be a person who represents the other caste that is present in the caste hierarchy. To gain societal recognition, Yashica Dutt’s mother deliberately professes to be an upper caste for the society. Dutt does not want to reveal her identity because of the humiliation she had faced earlier. This identity crisis becomes a stigma and then she adopts the behaviour, nature and tradition of another caste.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-27T09:33:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221146432
       
  • From Traditional to Modern Atrocities: Has Caste Changed in Independent
           India'

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      Authors: Ritu Kochar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Committing atrocities is as inherent to caste as caste is to Hinduism. Maintaining these values by enacting atrocities on castes lower in the strata, combined with socio-economic-political developments, has massively changed the essence of caste in independent India. These developments have led to a ‘de-ritualization of caste’, persisting as a ‘kinship-based cultural community’—still stratified but functioning around politics and economics. This transition is in contrast to the tradition-rooted practices and ideology of pre-and colonial India. However, have caste atrocities changed since India’s independence' This article will showcase these post-independence social transitions in anti-Dalit atrocities despite and due to legal provisions formulated during and immediately after the colonial-era, and the economic reforms in post-colonial India. I argue that the caste system has deteriorated post-independence with an increase in the number of atrocities and their gruesomeness. This is explained through Anupama Rao’s assessment of legal provisions, Smiti Sharma’s analysis of the correlation between economic status and caste-based crimes and their effects, and lastly, Anand Teltumbde’s analysis of transformations in the motivations of crimes, perpetrators and performance of atrocities. Quantitative data is used to illustrate the failure of legal provisions in preventing the rising violence against Dalits and the growing economic disparity between different castes as one of its causes. A qualitative analysis of these developments assesses the changing social attitudes of dominant castes that use violence against ‘Dalit assertion’. Unpacking the 2009 Khairlanji massacre is pertinent to my analysis of atrocity to reveal all these sides of caste violence and the contributions of state, civil society, media and other institutions in its wake.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-22T04:47:57Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221136385
       
  • Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Bhavans/Community Halls in Telangana: An Evaluation
           Study

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      Authors: Silveru Harinath
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The question of the development of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and its analysis received considerable attention during the post-Independence period. The Central and State governments have been launching several programmes and institutions for the economic and social progress of the SCs as well as raising the consciousness of their rights. The Ambedkar statues and the construction of Ambedkar Bhavans/community halls are a platform for organizing the SCs to debate and articulate key issues and concerns; fostering solidarity among SCs is an important initiative of the government, across the country. The core objectives of the study are to examine the distribution of Ambedkar Bhavans/community halls in the districts and budgetary allocations and the expenditure incurred towards the construction of the halls. The other objective is to assess the utilization of Ambedkar Bhavans/community halls and the activities undertaken in them and their impact on the empowerment of Scheduled Castes in the selected districts. The empirical study highlights that the members of the community are making use of the community halls to debate the issues of their surroundings and the implementation of government schemes, besides organizing their social functions and economic activities. However, there is no rationality in allocating the budget for the land and the construction of buildings across the districts in the state.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-22T04:46:57Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221139093
       
  • An Empirical Analysis of Tribal Identity in Indian Literature

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      Authors: Don G. Vijayan, S. Umamaheshwari
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Homogenizing the heterogeneous Indian tribes might be unfair. However, as large groups of tribal families are the subjects of study, the word ‘tribes’ was adopted as a grab for the underprivileged people, regardless of geographical location or cultural moorings. The current study analyse the significance of ethnographic novels that specifically evoke cultural experiences and the efficiency of their strategies in depicting people via the analysis of the two books such as Paraja (authored in Oriya in 1945) by Gopinath Mohanty and translated by Bikram K. Das in 2001, and Chotti Munda and His Arrow (Bangla title is Chotti Munda ebang Tar Tir, 1980) by Mahasweta Devi and translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in 2002. The current study emphasizes the shifting paradigms of centre–right binarism by using fictional works by well-known writers Mahasweta Devi and Gopinath Mohanty who have done literary works that spoke about the rights of tribal community.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-22T04:45:57Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221139104
       
  • Representational Space as Cultural Production in Dalit Text

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      Authors: S. P. Veroneka, V. Vijayalakshmi
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article discusses how space works in the narrative world of a Dalit writer and how space is evolved for a writer to represent and register their perspectives. A Dalit writer’s representation can be evolved from recognition of themselves within their community and place. It happens in a particular period when the writer realizes their identity as Dalit. The cultural production happens through language when the experience is penned down. The fullest expression of the writer is so vivid when the narrative space is supple. This article involves Sharan Kumar Limbale’s Outcaste and Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit. These two autobiographical novels talk about the spatial influence, importance, changes, and reproduction of culture through language, and their text is explained. Auto-narration is more important in the aspect of Dalit writing and it is being explained here the importance of it. The auto narrative of a Dalit writer gives an extended meaning to the text.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-22T04:45:17Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221142483
       
  • Displaced Dalits and Their Issues of Human Rights: A Case Study on the
           Stone Crushers of Balasan River Bed

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      Authors: Somenath Bhattacharjee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Human rights actually refer to those elemental rights which any human deserves to have honoured in order to survive, enjoy well-being and flourish or fulfil him or herself by virtue of being a human. But today, the wave of the new world order, exploitative attitude, consumerism and greed of a few are refuting the needs of many. In this regard, along with a number of factors, the issues related to the displacement of the population have emerged as major ones. Particularly due to this factor, the concerned people have to lose their permanent settlement and stable economic pursuit and they are forced to face severe inconveniences in every aspect of their livelihood. Ultimately, the different aspects of their fundamental human rights are being seriously violated. These issues have been observed among the stone crushers of Balasan river bed, who were displaced from their earlier settlement and are struggling for their common minimum livelihood.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-19T10:55:27Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221140705
       
  • Seeking Space in Post-Partition Bengal: Reading Kalyani Thakur Charal’s
           Autobiography Ami Kano Charal Likhi through a Gender and Caste Perspective
           

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      Authors: Soumitra Gayen
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Space for Dalits is either hierarchically organized or publicly restricted or perpetually excluded from mainstream Indian society. The process of ‘Othering’ and abandonment of the outcastes for possessing a space, sanctioned by the laws of varnashrama, was subtly retained and manipulated by the new democratic Indian government during the rehabilitation process of the post-partition Bengal and thus enforced the Dalit refugees to adopt the identity of either vagabonds or delinquents. Spatial insecurity and its explicit exhibition through the emotions of the Dalit men usually suppressed the pain and suffering of the Dalit women that entailed their struggle for psychic space due to their inability to articulate their angst. This article aims to explore how both the Dalit men and women were struggling to seek a physical and psychical space and also discuss how the long-term consequence of the partition left an imprint of both the negative and positive impact on the coming generations of Dalit women with special reference to Kalyani Thakur Charal’s autobiography, Ami Kano Charal Likhi (2016) which effectively echoes the collective voice of her Namasudra community through the ‘inherited’ memory of the partition.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-14T07:22:19Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221139098
       
  • Situating Democracy in Ambedkar’s Moral Discourse

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      Authors: Sangharsh Telang, Mayur Kudupale
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article aims to look at the idea of moral democracy in Ambedkar and his reconstruction of democracy as a ‘way of life’. Much of the work on Ambedkar’s idea of democracy has been significantly understood within the context of social, political and economic democracy. This article asks a different question: what could be a moral foundation of democracy in Ambedkar’s thought' His engagement with democracy addresses the issue of caste and injustice in Indian society. A moral approach to Ambedkar’s thought may guide us to understand his path towards democracy. This article explores Ambedkar’s notion of everyday democracy, which is foregrounded in his last work Buddha and His Dhamma. For him, democracy is thoroughly grounded on the concept of Dhamma as a righteous relation between people in every sphere of life.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-14T07:21:49Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221138359
       
  • Social and Political Concerns of Lata Mangeshkar: An Ambedkarite
           Perspective

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      Authors: Pramod Ranjan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Playback singer Lata Mangeshkar was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in many other countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh. This article is about her social concerns and political leanings. At the level of thought, she was close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is infamous for its Nazi-like ideology. Many incidents of her life show that she preferred communal politics over secularism. She also kept away from the Dalit issues.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:41:24Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221139097
       
  • Invention or Inversion' Revisiting the Question of Caste Tradition

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      Authors: Aryama Ghosh, Subhadeep Mondal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The main theme of this paper is to revisit the question of caste and the politics of/on traditions. We have explored the questions of mythology; how ‘we’, the lower caste people associate and (re)interpret the mythical characters as a process of social upward mobility. So, is it the invention of tradition or is it the inversion of tradition or both' Interestingly, we could be able to locate a distinct regional pattern in this case. Thus, we argue that in the Northern part of India, specifically in Uttar Pradesh, though it is the process called the invention of tradition, it can be framed as a little tradition under the grand Hindu tradition. On the other hand, in the Southern part of the country specifically in Tamil Nadu, it is rather the process called the inversion of tradition which is much more radically grounded in sub-national ethos. Based on these premises, this article further argues that Uttar Pradesh’s caste politics is based on the invention of a tradition model which can incorporate the lower castes’ little traditions within the larger ambit of the Hindu grand narratives. Thus, new Hindutva politics has easily appropriated them within their polemic. On the contrary, in the South, due to the inversion of the tradition model embedded in a pre-existing political tradition and sub-national ethos, Hindutva failed to get a proper hold in recent times.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:41:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221137431
       
  • Claiming Land Rights: Politics of Space and Identity—A Study of the Tea
           Garden Community of Assam

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      Authors: Phulmoni Das, Robin Hazarika
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Land and identity issues are interlinked and landlessness becomes a cause of ethnic unrest in the Northeast region of India. Colonial land and forest policy not only impacted the lives of indigenous people but also affected the land relation of indigenous and other immigrant communities of Assam. Even the post-colonial state has also been continuing the legacy of colonial state, which resulted in the land deprivation of tribals and Adivasis of Assam. It is in this context the present study discusses the landlessness of the tea garden community of Assam. Despite living in Assam for more than a hundred years, they are constantly facing the issue of landlessness and land alienation, which subsequently created a threat to their identity, culture and livelihood. The article is based on the arguments and narratives drawn from the tea garden community of Assam and the role of state is also highlighted in this context.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:40:43Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221137236
       
  • Boosa Movement: A Prologue to the Birth of New Kannada Intellectualism

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      Authors: Mohankumar B. S., Jyothi N.
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Boosa movement was one of the most controversial incidents in the history of Post-Independence literary as well as political discourse in Karnataka. B Basavalingappa, the cynosure of the movement, made a controversial statement on Kannada literature. He commented that most Kannada literature was filled with Boosa (cattle fodder). His statement created an uproar across Karnataka. In this context, this article aims to present how yellow journalism portrayed Basavalingappa and his comments, which eventually made him lose his political position. The hypothesis presents how Basavalingappa was a victim of caste-based politics coupled with yellow journalism. On the other hand, it also presents that despite the political assassination of Basavalingappa from power, how the Boosa incident gave rise to Dalit consciousness and acted as a prologue to the birth of new Kannada intellectuality.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:40:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221136916
       
  • From the Social to the Clinical: Towards a Psychopathology of Everyday
           Casteism

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      Authors: Mahitosh Mandal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Caste has predominantly been understood as a social problem. It is understood as a form of discrimination embedded in the Hindu society that promotes Brahmanical supremacy which, in turn, is founded on the ostracization and dehumanization of the Dalit subject. The great bulk of the existing scholarship on caste has been dedicated to exploring the history, politics, religiosity, anti-sociality and illegality of caste. This article is an emphatic attempt to redirect the field of Dalit studies from considering caste—casteism, to be more precise—as a social problem to defining it as a medical or clinical or psychological problem. It introduces the reader to the neglected trend of research on the interface between caste and mental health and advances the radical possibility of understanding caste as a form of psychopathology. It makes use of the relevant psychological and psychoanalytic concepts from Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and Jacques Lacan and proposes to define casteism in conjunction with the psychology of racism as theorized by Franz Fanon and David Livingstone Smith.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:39:43Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221136394
       
  • Civil Society Involvement and Resultant Health Care Utilization: A Study
           of Sickle Cell Disease Patients Across Communities in Kerala

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      Authors: Anupama Augustine, Manju S. Nair
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Civil society initiatives have helped in attempts to bring equity and efficiency in health systems by providing direct health services to vulnerable sections in society and indulging in health promotion and information exchange. Kerala, despite the presence of civil society in the health sector shows a pattern of ‘health divide’, with tribal communities experiencing a higher health burden than non-tribal communities. This becomes problematic in the case of some peculiar diseases, particularly genetic diseases such as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The article explores the involvement of civil society in health systems with a special focus on SCD and enquires into links between socio-economic position and health care utilization patterns. The study identifies the existence of inter-community differences in health care utilization across social classes, depicting the fact that even after the involvement of civil society organizations, socio-economic stratifiers still remain an important impediment in uplifting the health status of SCD patients.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:39:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221134425
       
  • Social Exclusion and Education: Analysing the Rights of Dalit Children
           Through the Lens of Democracy and Citizenship

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      Authors: Vikram Singh, Kabir Sharma
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The educational concerns of the Dalit community must be addressed from a perspective of social justice, as the Dalit community has historically been subject to social discrimination and restricted access to education. ‘The social justice framework is significant because it emphasises worries about the meaning of one’s education on one’s sense of self and one’s prospects for the future, as opposed to focusing solely on concerns about educational equity, including issues of access, participation, and outcomes. It also sheds light on the pledges made by educational institutions to the most vulnerable people and how these promises are carried out in practice’ (Nambissian, 2006). The children of Dalit community have in the contemporary context come under analysis across the world. They always faced social exclusion by the majority, the state and its institutions; still, the strong law pertains. This has hampered their growth and development. In countries such as India, the social exclusion of Dalits is also a concern. Therefore, this article attempts to describe, in broad terms, Societies’ manifest behaviours and tendencies that exclude (i.e., exclusion as a citizen in a democratic country) those deemed undesirable or useless from the predominate systems of protection and integration, thereby limiting their opportunities and means of survival. It also attempts to investigate the educational disadvantages of Dalit children in India. It looks at social exclusion, concerning the idea of democracy and citizenship. Furthermore, it explains the development and use of the concept of social exclusion in the Indian context concerning Dalit children and how it is also a helpful policy concept for the integration of various philosophical conceptions like equality, justice, and emancipation on the primary purpose of the welfare state into a single social model. Lastly, it examines the impact of social exclusion in elementary education and its impact on the educational and social conditions of Dalit children in India.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:38:53Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221132696
       
  • Seasonal Migration and Child’s Schooling: A Survival Approach

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      Authors: Susmita Sengupta, Sanat Kumar Guchhait
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The article opts to investigate the long-term effects of parental seasonal migration on a child’s access to school education. The phenomenon of seasonal migration ‘leaving child at home’ or ‘accompanied by’ is a very common feature in the Purulia district where migration is the only viable option to sustain livelihood in lean-agricultural season. Although parents’ migration in such areas seems to be essential for the family economy, lack of parental care is found to be responsible for academic and psychological non-adjustment that affects a child’s education to a great extent. The Cox Regression Hazard Model and the Kaplan–Meier Estimator analysis of school participation have been employed to explore the survival probability of children at varying contexts, viz. migration status, gender, caste and age. The result shows the negative impact of parental migration on school participation of left-behind children leading to early dropout before the completion of the school education cycle.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:38:24Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221131663
       
  • A Corpus-based Study on Selected Dalit Autobiographies

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      Authors: Mandana Kolahdouz Mohammadi, Mainul Hasan khan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit literature represents consciousness about human rights. Autobiographies written by Dalit authors are based on real-life experiences. Based on the conducted studies regarding Dalit autobiographies, women are the ones who suffer oppression and violence to a great extent (Simon, 2021) since they are the backbone of the family. Therefore, how Dalit autobiographies draw their reader’s attention is essential and makes these autobiographies unique. In recent years, text analysis tools have been introduced to facilitate information extraction from a collection of texts and compare two or more texts. So, this article using text mining tools aims to analyze three selected Dalit autobiographies of women writers. The central hypothesis of this study is that sufferers, their families and society have higher frequency in Dalit autobiographies and semantic relations between these elements at the lexical level are available. Based on the findings of this study, only in Dutt’s work, keyword in contexts (KWICs) such as “Dalit, caste, India” had higher frequencies than two other works. In Halder’s work, the frequency of these KWICs was zero. Accordingly, it can be said that in recent years, authors are explicitly willing to attract their readers’ attention toward Dalits and their problems.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:37:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221131392
       
  • Subaltern' Illustrated: A Study of Ambedkar Cartoons

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      Authors: Barnali Saha
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Just like any other narrative form, cartoons too, by virtue of their storytelling ability, have problematized Dalit life history and delineated the trauma, tragedy and unflinching representational terms. Charting sociopolitical topics, cartoons are an example of popular culture influencing public opinion. With caricature, prose, topical content and a dash of humour, cartoons form a special category of news and a critical form of political journalism. When Elizabeth Edwards discusses the raw history and potential of photographs, she emphasizes their visual sovereignty, which is not only vital for the production of photography but also for the interpretation of images, and through them, the insertion of the human voice. Similarly, cartoons succeed in combining their visual sovereignty with their ethnographic potential because of their interpretive ingenuousness. As such, cartoons articulate lines of instability indiscernible under the garb of mythical solidarity of a myriad of political ideologies. Cartoonists construct publics and counter publics by problematizing the impact of sociopolitics on human beings through the construction of interpretative communities bound by visual perceptions. In other words, cartoons, particularly political cartoons, represent highly complex modern attempts to formulate visual identities under specific historical and political conditions that resonate with the readership. The present research article seeks to problematize Dalit representation in cartoons by non-Dalit illustrators against the work of a Dalit cartoonist to critically study the politics of representation, the discourse of powers and the dialectics of caste. The article seeks to study if and how Dalit agency is, respectively, illustrated or elided, how symbols and caricatures demonstrate the truth of Dalit life and the aesthetics of the Dalit experience. For the purpose of the study, the article especially focusses on the figure of Ambedkar, the iconic Dalit voice and the benevolent patriarch of Dalit ideology, and studies his representation in a series of political cartoons published between 1932 and 1956.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-13T01:36:49Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221131388
       
  • We Don’t Sleep on Rainy Nights

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      Authors: Athira Jayarajan, Nidheesh Gangadharan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Despite years of social mobility, indigenous people in India stand low in most development indices, and the substandard living conditions make them highly vulnerable to natural disasters. In this communication, we unfold the vulnerabilities and coping strategies of the Paniya tribal community of Kerala during the unusual rain and flood that the state faced in 2018 and 2019. The vulnerability arises primarily from food scarcity, malnutrition, low physical well-being, unemployment and financial instability. Climate change and related events seem to heighten the prevailing exposure of the indigenous community, and women are generally more vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. The study also points out the psychological impact of the flood and the various coping mechanisms adopted over individual and community levels to alleviate the effect. The community members have an optimistic outlook towards life, even after experiencing catastrophic floods and landslides. Nevertheless, this outlook is not a visionary outcome of the rehabilitation process but rather an optionless strategy for the community to get along.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-04T12:06:31Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221135312
       
  • Book review: Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Tanika Sarkar (Eds), Caste in
           Bengal: Histories of Hierarchy, Exclusion, and Resistance

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      Authors: Kunal Debnath
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Tanika Sarkar (Eds), Caste in Bengal: Histories of Hierarchy, Exclusion, and Resistance. Permanent Black, 2022, ₹1495, x+605 pp. ISBN: 9788178246512 (Hardback).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-04T12:06:10Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221135243
       
  • The Assertion of Identity: A Research on Meches, Rabhas, Totos and Garos
           of North Bengal

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      Authors: Ushasi Banerjee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Anil Kumar Sarkar, Tribes of Sub-Himalayan Region: Meches, Rabhas, Totos and Garos New Delhi: Mittal Publications,, 2021, 178 pp, ₹700. ISBN: 978-8194936084.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-04T12:05:50Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221135034
       
  • Depressed Classes: The True Unmarriageables Within the Hindu Social Order

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      Authors: A. B. Karl Marx Siddharthar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      To dispel all the needless interpretations and confusions about the caste and to compel all the scholars, academicians, legislators, politicians and even the masses not to deviate themselves from the precise definition of caste in the matters of annihilation of caste, emancipation of Depressed Classes, reservation, etc. is what this article aims to achieve.The concept of ‘unmarriageability’ and the nomenclature of ‘unmarriageables’ introduced in this article is merely an extended reinterpretation of Dr Ambedkar’s finding in his Doctoral Thesis that caste is nothing but the mechanism of endogamy. Hence, it became inevitable to quote the writings of Dr Ambedkar for the better understanding about caste and untouchability—the premises based on which the entire article is constructed.The article justifies why the concept of ‘unmarriageability’ should be specifically considered in the context of Dalits. While a careless interpretation would make each caste unmarriageable to the rest, it is established that the Depressed Classes (Dalits) are the true unmarriageables within the Hindu social order. Also, the term ‘unmarriageables’ for the Depressed Classes is introduced in this article.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-12-04T12:05:31Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221134419
       
  • Intergenerational Educational and Occupational Mobility across Caste
           Groups in West Bengal

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      Authors: Sandip Mondal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Intragenerational and intergenerational mobility are two important parameters of social mobility. The study of educational and occupational mobility across caste groups will help to understand how caste affiliation influences the pattern of intergenerational mobility. The data from India Human Development Survey 2012 has been used in this study which collects data on fathers’ and sons’ educational and occupational information. This study uses mobility matrices and aggregate measures based on them to understand the son’s position with respect to the father’s position. It is evident from this study that educational and occupational mobility in Bengal is associated with the social position of the caste groups. In comparison to the other castes, the Forward caste has a higher proportion of sons who have completed higher education. In comparison to the other caste groups, the sons of the Forward caste experienced the least downward mobility in education. On the other hand, upward mobility is highest among the Forward caste and lowest among the OBC. The caste-based pattern is also prevalent in downward mobility, immobility and upward mobility in occupation. The sons of the Forward caste had the greatest upward mobility, followed by SC and OBC. On the contrary, down mobility is highest for the SC’s son followed by the OBC and Forward caste. It is quite clear that caste does matter and matters deeply in Bengal’s socio-economic landscape.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-30T06:54:47Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221136384
       
  • Unrest in the Forest and Ethnocide of the Gothi-Koya Tribes in India

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      Authors: Keyoor Pathak, Chittranjan Subudhi, Tajuddin Md
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The story is of IDP (internally displaced people), particularly of the Gothi-Koya communities, who were compelled to escape from the forests of Chhattisgarh, and are now arbitrarily residing in the deep forests of Telangana State. Their arrival took place specifically during the period of Salva–Judum. Following the debates and demands of human rights activists and intellectuals in connection with the over-violence and illegitimacy of the armed-squad, the Supreme Court of India outlawed it later. The article is based on around a month visit, in the year 2019, to these regions namely Kornapalli, Kristadampadu village of Cherla Block and Pushkunta village of Dammapet Block of Bhadradri Kothagudem District in Telangana. These regions are flanked by dense forests and have been highly sensitive because of their connection with Naxalite movements, and the settlements of the Koyas are scattered, so the researchers had to face various challenges in investigating the issues on a wider scale over there. Researchers made conversation with the displaced people along with the government officials to probe the issue and experienced their plight in their observation.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-30T06:54:27Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221136382
       
  • From Manholes to Roboholes: A Technology-Based Solution for Sanitation
           Workers

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      Authors: Yuvraj, Nirupama Prakash, Poonam Bala
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Safai Karmachari Andolan informed the Supreme Court that in 2021 on a daily basis approximately 4.97 lakh dry toilets were serviced by animals and 7.94 lakh were serviced manually. An article in the Hindustan Times of 8 January 2021 (India News, 2021) proposed that the government provides every manual scavenger 10 lakh so that each might liberate himself/herself from the occupation and adopt an alternate livelihood. In 1993, 2012 and 2013, three acts were proposed for reformation and rehabilitation of manual scavengers but little to no rehabilitation has occurred. There are scant government records of scavengers or sanitation workers available. According to the 2011 census, manual scavenging is categorized as a domain of unskilled work performed by unorganized labour. This article addresses the categorization of manual scavengers as sanitation workers, the social exclusion criteria for sanitation workers and how robotic technology can rehabilitate sanitation workers and uplift them socially. The article relies on semi-structured interviews conducted in two demographic regions of Haryana state in India where robotic technology is currently being used.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-30T06:54:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221132969
       
  • Book review: Nandini Oza, The Struggle for Narmada: An Oral History of the
           Narmada Bachao Andolan by Adivasi Leaders Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave
           

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      Authors: Subrata Sankar Bagchi, Satyaki Paul
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Nandini Oza, The Struggle for Narmada: An Oral History of the Narmada Bachao Andolan by Adivasi Leaders Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave. Orient BlackSwan, 2022, 320 pp., ₹915. ISBN: 978-9354422973.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-30T06:53:28Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221132966
       
  • Dalit Politics in India: A Critical Overview

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      Authors: Bankim Chandra Mandal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The origin of Dalit assertion and politics has a long tradition. The main objective of Dalit assertion and politics was to transform the age-old caste-based hierarchical structure of Indian society based on liberty, equality, fraternity and social justice as envisaged by Dr B. R. Ambedkar. During this long period, the nature of Dalit politics has varied from issue to issue and from context to context. During the seven and half decades of our independence, we have witnessed a massive change, like politics in general and Dalit politics in particular. Up to 1980, we have seen a comprehensive Dalit movement in different parts of India. After that time, it is tough to organize such comprehensive politics, especially in the urban centres. Due to selfishness, personal greed for power and other gains of Dalit leaders and activists, Dalit politics become much more fragmented, localized and depoliticized. Not only that, but identity politics also divided the Dalits into different caste and sub-caste groups. Due to these reasons, it is hard to make grand solidarity in politics among different Dalit castes and other weaker sections of Indian society. We have recently seen a new swing in Dalit politics that is very aware, assertive, organized, well-connected, inclusive and beyond party politics. In this study, the author wants to draw a brief sketch of the history of Dalit politics. Further, he wants to explore the changing nature of Dalit politics. In this context, he has tried to discuss the impact of the depoliticization of Dalit politics by the Dalit leaders and the caste identity politics within Dalit caste groups in forming grand solidarity in Dalit politics in India.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-25T05:26:59Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221131716
       
  • Quest for Social Justice: A comparative study of Panchanan Barma and Dr B.
           R. Ambedkar

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      Authors: Rup Kumar Barman, Juthika Barma
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The concept of ideal society largely depends on one’s perception, experience and interactions with the given society. Thus it is ‘contextual’ and ‘relational’ in reality. While reality determines the nature of one’s ideas, the transformation of his ideas gets denials from traditional perceptions, taboos and vested interests. All these features of ideas and activism have been found in the lives and works of Panchanan Barma (1865–1935) and Dr B. R. Ambedkar (1890–1956). Both of them were the products of their times. Thus their ideas on an ideal society got maturity through the interactions with their contemporary society. Hence, their attempts at attaining ‘justice’ and ‘equality’ for an ‘ideal society’ were the outcome of their ideas on ‘just society’ and ‘equality’ and finding probable ways for attaining ‘self-reliance’ to fight against injustice. This article seeks to analyse the concept of social justice of Panchanan Barma (the father of the Rajbanshi community of Bengal) and to compare it with that of Dr B. R. Ambedkar (who has been accepted as the ‘Father of the Indian Constitution’).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-25T05:25:40Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221135313
       
  • Book review: Rup Kumar Barman, The Raidak: A Transnational River from
           Bhutan to Bangladesh Through India

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      Authors: Moniruna Debnath
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Rup Kumar Barman, The Raidak: A Transnational River from Bhutan to Bangladesh Through India. Mittal Publications, 2021, 126 pp., ₹600 (Hard Bound).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-11-13T06:09:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221131381
       
  • Aesthetics and Politics of Dalit Women’s Writings Within Indian
           Pedagogic Practices

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      Authors: Kalyani Kalyani
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      With a postmodern shift and with the emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint, the feminist discourse itself has witnessed significant changes. The ‘double marginalization’ which Dalit women have been subjected to because of their caste location has graded down the monolith of gender identity. The emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint has also reworked how aesthetics and politics on Dalit women’s writings have been taken up within the Indian pedagogic practices. These new pedagogic engagements include processes such as the inclusion of newer curriculum and courses on Dalit writings, translation work of Dalit writings and the inclusion of theoretical works on Dalit women writings within the curriculum. This paper aims to understand the aesthetics and politics of Dalit women’s writings, particularly in the Hindi-speaking belt of India, and the interaction of such writings within the select Indian pedagogic practices. Through the select pedagogic practices the paper will explore the new kinds of discursive engagements that are done with these Dalit women’s writings per se. The paper will explore the absence/presence of Dalit women’s writings and also explore how the ‘representation’ of these writings is taken up within the mainstream Indian pedagogic practices. The paper further explores the popular spaces in which Dalit women’s writings have flourished and the tensions that exist, between what gets included and what remains excluded from the pedagogic practices, when it comes to Dalit women’s writings. The paper also explores the new aesthetic sensibility and the politics that have played a dynamic role in the emergence of Dalit women writings, and how the existing pedagogic practices have perceived them.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-20T11:08:35Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221122588
       
  • Locating Kashmiriyat in Ancient History: Tracing the Genealogy of
           Kashmir’s Syncretic Culture

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      Authors: Altaf Hussain Para, Haroon Rashid, Sana Shah
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The discourse on Kashmiriyat (or Kasheryut) was majorly invoked in the late twentieth-century Kashmir by diverse, often conflicting, ideological strands to legitimize their respective political positioning in the context of post-1947 political stirrings in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the discourse has remained shrouded in ambiguity owing to the multiple, disparate meanings and connotations attached to it. More commonly the term has been understood to imply a syncretic culture of Kashmir devoid of religious fundamentalism and exclusion.KLSo far as the historicity of Kashmiriyat is concerned, the existing scholarly writings on the discourse have tried to locate its origins in the medieval times when the interaction and subsequent synthesis occurred between Hinduism and Islam in Kashmir; a mystic manifestation, Rishism, is often referred as the best example of this ideational formation. However, the paper attempts to argue that while the idea of Kashmiriyat as syncretic culture of Kashmir devoid of religious fundamentalism holds ground, it cannot be clearly steered away from a particular religious affiliation altogether. Secondly, this paper challenges the existing historicity and ideational trajectory of Kashmiriyat and instead attempts to trace its genealogy to Kashmir’s ancient past.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-20T11:08:14Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221126861
       
  • Marginality, Educational Opportunity and Access to Higher Education:
           Experiences of Scheduled Caste and Tribe Students in India

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      Authors: Dhaneswar Bhoi, Neelima Rashmi Lakra
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This paper is based on the empirical data of the marginal section students who have come under the purview of the National Fellowship system at higher education level in India. The objective of the study is to find out their experiences with respect to the national fellowship system as a public policy measure and their educational attainment, participation and achievements within public policy discourse. Also, the study explores the educational opportunity, cultural capital and the socio-economic and political attainment of the marginal section students. Where, the study is based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data are analysed through descriptive and thematic analysis methods. It addresses the major questions like: does the state become cultural capital for the marginal section students' How do the students from marginal backgrounds capitalize the public policy meant for them for higher education and what are their difficulties to avail this public policy'
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-20T11:07:49Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221129453
       
  • Navayana Buddhism and the Scheduled Castes of West Bengal

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      Authors: Rup Kumar Barman, Sanju Sarkar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Though Buddhism began to revive in India in the late nineteenth century, Buddhist organizations did not pay much attention to bring the Dalits into their folds. Rather, the lower caste communities had aspired for constructing respectable caste identities in the late colonial period. However, conversion of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) to a modified form of Buddhism (called ‘neo-Buddhism’) has appeared as a sociocultural tool for the Dalits to fight against the casteism. In this paper, we have highlightws the background of the introduction of neo-Buddhism and the location of the Scheduled Castes of West Bengal in it.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-12T03:16:52Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221128471
       
  • Caste, Social Inequalities and Maternal Healthcare Services in India:
           Evidence from the National Family and Health Survey

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      Authors: Bikash Das, Moslem Hossain, Piyal Basu Roy
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This study examines the level of access and utilization of maternal care health services among different socially disadvantaged groups in India. The study uses the data from the National Family Health Survey conducted in 2015–2016. We have used descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis to assess the trends and prevalence of maternal healthcare services among different social groups. Using logistic regression, we have estimated the association of different socio-economic variables on maternal healthcare services among different socially disadvantaged groups in India. The results suggest tremendous inequality in access to maternal healthcare services among socially disadvantaged groups in India. It was found that several factors such as women’s education, working status, household wealth quintile and mass media exposure significantly impact access and utilization of maternal healthcare services among various socially disadvantaged groups. In addition, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women are subjected to socio-economic discrimination at multiple levels, and their maternal healthcare situation remains highly fragile. The social identity and caste-based socio-economic inequalities remain a major challenge in India to assure universal access to maternal healthcare services.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-12T03:14:54Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221125603
       
  • Book review: Sekhar Bandyopadhyay & Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury, Caste and
           Partition in Bengal: The Story of Dalit Refugees, 1946–1961

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      Authors: Dhananjay Saha
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Sekhar Bandyopadhyay & Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury, Caste and Partition in Bengal: The Story of Dalit Refugees, 1946–1961 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022), 272 pp. ₹1,495, ISBN 978-0-19-285972-3 (Hardcover).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-08T03:17:05Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221129450
       
  • Dalit Humanism: Marginal Spatial Reality as a Site of Dalit Counterpublic
           in Bama’s Sangati and Tulsiram’s Murdahiya

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      Authors: Anurag Kumar, Isha Malhotra, Nagendra Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      In India, one of the major counter-discourses constituted to critique the culture of violence, silence and impunity, harboured by the Indian public sphere, is offered by Dalit literary writings. Dalit counterpublic highlights the alternate cultural spaces that subvert and disrupt the dominant structures of repression by valuing the Dalit standpoint. The present article claims that the Dalit counterpublic is subaltern as well as locational; subalternity is based on the marginal position prescribed to Dalit people in the Indian social and cultural structure while location refers to the geopolitical territorial segregation. Bama’s Sangati and Tulsiram’s Murdahiya have been analysed using theoretical perspectives of counterpublic proposed by critics such as Nancy Fraser, Kanika Batra and Michel Warner. The findings suggest that Dalit people have transformed Dalit marginal site into a source of resistance.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-10-08T03:16:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221125602
       
  • Reclaiming the Body: Marital Rape and Self-sustainability in Meena
           Kandasamy’s When I Hit You

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      Authors: Joy Das
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      One of the burning issues of recent times is the domestic violence in forms of psychological tortures, physical assault, marital rape, etc., which are more or less visible in every society. This is the concern that leads this article to negotiate how individual identities get reshaped by the socio-cultural and political practices of the given systems of a society. Within this framework, this article analyses how ‘reclaiming the body’ helps ‘self’-sustenance of the female narrator while still contesting with the violated domestic life under the threat of patriarchal society in Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife (2017). In the novel, Kandasamy not only portrays her protagonist as a mere object subjected to patriarchy but also shows the ways of her constructing own ‘self’, more explicitly female subjectivity which this article intends to explore through the theoretical framework of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler’s vision about construction of gender as mere rehearsed performative acts constructed to implement and cherish self-proclaimed supreme patriarchal ‘self’ of the society.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-25T02:17:07Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221122516
       
  • The State and the Madheshi Dalit Women’s Access to Citizenship in
           Nepal

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      Authors: Krishna Prasad Pandey
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The relationship between the state and Madheshi Dalit Womans (MDWs) with reference to the latter’s exercise of citizenship right has long been a contested issue in Nepal due to the latter’s alleged immigrant history and cultural and familial connection with the Dalits of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh of India. The MDWs who are at the lowest social order in Nepal because of their intersecting subordinate identities based on gender, caste, ethnic and class have been systematically excluded from the domain of Nepali citizenship during due course of hill-based national identity formation. Consequently, large number of the MDWs, their spouses and children have remained stateless or struggled hard to obtain citizenship owing to ethnic, caste, gender and class-based exclusion even after insertion of jus soli provisos for a brief period in the 2006 Citizenship Act. On this backdrop, this article, based on qualitative field study in the eastern Tarai, is an effort to explore the intricacies of the citizenshiplessness of the MDWs of Nepal’s eastern Tarai from their subjective experiences. The findings reveal a disappointing picture of citizenshiplessness of the MDW families by virtue of multiple forms of exclusion and also a sustained hierarchy within themselves based on access to different types of citizenship.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-25T02:01:07Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221122561
       
  • Learning Styles and Academic Achievement of Tribal Students

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      Authors: Sumitha P., R. Siva Prasadh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Access to education for all is a hurdle task for a vast country like India. It is extra difficult when we consider the remote hamlets of tribal people. Tribal education was given prime importance by the different educational policies throughout the time. There are different issues like language, culture, lack of awareness, and so on, which are threat to achieving the goal. The educational goals mostly would not get fulfilled in the schools of tribal area. This may be related to the learning styles of tribal students as there is a close association between the learning styles of students and their academic achievement. In this context, the researcher studied the learning styles used by the tribal students in Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district of Andhra Pradesh state, to identify the predominant learning style of tribal students. This article also discusses about the relation between learning styles and academic achievement of the students. If the student identifies their learning styles, it will help them to plan their way of learning. Similarly, if the teachers identify the learning styles of students, teaching learning activities could be planned accordingly.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-21T05:40:32Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221128107
       
  • Revisiting Major Approaches to Tribal Development in India: A Brief Review
           of Isolationist, Integrationist and Assimilative Approaches

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      Authors: Pradeep Kumar B.
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Three approaches, namely, isolationists, integrationists and Assimilative approaches are at the centre stage of philosophical and theoretical foundations that shape the discourses pertaining to the progress of tribal communities in India. Different schemes of tribal development implemented in India find their expression in at least one of these approaches. While the isolationist approach seeks to attain tribal development by treating tribal communities as specimens in a National Park, the integrationist approach calls for integrating the tribal communities with the mainstream. Undoubtedly, the isolationist approach has turned out to be an utter failure as it emphasizes confining the tribal communities within the forest, pushing them further to darkness and miseries. Integration is the ‘respectful merger’ of the tribal communities with the mainstream, staking a claim to an equal share of power and resources. Nevertheless, thrown into the ‘net’ of modernists from the ‘lap’ of nature in the name of integration, tribal communities have become the victims of modern industrialization. This calls for the ‘selective and slow integration’ of tribal communities with the mainstream population. However, this selective and gradual integration should be accompanied by suitable ‘protectionist’ instruments to devise an enhanced strategy aiming at the progress of the tribal communities.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-20T09:34:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221122600
       
  • Beyond Enrolment and Appropriation Politics in Dalit Girls’ Education:
           

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      Authors: Namrata Shokeen
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      While contemplating on Dalit girls’ education, a large body of research and policy drafts generally draws from the integration of enrolment and appropriation politics (around being a ‘Dalit’ and ‘women’) to explore the educational experiences and challenges of Dalit girls in the Indian education system. However, less attention is given to what lies beyond the enrolment and appropriation politics in Dalit girls’ education. This article is based on an empirical study conducted among households associated with ‘Unclean’ occupations from two urban cities of Haryana. In order to position Dalit girls’ education beyond enrolment and appropriation politics, the article attempts to unmask the ‘multiple patriarchies’ embedded in the socio-economic barriers often pervading Dalit girls in the Indian education system. While doing so, the article demonstrates the inseparable intersectionality of caste and gender, through the workings of external Brahmanical as well as internal Dalit patriarchy simultaneously functioning against Dalit girls’ education. Eventually, the article calls for a need to position Dalit girls’ education in a Dalit feminist standpoint framework.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-16T01:44:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221118491
       
  • Sairat Zaala Ji…

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      Authors: Morve Roshan K., Xu Wen
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      In Maharashtra, a few numbers of films have been produced on Dalit marginal or subaltern narratives, mainly based on the intersectionality of caste and gender conflicts. Unfortunately, these films have not received good responses nor got a box office success like Sairat movie did in the twenty-first century. In India, caste conflict, Brahminical hegemony and gender discrimination issues have produced fewer cinematic narratives about subalterns and badly left them without a voice. This article significantly exemplifies the Sairat movie to understand how a young generation in Maharashtra (especially from the rural areas) is facing caste hierarchy, class conflict, discrimination, gender-related issues and challenges in their lives. A class conflict and the characters’ struggle can be seen through the protagonists Parshya (Akash Thosar) and Archi (Rinku Rajguru) when they get married and start living their lives as an average couple, but nothing happens as a happy ending. This story re/presents the struggle of inter-caste marriage couples, social unacceptability and exclusion. They fail to resist the social, political and caste conflicts and get killed. In short, they become a victim of honour killing. To conclude, Sairat represents social, gender and caste conflict and reflects the struggle of youngsters in inter-caste marriages.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-05T07:29:11Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221117629
       
  • Becoming Dalit Women’s Voice: Engaging with Self-reflective
           Narrative in Bama’s Karukku

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      Authors: Shiv Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit writings are considered to be centred on the issue of identity politics. Most analysis rests on their claim of identity as fixed and static. They ignore an embedded process of various spatial implications, characters’ interaction with it, and a self-reflexive narrative gaze that most of the prominent Dalit writers present through their autobiographical narratives. Concentration on these concepts provides a fresh perspective to critically analyse Dalit writings and presents a different understanding of identity formation. This article proposes to unearth this process through a reading of Bama’s Karukku (2012), in English translation. It attempts to establish that identity formation in Dalit writings is a process that is based on various kinds of spatial experiences that could be divided into three stages of development. This process culminates in transforming a character into a politically conscious Dalit figure. Also, this article attempts to chart a character’s development that corroborates to body’s spatial-cultural location and its response to/within that space. It is an attempt to understand various spatial ramifications that the character experiences in an attempt to forge an identity outside the traditional definition.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-05T07:28:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221117406
       
  • Dalit Literary Narratives: An Expression of the Lives of the
           Downtrodden—A Study

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      Authors: Mitul Sarkar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-04T06:45:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221117909
       
  • Towards Visibility: Subaltern Counterpublics in Paul Chirakkarode’s
           Pulayathara

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      Authors: Christina Romeo, Anupama Nayar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Christianity has always been celebrated as a catalyst towards modernity for the Dalits of Kerala. Though missionary accounts and ethnographic studies confirm the progress of the community, there was rampant casteism and separatism too. This is succinctly revealed in Dalit Christian texts. Pulayathara by Paul Chirakkarode stands as a testimony to the Dalit Christian dilemma and traces the history of the Kuttanadan Pulaya community in the pre- and post-conversion scenarios. Conversions could not change the existing public sphere of Kerala, where upper castes were the dominant party. They (Dalits) continued to be marginalized and subordinated and lacked a class consciousness. The article highlights the limitations in the public sphere that emerged in Kerala as part of the missionary endeavours in accommodating the converted Dalits. The article attempts to trace the emergence of subaltern counterpublics among the Dalit Christians to oppose the continued oppression and casteism by situating Pulayathara at the centre of the analysis.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-09-01T12:17:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221117639
       
  • Response of Local Government towards the Rural Dalits during the Second
           Wave of COVID-19: A Ground Experience from Remuna Block in the Balasore
           District of Odisha

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      Authors: Gayadhar Malik
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit masses have historically been deprived of all sorts of privileges both socially and economically. But the debacle experience of rural Dalits during the pandemic in developing countries like India pose serious difficulties and challenges for accessing state-sponsored package and the state of Odisha is not an exception in this regard. Though Dalits’ conditions still remain unchanged due to ill practices of untouchability, the recent surge of coronavirus further pushed them into a deep catastrophic situation. This new experience brought multiple burdens on Dalits that affects their livelihood where poverty and malnutrition increased to some extent. In addition, the response of local governments during the first wave of COVID-19 across the country proved encouraging, but with the emergence of the second wave of COVID-19, it becomes pathetic in all aspects, which caused thousands of infections and deaths. The condition of rural Dalits of Odisha remains unchanged though the Constitution of India guarantees rights for all-round development of all sections of people, Dalits still suffer from exploitation and discrimination. This study attempts to understand the response of local government towards the rural Dalits of Odisha during the second wave of COVID-19 and tries to explore the ground reality that there is inherent local corruption and mismanagement of local funds, which caused the worst conditions for rural Dalits in the villages where majority populations are Dalits. The findings and inferences of the study reveal that Dalits of Odisha in general and Remuna Block of Balasore district in particular, faced more challenges in income, education and lack of health facilities during the second wave of COVID-19 due to their marginalization and lack of knowledge about COVID-19 having low economic status. The suggestive measures have been made at the end of the article to minimize such unpleasant conditions of Dalits and their miserable conditions at any stage, especially during the outbreak of any pandemic, natural calamities must be taken into consideration by focusing on different social and economic dimensions that empower the Dalits.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-28T03:44:35Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221115610
       
  • Disrupting Caste Hegemony in Punjab: A Reading of the Punjabi Dalit Poetry
           of the Pre-Independence Period

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      Authors: Ravinder Kaur
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The idea of caste has always been debatable, contested and controversial. Since the time of its inception, it has been prevalent throughout India. Any Indian cannot define his or her identity without referring to his or her caste. However, it also became and still is a reason behind the marginalization and exploitation of millions of people. Various activists, scholars, thinkers, political leaders and literary writers have tried to fight against the stigmatization of a particular caste. However, the experience of caste discrimination is not the same in all the states of India. Though the basic problems and concerns of Dalits such as untouchability and exploitation are the same, their degree and intensity vary from one state to another. Various cultural, social and economic moorings impact the way caste-based discrimination is practised in a particular society. Various critics from Punjab such as Ronki Ram, Harish Puri and Paramjit Judge argue that the experience of Dalits in Punjab is comparatively different than those in other parts of India because in Punjab casteism was practised not on the basis of purity/pollution syndrome but as a divide between the landless and the land-owning communities, so they have studied the material aspect of caste. It is observed that the literary writings by Dalits from Punjab highlight instances of untouchability and caste-based discrimination in the pre- and post-independence periods. They resisted and protested against the caste system and also claimed to overthrow it. Therefore, the article seeks to evaluate the notion of casteless in Punjab. It takes into account the poetry of Gurdas Ram Alam, Charan Das Nidharak and Pritam Ramdaspuri. Through the qualitative content analysis using theories of Dalit aesthetics, the article explores the major thrust areas of Punjabi Dalit poets and highlights how these poets express their caste identity and try to raise the consciousness of their fellow caste members and protest against the discriminatory practices of the dominant Punjabi society and culture. It also, in a way, makes these poets (and those communities to which they belong) a subcultural phenomenon that runs parallel to the dominant Jatt culture of Punjab.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-26T12:16:25Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221116028
       
  • Book review: Rup Kumar Barman, Caste, Class and Culture: The Malos,
           Adwaita Malla Barman and History of India and Bangladesh

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      Authors: Pritam Goswami
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Rup Kumar Barman, Caste, Class and Culture: The Malos, Adwaita Malla Barman and History of India and Bangladesh. New Delhi: Abhijeet Publications, 2020, 224 pp., ₹ 978-93-88865-49-4 (Hardback)
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-26T12:08:00Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221119034
       
  • Voices and Perspectives of Dalit Elected Women Representatives in Local
           Governance and Politics in Kerala, India

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      Authors: P. Akhila
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores how gender socialization as women along with other intersecting identities influence the perspectives of Dalit Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) on power relations in the political space of Kerala. The purpose of the article is to understand the perspectives of Dalit EWRs on power relations in local governance, which reveal the barriers, their interest and aspirations in local governance and politics. The perspectives are elicited through detailed interviews of EWRs for two time periods. The study finds that EWRs participation in local electoral politics and the extent to gain space for decision-making would depend on their ability to overcome barriers to their representation and acceptance in decision-making fora. They also faced caste discrimination and allegations of favouritism in the governance.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-26T12:07:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221116025
       
  • Democracy, Development and Political Representation: Notes on Dalit
           Assertion in Uttar Pradesh

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      Authors: Zeeshan Husain
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article takes three concepts, namely ‘democracy’, ‘development’ and ‘political representation’ as entry points to understand the functioning of democracy in Uttar Pradesh. India, since the 1980s, has seen a tremendous rise of ‘lowered’ caste people and a parallel rise of Hindu communalism by ‘upper’ castes. In this respect, it becomes pertinent to ask if the rise of plebeians in Uttar Pradesh’s political sphere brought about any actual change in the lives of the plebeians. In search for an answer to this question, this article looks at the conspicuous rise of Dalits from the early 1980s. It proposes that rather than looking from the vantage point of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Dalit assertion must be seen through non-BSP factors and broader socio-economic and demographic changes happening before the 1980s in the state. Thus, the article delves into the lives of All India Backward (SC, ST, and OBC) and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF), Dalit Panthers, Ambedkarite social activists and Ravidasis-Buddhists. It argues that Dalit assertion is about the deepening of formal democracy, increment in substantive democracy and a demand for greater civility. Dalit movement is not ethnic, rather, it is universal, and the article explores it through secondary literature and fieldwork-based observations in Uttar Pradesh.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-26T12:06:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221115614
       
  • Book review: Rup Kumar Barman, Migration, State Policies and Citizenship:
           A Historical Study on India, Bangladesh and Bhutan

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      Authors: Soumyajit Mukherjee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Rup Kumar Barman, Migration, State Policies and Citizenship: A Historical Study on India, Bangladesh and Bhutan. New Delhi: Aayu Publication, 2021, xxviii + 242 pp., ₹1,895. ISBN: 978-93-89381-13-9 (Hardback).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-24T06:34:05Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221119881
       
  • Caste and Access to Education in Rural Punjab: A Case of Premarket
           Discrimination

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      Authors: Harpreet Singh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Education enables the growth and development of nations and individuals through multiple channels. However, everyone may not have access to education in general and to quality education in particular. This article is a modest attempt to explore the issue of caste-based premarket discrimination in rural Punjab. Caste-wise differences in access to education are analysed using the primary survey data collected in 2015–2016 from 12 villages spread across three districts—Bathinda, Jalandhar and Rupnagar—of Punjab. The analyses show that Scheduled Castes (SC) lack access to education facilities. Compared to the non-SC, a significantly larger proportion of the SC is found illiterate. It is observed that almost, at every level of education the percentage of SC possessing that level of qualification is lesser than that of the non-SC. The females are facing dual discrimination as their access to education is relatively poor in general and poorest for females belonging to the SC community in particular. Caste consciousness among the students is observed in case of their close friendship relations with peer group and seating preferences in the class.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-24T06:33:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221117403
       
  • A Plan to Exclude Ethnic Groups and Implement Partial Development
           Programme Under ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana’ in the Indian
           Subcontinent: A Case Based on Madurai District in Tamil Nadu

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      Authors: T. Amose, N. Sreedevi, KR. Jeyakumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Madurai district in Tamil Nadu consists of three forestry regions such as Kurinji Nagar, Alagammalpuram and Mokathanparai as the residence of ethnic groups. The central scheme Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) found that it has no beneficiaries from the regions, and as usual the ethnic groups consume firewood with several difficulties. Hence, the study focuses on cooking energy consumers among ethnic groups as beneficiaries in detail under PMUY. A total of 108 households were chosen for the analysis which is the actual total number of households of ethnic groups in the district. Collected data have been tested by statistical tools, such as Chi-square and ANOVA, to know the relationship and the efficiency of factors, which influences the results that a majority of ethnic groups are expected to benefit under PMUY with free of cost, and they face climatic difficulties in traditional energy consumption.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-24T06:32:34Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221115597
       
  • The Interfacing History and Narrative Representation of Bengali Dalit
           Refugeehood in Jatin Bala’s Stories of Social Awakening: Reflections of
           Dalit Refugee Lives of Bengal

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      Authors: Bidisha Pal, Md Mojibur Rahman
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Bengali Dalit refugees and refugeehood fall under the less discussed chapter in the streamlined flow of history and narratives. Often within the hegemonic macro-narratives of partition, the ‘common minimal narratives’ (Kaur, 2008, Narrative absence: An ‘Untouchable’ account of partition migration. Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 42, p. 286) of the Bengali Dalit refugees get suppressed and subsided. The Dalit refugee accounts contribute a significant lot to the constructing cartographies of history. The article focuses on the representation of Dalit refugees in the anthology Stories of Social Awakening: Reflections of Dalit Refugee Lives in Bengal (2017) by the refugee author Jatin Bala. While providing a vent for polyphonic refugee voices, Bala creates an interface of history and narrative representation of the existential and identity crisis of Dalit refugees with concepts of resettlement and partitioning reality, violence, trauma memory and struggle for sustenance. The study extends its inquiry to the much curious trajectory of history and narrative of Bengali Dalit refugeehood; how the lopsided relationship and crucial junctures between the objective history and the subjective narrative representations make interplay of past and present in portraying violence and memory in the lives of the Dalit refugees. The study also explores how the narrative short fictions deconstruct the ‘essential victimhood’ of the refugees who rise above the harrowing experiences of the spatiotemporal boundary of history and reconstruct the fractured identities to be the true conscious souls of the society in building solidarity.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-21T10:24:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221115410
       
  • Tribal Imprint on Goa’s Cultural Identity: Kunbi-Gawdaization of Goa

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      Authors: Mozinha Fernandes, Shaila Desouza
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Discussions around Goa’s unique cultural identity and debates around the need for a special status for the state of Goa within India are not new. Reasons ascribed to this have oscillated between Goa’s colonial history, the geography of being nestled in the Western Ghats with a long-indented coastline, the tourism industry and the friendliness of the local people. This article based on an ethnographic study of the Kunbi-Gawda tribal community in Goa explores the tribal contribution to the framing of Goa’s cultural identity. Using the tribal icon of dress, namely the dhentulli this article illustrates how Kunbi-Gawdaization is the current cultural identity of the State as tribal icons are used in the imaging of Goa.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-21T10:23:28Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221118793
       
  • Book review: Sunaina Arya and Aakash Singh Rathore, ed., Dalit Feminist
           Theory: A Reader

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      Authors: Srirupa Mukherjee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Sunaina Arya and Aakash Singh Rathore, ed., Dalit Feminist Theory: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 2020, 245 pp., $8,315.92 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-0-367-43841-8.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-08-06T08:16:27Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221115590
       
  • Water and Dalits: A Historical Study of United Provinces (1900Ð1950)

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      Authors: Arvind Swaroop
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Water has been a critical resource for the survival of the biotic world. This paper explores the relationship between Dalits and access to water in the United Provinces. It documents the social condition and economic status of Dalits and their impact on livelihood structure. The fact is that the Dalit community is dependent critically on water and other natural resources due to its involvement with labour and agriculture. This paper seeks to explore the historical dimension of Dalit’s struggle to gain access to water in the United Provinces. The history of the relationship between water and Dalits in the United Provinces shows the way social exclusion manifested in the domain of access to water. This paper has been divided into four sections, the first section provides general information about Dalits, and the second section proposes a brief review of the literature. The third section attempts to trace the relationship between water and Dalits in the process of exclusion and inclusion of Dalits from natural resources in North India and the final section provides an illation of this paper.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-18T10:51:28Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108299
       
  • Between Caste and Occupation: Issues of Sweeper Community in Kashmir

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      Authors: Khanday Mudasir Ahmad, Habibullah Shah
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by occupational ranking, intermarrying and ritual hierarchy. The hierarchy here includes disparities in status and access to goods and services. This disparity is mainly found among lower castes like sweepers. Sweepers belong to the lowest rung regarding caste and occupation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. They use long-handled brooms and carts to sweep roads, gardens, marketplaces and other public places. This study attempted to review the existing literature to exhibit caste and occupation-based issues of this particular community in Kashmir. A systematic review methodology was espoused, and the relevant literature was searched through key databases, such as Google Scholar, Project Muse, PubMed, JSTOR and ScienceDirect, for this review paper by combining the keywords. The systematic review revealed that in Kashmir, the sweeper community was at the bottom of the caste and occupational structure. This mechanism institutionalizes the transmission of unclean work from generation to generation, and it was still a structural flaw that maintained inequality against the sweeper community. The people of this community are found educationally backward, socially ostracized and economically inferior. The upper castes typically forbid these people from entering their homes, whereas living amidst this community is deemed unpleasant. The process of caste mobility, such as Sayyidization, similar to Sanskritization and Ashrafization, is evident among the members of the sweeper community.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-18T10:50:54Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108286
       
  • Book review: Akhila Naik, Bheda (Translated by Raj Kumar)

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      Authors: Kuber Nag
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Akhila Naik, Bheda (Translated by Raj Kumar) (Oxford University Press, 2017), 108 pp. ₹495 (paperback). ISBN-13:978-0-19-947607-7
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-15T01:38:52Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221110667
       
  • Formation of the Valmiki Heritage: Making Sense of Dalit Cultural
           Assertion in Punjab

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      Authors: Yogesh Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article seeks to understand the agenda of the government of Punjab behind the recent construction of the cultural heritage of sant/guru Valmiki which is attracting a sizable population of the Dalit community known as Balmikis in the state. In this context, the article explores the historical role of the Adi-Dharam Samaj, an anti-caste reformist movement by the Balmiki community. This movement has adopted various new modes and strategies to mobilize the community. It also subscribes to the philosophy of Ad Dharm to define a separate religious identity for Dalits, especially the Balmiki community separate from Hindus and Sikhs. It has also adopted a distinct path of ensuring Dalit social mobility without following the dominant modes like Sanskritization and conversion. The making of Dalit cultural heritage is a significant development in a realm that explores the extremely marginalized community within Dalits, and their attempt at identity articulation and assertion in contemporary Punjab.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-15T01:34:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108317
       
  • Motherhood and Child Healthcare Experiences Among a Unique PVTG of West
           Bengal, India: A Case of Tradition, Transition and Transformation for the
           Sake of Existence

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      Authors: Pinak Tarafdar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      All over the world and, moreover, in the developing countries like India, women experience threats to their lives, health and well-being are also overburdened with work and lack power and influence; further, the situation is vulnerable among the marginalized segment. A unique PVTG of the northern part of West Bengal is struggling for its very existence through the life experiences of motherhood and childcare practices. It is noticed that most often they follow the age-old traditions while not completely unaware of the modern biomedical procedures. The lack of accessibility makes them less confident towards the latter. A typical state of transition is evident, although their conceptions regarding the pregnancy, delivery and childcare practices are not significantly hyper-medicalized. Rather a continuous existence of humanization of birth process is being practised. The article explores the conspicuous women participation and significant roles in the entire health-seeking behaviour in connection to pregnancy, childbirth and related health care issues. Furthermore, the entire discourse also elucidates the state of motherhood and its intrinsic decision-making behaviour in order to retain the economic viability of the population.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-15T01:33:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108298
       
  • Status and Survival of Dalit Women-headed Households: Socio-economic
           Analysis

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      Authors: Yoganandham G, Jayendira P Sankar, Sasintha G
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      In both developing and developed countries, women play a primary source of the social-economic support of the families. Unless there is no adult male living in the family permanently, Dalit women are not considered the head of the household. Gender bias exists when it is stated that the head of the family must always be an adult male, even if a woman’s socio-economic contribution to household upkeep is equal to or higher than a man’s. Most female-headed households are unplanned, as humans rather than natural forces established them. When males leave the family or divorce for any reason, the Dalit woman is left with the massive task of looking after the children. The Dalit women-headed households belonged to a wide area to analyse the Ranipet district of Tamil Nadu. Women, on the other hand, are unaware of their rights. It is especially true for low-income women. They are also discouraged from obtaining legal help due to a lack of financial resources and the duration of the legal process. It is possible to conclude that regulations alone will not be sufficient to prevent discrimination against Dalit women. Hence, the researcher analyses the socio-economic conditions and the status and survival of women’s headed households in the Ranipet district of Tamil Nadu.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-11T11:08:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221109979
       
  • Educational Attainment, Literacy and Health Status of Scheduled Caste
           Students in Jammu and Kashmir

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      Authors: Bushan Kumar, Syed Zahoor Ahmad Geelani, Gh. Jeelani Bhat
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The issue of the reservation system and its impression on scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have generated considerable debate. It is crucial to comprehend how far the scheduled castes, a socially marginalized minority, fall behind the rest of India in terms of human development. This article aims to examine the many human development elements, such as the educational attainment of the scheduled caste community in Jammu and Kashmir. Secondary data have been gathered for this purpose from the Chief Educational Office Doda and Unified District Information for the Education System. The population and literacy data eventually came from the Census 2011, and the health data came from the National Family Health Survey (2019–2020). This study displays the literacy and health-related elements of the scheduled caste population. The study also relates the scheduled caste status to other social groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-11T11:08:24Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108028
       
  • Dalit Women and the Question of Representation: Issues of Caste and Gender

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      Authors: Bhavesh R. Gohel
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Gupta (2016) in The gender of caste: Representing Dalits in print points out that media and print are responsible for creating the stereotypical images of Dalit women. They are always represented by their caste identities and not as individuals. Female bodies are represented as closely knit to their caste identities; the characteristic of the caste becomes the representation of the bodies of Dalit women. On the one hand, Dalit women are represented by the upper caste as wicked, cunning, house breakers, immoral, ugly and polluted, and on the other hand, they are represented as weak and passive victims who need care and help to come out of their misery. But it is not the case when the Dalit women represent themselves. So, the question here arises: How are caste and gender related' What is the role of caste in the manipulation of the identity of Dalit women' How is caste identity related to the question of gender and the creation of stereotypes in the context of Dalit women' What are the structures which are working in the formation of stereotypes which are directly or indirectly related to such representations' This paper explores the complex relationship between representation, caste and gender concerning the representation of Dalit women through the analysis of Joseph Macwan’s The Stepchild.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-11T11:07:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108302
       
  • Bengali Dalits Speak: A Critical Study of Jatin Bala’s A Verse as a
           Sharpened Weapon

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      Authors: Tarik Anowar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit literature in India emerged as a movement of Ambedkarite ideology to challenge caste discrimination. Poetry as a popular genre has been adopted by Dalit writers to disseminate revolutionary ideas to bring about a change in society. They significantly unmask how the upper caste Hindus hold the supreme power to ostracize the Namashudras (Dalits) in the name of religion and caste. A Bengali Dalit poet Jatin Bala with a liberal vision and mission, used his words to protest, revolt and negotiate with the domineering ideology. His poetry A Verse as a Sharpened Weapon not only breaks the myth that West Bengal is a casteless society but also carries a note of dissent against the upper caste hegemony. He has successfully constructed the poetic device with aesthetic values to showcase the domination and oppression that Dalits face in Bengal. As a revolutionary poet, Bala breaks the chain of age-old caste oppression and reverberates the message of liberty, equality and fraternity through his verse. The present article examines Jatin Bala’s poetry to explore the theme of exploitation and protest. It also shows how Bala’s poetry becomes the voice of resistance, liberation and emancipation of his community from bondage.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-07-11T11:07:31Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108295
       
  • Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Context of Religious Conversion

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      Authors: Milind E. Awad
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      It is evidently seen that the history of religion has gone through various historical trajectories, such as conflicts and appropriation, spread and conversion, individual change and social transformation. In the recent history of conversion, Dr Ambedkar’s mass conversion to Buddhism is one of the important cultural phenomena in India. In this article, I intend to discuss the social–cultural context of Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s historical public conversion from Hinduism to Buddhism in 1956 at Nagpur, Maharashtra. Further, I argue that Dr Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism was an attempt of replacement of the ‘common sense’ of historically humiliated and stigmatized ‘untouchable’ castes. It was an attempt of the restructuring and culturalization of the untouchable castes through rejecting the ‘coercion’ and ‘consent’ of the hegemonic structure of caste Hindu cultural authority, which was functional as a culture authority and social power. I argue that Dr Ambedkar’s religious conversion was an attempt to establish the epistemological separation and formulation of social ontology through the cultural imagination of ‘ex-communicated’ castes with the refusal of the ideology of ‘pure and impure’.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-29T09:50:55Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108039
       
  • Recasting the Tribal Warrior: The Politics of Paratexts in Mayilamma: The
           Life of a Tribal Eco-warrior

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      Authors: Liju Jacob Kuriakose
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article attempts to read the paratextual elements in Mayilamma: The Life of a Tribal Eco-warrior (2018), the translated autobiography of Mayilamma, a tribal activist from Kerala, India, who led the protest against a Coca-Cola plant in their village. This study also attempts to analyse how translations work to shape and control marginalized life narratives, within an academic framework that caters to predominantly Western imaginings of the marginal exotic. It further questions how a marginalized life narrative is conceived and processed within the larger academia, as well as by the publishing industry. It provides a detailed discourse analysis of the paratextual elements in Mayilamma: The Life of a Tribal Eco-warrior to bring out its market politics and the process of exoticizing the marginalized. This article argues that through paratexts, there is an attempt to formulate a subject–object out of Mayilamma, within the academic imaginings of a marginal exotic rebel tribeswoman.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-26T07:54:51Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106038
       
  • Understanding the Reasons of Decline of Pasmanda Movement: Insights from a
           Region

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      Authors: Shamsher Alam
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Pasmanda Movement is nearly a 100-year-old discourse. However, this movement is not competent enough to unite Muslims, particularly the Pasmanda Muslims, under one banner. It could not develop as a vigorous sociopolitical movement to gain political benefit. In this context, this article attempts to divulge the causes of its deterioration. Analysing so, it tries to trace the unity among Muslims with regard to this discourse. This article also attempts to understand the political philosophy of this movement. This article aims to underline the protests managed by the followers of the movement regarding the Scheduled Caste status for Dalit Muslims. It highlights the assertion of movement in the upsurge of right-wing and secular versus communal politics. This also strives to understand the nature of this discourse in terms of its independency. This article analyses its silence upon the orthodoxy among the Muslim community and their activism through social media to continue this movement.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-22T06:25:55Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106045
       
  • Inequality of School Enrolment and Literacy Status Between Scheduled Tribe
           and Non-Scheduled Tribe Community: A Critical Study in West Bengal

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      Authors: Bapan Biswas, Kaushal Kumar Sharma
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Historically, the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community is deprived of primary education and suffers from a lower literacy rate in India, particularly in West Bengal. From this perspective, the study aims to find the trend of the primary gross-enrolment ratio (PGER) of 7–14 years aged children and the overall literacy rate in the ST community as compared to its non-ST counterpart. The study also focuses on gendered literacy disparity in ST and non-ST communities. Gendered literacy disparity is measured using modified Sopher’s disparity index of Kundu and Rao (Educational planning: A long term perspective, 1986 [pp. 435–466], NIEPA). Besides, paired sample t-test is applied for the empirical result. Apart from this, a comparative analysis of rural and urban Bengal is made. The study reveals that in India as a whole and particularly in West Bengal, the literacy rate and PGER have yet not achieved its desired goal. The condition was worse in the ST community in the previous census and has created a wide PGER and literacy gap with the non-ST community. Gendered literacy disparity exists in both the communities, though the level is very high in the ST community.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-22T06:25:50Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106048
       
  • Caste and Premarket Discrimination: Access to Civic Amenities and
           Healthcare Facilities in Rural Punjab

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      Authors: Harpreet Singh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Access to civic amenities improves the quality of life as well as helps to overcome various health-related problems. The focus of the present study is to examine the caste-based premarket discrimination concerning access to civic amenities and healthcare facilities in rural Punjab. The primary data, collected from 12 villages of Punjab during the year 2015–2016, is analysed applying the univariate analysis technique. The analyses prove that the Scheduled Castes (SC), compared with non-SC households, have low access to the basic civic amenities of safe drinking water, drainage and toilet facility. A similar disadvantageous position of SC vis-à-vis non-SC households exists in rural Punjab so far as the ownership of the durable household assets of entertainment, household utilities, tools of information and communication technology, and means of transportation are concerned. The SC and non-SC were found to have equal access to the available healthcare facilities; nevertheless, both caste groups received different treatment from the medical staff.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-20T08:26:15Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106908
       
  • Governing Their Way: Traditional Self-governing Institutions Among the Tai
           Khamtis of Arunachal Pradesh

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      Authors: Chuchengfa Gogoi
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Democracy has the quality of governance as it encourages people’s participation in decision-making and provides ample space for a transparent and egalitarian society based on equality, freedom and justice. Many democratic institutions have the qualities of internal governance, which broadens the idea of transparency, accountability, equal participation, responsiveness etc. The traditional self-governing institutions also have similar internal and external qualities to a democratic institution. Notably, many tribal communities in the north-eastern part of India have several such institutions working enormously in establishing democratic temperament and quasi-judicial activities, which are otherwise the prime functions of a modern democratic institution. The Khamtis are also not an exception. Khamtis are the prime ethnic dwellers of the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh under the district of Namsai. They have their self-governing traditional institutions, which still have been actively performing their role in the administration of the village and the tribe. Many of the village-level decisions have been taken by the self-governing institutions along with the modern democratic institutions based on customary laws. Hence, it is interesting to study how the traditional institutions are rooted in the community life of the Khamtis and the present status of those institutions with the deepening of modern democracy. This study applied a case study method for the collection of information.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-17T04:23:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106031
       
  • Social Marginality, Adversity and Adolescent Thriving in India: A
           Narrative Review

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      Authors: Justin P. Jose, Sreehari Ravindranath, Vishal Talreja, Suchetha Bhat
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      All human beings are inherently motivated for self-improvement and growth. People tend to respond diversely in the face of adversity, from succumbing and recovering to remaining resilient and thrive. The present narrative review is not an exhaustive review of the existing literature on thriving but is an informed effort to add to the adolescent thriving discourse within the conceptual background of social marginality in the Indian context. This review thus defines and summarizes perspectives, determinants and assessment of thriving. It also discusses the interaction between social marginality, adversity and adolescences. Finally, this review discusses the opportunities opened by the new National Education Policy 2020 for thriving interventions and research.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-17T04:23:35Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221101683
       
  • Placing the Dalit Women at the Intersections: A Sociological Study of Dom
           Women of Kolkata

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      Authors: Atufah Nishat
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article uses Crenshaw’s (Standford Law Review, 1989, vol. 43, pp. 1241–1299) concept of intersectionality to understand the everyday experiences at the workplace of the lower-caste Dalit women belonging to the manual scavenging community (Dom community) of Kolkata, West Bengal. This article tries to map out and understand the concept of intersectionality by placing the Dalit women at the intersections of caste, class, and gender oppression and see how these structures play out in her everyday life. This article will attempt to place the experiences of the Dalit women vis-à-vis their male and upper-caste lower-class female counterparts to understand how their experiences are similar or different from them. This article is based on the narratives collected through interviews and tries to explore how lying at the intersections produces everyday instances of violence and humiliation for Dalit women. This article highlights how structures of oppression often overlap in various ways to produce our everyday lives.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-14T05:10:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106029
       
  • Book review: Ghanshyam Shah, Kanak Kanti Bagchi and Vishwanatha Kalaiah
           (Eds.), Education and Caste in India: The Dalit Question

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      Authors: Md. Rakibul Islam, Md Jakir Hossain
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Ghanshyam Shah, Kanak Kanti Bagchi and Vishwanatha Kalaiah (Eds.), Education and Caste in India: The Dalit Question (South Asia Edition). Routledge, 2020, 232 pp., ₹995 (Hardcover). ISBN: 978-0-367-74943-9.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-14T05:07:30Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106028
       
  • Book review: Rup Kumar Barman, Paribarta Anusandhan: Rashtra, Nagarikatta,
           Bastuchyuti O Itihascharcha

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      Authors: Partha Mukherjee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Rup Kumar Barman, Paribarta Anusandhan: Rashtra, Nagarikatta, Bastuchyuti O Itihascharcha. Gangchil, 2022, 170 pp. ₹450 (Hardback), ISBN: 978-93-93569-38-7.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-14T05:03:59Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221106026
       
  • How the COVID-19 Pandemic has Affected Transgender Community People:
           Findings From a Telephonic Survey in Odisha

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      Authors: Rajesh Barik, Shiba Shankar Pattayat
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Alike any other marginalized groups of people, the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 virus has also catastrophically damaged the lifestyle of the transgender persons in Odisha. In order to understand the life struggle of transgender people during the world pandemic, this study is an attempt to examine their life experience throughout the pandemic and their strategic plans to deal with such tragic crisis. To materialize the above cited objectives, we have conducted 30 telephonic interviews from two cities (Cuttack and Bhubaneswar) of Odisha. We asked some open-ended questions regarding their struggle to survive, family support, availability of government assistances and accessibility of basic services and their mental conditions during the pandemic time. Our finding from the survey depicts that there was much fear and insecurity among the transgender people during the pandemic time. Because of the loss of basic earnings, shortage of foods and unavailability of other basic essentials, with the sense of group solidarity, they managed to survive with meagre substances. However, lack of family support during the pandemic, exclusion from government benefits, restrictions in social mobility and the fear of COVID-19 virus infection led to increase their mental distress and made their life more miserable.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-14T05:03:58Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221103664
       
  • The Myth of the Ten-Year Limit on Reservations and Dr Ambedkar’s
           Stance

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      Authors: Anurag Bhaskar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      It is a common perception that the reservation framework for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India was supposed to last only for a period of 10 years, and that B. R. Ambedkar himself was a proponent of this view. This article analyses the historical material to argue that the supposed time limit on reservations is a falsehood. The initial time limit was imposed only on political reservations (subject to few conditions) and not on reservations in services and education. It would be demonstrated that Ambedkar was not in favour of any time limit even on political reservations, and that the temporary 10-year limit imposed on political reservation was a decision adopted by other members, who formed the majority in the Constituent Assembly. It would be further demonstrated that Ambedkar had suggested the method of constitutional amendments to keep increasing the initial time limit on political reservations.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-06-06T12:13:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221101674
       
  • Demystifying the Myths Associated with Caste-Based Reservation

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      Authors: Sandeep Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Affirmative action of the State policy (caste-based reservation) was essentially inserted into the Constitution of India to bring historically exploited, discriminated and marginalized scheduled castes and schedule tribes into the mainstream public life by ensuring the dignity of life through better representational opportunities in public employment. Contrary to its professed aim, it has, in practice, ensured only a skewed representation of people from reserved castes. The conscious attempts are being made to slowly eroding it by vilifying it on various pretexts such as reservation is a compromise with merit, efficiency and the most deserving candidates suffer and so on. The underlying objective of such disparaged attempts is to replace caste-based reservation with an economic-based reservation which evidently defeats the very purpose of caste-based reservation. The introduction of 13-points roster system and 10% reservation are twin attacks on caste-based reservation in recent times apart from the otherwise ‘normalized’ attacks like privatizing the public sector, recruitment on contract/ad-hoc basis and tardy implementation of reservation policy apart from attempts to weaken and demonise SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. These demonising and casteist attacks on caste-based reservation are clearly not isolated and disconnected but obvious manifestations of the interests of select castes. It defeats the essence of affirmative policy of the state. It is clearly a travesty of social justice. This article tries to explore and demystify different facets of reservation policy like the basis of reservation, flawed merit logic, the impact of privatization on reservation, newly introduced reservation for economically weaker section (EWS) and the way ahead to annihilate the caste system.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-30T10:50:01Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221101682
       
  • Feminism of Charal

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      Authors: Sutadripa Dutta Choudhury
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      My article intends to focus on the prevalent silent predilection for mainstream feminism. Dalit feminism perpetrates through discrimination on the caste, class and gender struggle, whereas mainstream feminism has portrayed the struggle that centres around those who are higher in the caste hierarchy. Mainstream feminism has not yet delved into the struggle of those who are striving to raise their voice against the ‘triple monster’ as is coined by Bama in an interview. The triple monster here connotes caste, class and gender bias. My article will read the struggle of women Bangla Dalit writers who are suppressed and oppressed by this ‘triple Monster’.My primary text includes Chandalinir Kabita and Chandalini Bhone by Kalyani Thakur Charal. The article will also read Ami Kano Charal Likhi. Along with these, my article will bring in the contrast of women Dalit writers from another state, for instance, Bama from Tamil Nadu and Urmila Pawar from Maharashtra. The conflict lies here in the fact that the women Bangla Dalit writers in Bengal are subjugated extensively.The article will confront the struggle of Dalit feminism in a world where mainstream feminism reigns and rules securely. Against feminism, Kalyani Thakur Charal asserts that she prefers the term womanism more since womanism has penetrated through those layers that are not yet being evaded by mainstream feminism. Thereby, the article will bring in the concept of Dalit womanism along with the aforementioned statements.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-20T04:32:00Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094358
       
  • Reclaiming Ambedkar Within the Feminist Legacy

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      Authors: Prachi Patil
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Historically analysing the presence of reformers and women’s liberators during the era of national struggle, Ambedkar emerges as a strong advocate of women’s rights in his times. This article discusses Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s role in empowering Dalit and caste-Hindu women through his social and legal strategies. The article begins with an analysis of Ambedkar’s sociological essay ‘Castes in India’ and his timeless analysis of ‘women as gateways of the caste system’. Furthermore, the article traces the national discourse on domesticity of Indian womanhood in Colonial India by analysing Ambedkar’s article in Bahishkrut Bharat on Grihalakshmification of the caste-Hindu woman. The article argues that Ambedkar’s advocacy for women’s entry into the public sphere through employment, as opposed to her domestication, redefined gendered labour within a modern caste society. Despite Ambedkar’s contribution to women’s rights in India, his acceptance in the mainstream feminist movement has been slow and reluctant. Ambedkar’s recognition in the mainstream feminist movement, I argue, results from constant effort and critique by Dalit women which has ruptured the elitist discourse of the mainstream feminist movement by pinpointing the prevalent caste-privilege and caste-blindness in these spaces.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-14T06:02:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221098290
       
  • Word, Books, and the World: Towards an Anti-caste Pedagogy

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      Authors: Anandita Pan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The reservation policy in India claims to address caste discrimination by promoting equality through economic and educational opportunities. Equal opportunities, however, do not often translate into equality. Education remains one of the most prominent tools used to disseminate dominant ideologies and perpetuate oppression. Whether it is the Brahmanical control over Vedic knowledge or the colonial validation of English education as a superior form of knowledge, education inculcates among the oppressed the legitimacy of oppression. The traditional method of education suffers from what Paolo Freire calls ‘narration sickness’. In this form of imparting knowledge, there is usually a teacher who narrates/implants knowledge on the patient, silent, objectified students. This article argues that the challenges towards an egalitarian pedagogy emanate from the social identities rooted in caste that travel across the classrooms. By linking education with the nexus of networks of exclusion, this article aims to offer possible ways to achieve an alternative, emancipatory pedagogy.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-12T05:06:19Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094377
       
  • Adivasi Interface with Criminal Courts: A Research Study

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      Authors: Karan Goyal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Adivasi people form the most marginalized strata in Indian society. They are mostly underrepresented and are widely ignored while formulating public policies. The present form of the criminal justice system was an outcome of British domination over the Indian subcontinent and is equally applicable to the Adivasi people in most of the pockets. It is often felt that the justice system is alien to the conditions of this country. Adivasi people who have a unique, distinct culture might have felt the same way about this system as well. Here, in the present research article, the author, after conducting non-doctrinal research, has made certain points regarding the interface between Adivasi and criminal courts. An impactful study with clear policy decisions is the need of the hour in order to stop the marginalization of Adivasi people even in the name of providing them justice. A community that has totally different perceptions about crime and justice must be given the liberty to do justice among themselves.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-12T05:05:58Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094375
       
  • Perception of Subjective Well-being of the Lodha Tribe in West Bengal

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      Authors: Koustab Majumdar, Dipankar Chaterjee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article discusses the subjective perception of the well-being of the people of the Lodha tribe in West Bengal, India. Relying on the qualitative method of research, this study interviewed participants (n = 53) from the Lodha tribal community of West Bengal in eastern India. Positive effect, happiness and domain satisfaction were the framework to capture the subjective perception of well-being. The study finds that there are four major themes emerged as the perception of subjective well-being: health, traditional knowledge, festivals and social connectedness. Further, this study conclusively suggests not only that policies should be incorporated that can improve the material benefit (housing, livelihood and biological health) but focus should also be made beyond it (promotion of mental health, indigenous knowledge and social connectedness).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-12T05:05:18Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221091624
       
  • Bowed, Bent and Broken: Investigating Enrolments of Scheduled
           Castes/Tribes to Technical Higher Education Programmes in Kerala

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      Authors: Kishore Thomas John, Rofin Thirunelvelikaran Mohammed Ali, Rejikumar G.
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Kerala model of development is well regarded in the literature, with numerous authors citing how it brought forth high social development and egalitarianism into the state. Kerala, unlike its neighbours, has traditionally resisted private expansion of higher education, arguing for the cause of social equity, fairness and justice for deprived sections. However, post the millennium, growth in technical institutions offering professional higher education courses have been prolific in the state. Against this backdrop, this study investigates how the most backward sections of the state comprising Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have fared in enrolments to such programmes. Using data retrieved from the available public records, the analysis finds that SC/ST sections are grossly under-represented across the entire spectrum of professional higher education courses in the state that offer technical programmes. The enrolments are far below the expected levels, underperforming all other South Indian states and the national average by a significant margin. The study suggests that this data is deliberately withheld by the government to the public. The research argues that Kerala is at a critical juncture, where in the absence of disruptive government intervention, the situation would worsen. These findings severely dent Kerala’s claims on being an inclusive society and its narrative on development orientation. A phenomenon of social exclusion encountered in the state is explained and illustrated. Thereafter, the article discusses the implications of the findings, while suggesting policy initiatives and regulatory actions that can help provide respite and relief for the deprived SC/ST communities.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-12T05:04:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221091621
       
  • Closet Dalithood: Traumatized Caste Performativity and the Making of an
           Urban Aesthetics of Caste in Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit (2019)

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      Authors: Kunwar Nitin Pratap Gurjar, Srishti
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      With the publication of Yashica Dutt’s (2019) Coming Out as Dalit, a clear shift in Dalit autobiographical writing tradition is becoming visible, and this article tries to capture that shift by locating it within a global discourse on marginality and discrimination. This shift enables Dutt to rebrand a certain understanding of caste from a birth-marked identity to a more free-floating and performative understanding of caste. The emphasis on the performative aspect of caste provides it the necessary synergetic value to attach with multiple global discourses around marginality, discrimination, sexuality, and race. The article highlights how Dutt’s text is trying to develop a new urban aesthetics of caste to capture the sensibilities of a dominantly urban and global audience, and at the same time, expanding and signifying the understanding of caste. The article argues that it is this attempt to develop a new aesthetic formulation of caste that can explain the use of what is primarily a queer symbol of expression ‘coming out’ to couch the expression of caste discrimination. The article further indicates how similar synergies are developed with racial discourses and, finally, argues how these attempts can be understood as part of a global response to inequalities and the right to the city, making and expanding Dalit literature’s participation in the category of protest literature.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-12T05:04:18Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221091618
       
  • Book review: Servant’s Pasts, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century South
           Asia

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      Authors: Amit Dey
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Servant’s Pasts, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century South Asia, Vol.1. Edited by Nitin Sinha, Nitin Varma and Pankaj Jha. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2019, 440 pp., ₹1350 (Hardback).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-12T04:48:59Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066098
       
  • Book review: Ashoka Kumar Sen, The Making of a Village: The Dynamics of
           Adivasi Rural Life in India

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      Authors: Nupur Pattanaik
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Ashoka Kumar Sen, The Making of a Village: The Dynamics of Adivasi Rural Life in India. London and New York, Routledge, 2021, 227, pp., ₹995 (Hardback). ISBN: 978–0–367–37403–7.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-10T03:30:30Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094372
       
  • Tracing the Contours of Hate Speech in India in the Pandemic Year: The
           Curious Case of Online Hate Speech against Muslims and Dalits During the
           Pandemic

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      Authors: Malavika Binny
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Though India is no stranger to either epidemics or hate speech, the COVID-19 crisis brought to the surface many of the pre-existing schisms and prejudices that subsequently led to both the Muslim minority community and the Dalit community being cast as miasmic and constant agitators against the central government. In the case of hate speech against the Muslim community, it has led to a peculiar situation wherein the invisible but pervasive Islamophobia that has been plaguing the country from the colonial times has risen it ugly head particularly across regional news channels and social media networks, making the phenomena hyper-visible. The Hindutva politicians from the extreme right parties have been indulging in spreading anti-Muslim propaganda, moulding the image of the Muslim community as not only disease-bearers and super-spreaders of COVID-19 virus but also as being anti-national, as the central government has proclaimed ‘a war against the COVID virus’ (The Print, 2020, 26 April).During the initial spread of the virus throughout the country, there was an increasing tendency to show the Muslim community as intentionally spreading the disease or as being ignorant of current medical practices, with multiple TV channels airing the views that the Tablighi Jamaat event (a religious congregation held in March 2020) was marked as a super-spreader event, and with multiple politicians engaging in rumour-mongering and hate-speech against the Muslims, framing the community as a miasmic community that needs to be cleared from India.On the other hand, the hate speech against Dalits in India is much more nuanced, indirect and layered. It began as WhatsApp and Facebook messages extolling the caste system and justifying the discriminatory practice of untouchability using the logic of social distancing and progressed to painting Dalits and Dalit spaces as unhygienic disease-scapes. This consequently led to the denial of livelihoods to thousands of domestic workers and unskilled workers who belonged to lower caste groups as they found themselves without jobs as most middle caste upper caste families and business owners fired their employees without notice. The study involves a hermeneutical analysis of news reports of the spread of COVID from newspapers and electronic media in English as well as interviews with at least 100 members of groups on social media (WhatsApp and Facebook) that propagate extremely communal and casteist material.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-10T03:30:16Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094364
       
  • A Sociopolitical Alternative for Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and Expectation
           From It

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      Authors: Aniket Nandan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      In Indian electoral elections, Uttar Pradesh is one of those states that has witnessed a significant emergence of Dalit political awareness in past few decades. Yet in the current electoral climate, they have only been a passing cloud, which further necessitates an overhaul in their political leadership and style of politics. It is in this regard that a discussion on the alternatives for the Dalit politics becomes more important than ever. In such a discussion, one leader who cannot be overlooked is Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’. Thus, this commentary aims to address the question, what should this alternative represent'
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-07T08:23:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094365
       
  • Making of the Sacred in India: Religious or Social Othering'

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      Authors: D. R. Gautam
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Sacred in ecclesiastical terms is understood as something kept apart towards attainment of ‘real’ for the social group where real is transcendental. The group is generally considered as one unit, and, therefore, religion in this way becomes instrumental in attainment of higher end of all. Hinduism, when analysed as a religion, provides an epistemic reality of othering in the society and sacred text becomes basis for origin and continuation of peculiar social stratification in India. Looking in this way, Hinduism defies some universal characteristics assigned to the term ‘religion’, especially on the progressive count, and appears to be static and status quoist. This paper is an attempt to highlight such an aspect with the help of a meticulous and erudite analysis by Dr B. R. Ambedkar.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-02T03:56:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221095909
       
  • The Dalit Soldiers and the Colonial Apparatus: Lived Experiences of the
           Paraiyans in the Madras Presidency Army, 1801–1895

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      Authors: Manas Dutta
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The article deals with the Paraiyans, one of the Dalit sub-caste of the Madras Presidency, and their transformation from a marginalized group to one which was believed to be one of the worthwhile recruits for the colonial army. The narrative delves on their exalted status as a military subaltern within the general set up of the army department and also traces their subsequent socio-political positions in the southern society under the colonial rule after the 1880s. Despite their primary dependence on agriculture for their survival, several of them preferred to be enlisted in the army under the colonial rule in India for better livelihood and social standing. The official/archival documents highlighted that the Madras Presidency army had given much benefit to them and became a source of their social occupational mobility. Thus, It has been given them a new sense of identity and power and their empowerment as a caste.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-05-02T03:56:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094391
       
  • Kshatriya Movement Among Koch-Rajbanshis in Assam

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      Authors: Samujjal Ray
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Kshatriya movement among Koch-Rajbanshis has been one of the most influential movements during the early 19th century. This article tries to locate Panchanan Barma’s influence within the Koch-Rajbanshi community in the context of Assam. This article also attempts to highlight the ongoing debates over the Kshatriya movement among Koch-Rajbanshis in Assam. It further argues that cultural analysis is necessary to re-examine the Koch-Rajbanshi identity.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-29T04:09:29Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221096546
       
  • Tracing An Archetypal Journey of Protagonists Towards Reforming the
           Parayar Dalit Identity

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      Authors: Chandna Singh Nirwan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Vanmam centres around the lives of the Tamil Dalit Christian community, Parayars, in the Kandampatti village of South India—a space dominated by the people following the Hindu religion, that is, the so-called upper caste, Naickers and Tamil Dalit Hindu Community, the Pallars. The researcher would trace the archetypal journeys of the protagonists, Saminathan and Jayaraju, by employing the structure of the monomyth as given by Joseph Campbell. The heroes of Vanmam engage themselves towards the upliftment of their community, for which they keep a common goal in mind. This goal is to unite the two Dalit communities, the Parayars and the Pallars, which are divided on the lines of religion. The Parayars cherish the Ambedkarite ideologies that invigorates them to aim for the positions of power and authority. The first step towards this aim was to win the post of president through the village panchayat elections. This was crucial in reforming their identity and strengthening their sense of self. The stages of monomyth help in determining the various aspects of the narrative that are in alignment with it and those that are not. Campbell’s structure of monomyth is an established tool of analysis of the narrative, and the researcher would examine to what extent it can be applied to trace the journeys of the protagonists in Bama’s novel Vanmam.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-27T12:49:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221091620
       
  • Dalit Entrepreneurship Hard Nut to Crack: Empirical Evidence

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      Authors: Seema Nashier, Sanket Vij
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The life of people born in Dalit families is more challenging than others and the challenges upturn manifold if a downtrodden seek a livelihood in the field of entrepreneurship. Although, entrepreneurship is a risky affair for everyone it discommodes the Dalit community more. The paucity of societal support and resources, and above all lower caste label makes it highly troublesome for Dalit to cross the threshold of entrepreneurship and stay therein. Government and a few other organizations assure to provide all possible facilities and assistance to the Dalit aspirants through diverse schemes but many times these assurances are found outlying from reality. This empirical research article aims to provide qualitative insight into the previously published articles, research papers, and reports allied to the challenges of Dalit entrepreneurship. The thematic analysis technique has been applied for literature review using NVivo Software. The upshots of the study clearly depict that Dalit entrepreneurs are frequently confronted with severe difficulties, particularly due to the unfair conduct of various stakeholders. This research study will make a considerable contribution to the Dalit literature and outcomes will assist the policymakers to enhance the efficiency of entrepreneurial schemes to the expected level.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-25T06:56:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094367
       
  • Dalit Symbolism: A Journey Towards Renewed Aspirations and Democratic
           Public Space

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      Authors: Sangeeta Krishna
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The article talks about how Dalit symbolism has become an epitome of the Dalits’ assertion for democratic space in the contemporary period. The renewed aspirations of Dalits have emerged in the form of physical as well as cultural symbols. They are carving out their own public space through physical symbols such as imposition of icons through statues and monumental structures, and cultural symbols in the form of inventing popular myths, folk heroes, stories and history, which can be referred to as counter-publics or alternative public sphere. Treated as subservient and marginalized under the hegemonic power structure, the oppressed Dalits want to have their own voice and to present their own alternate views about State, culture and political philosophy. Nothing can be better than the exhibition of radical progressive Dalit symbols in the form of statues of Dalit icons at public places, calendars of Dalit heroes, Dalit blogs, Dalit songs, stories, poems and so on as mentioned, in order to develop an understanding of Dalit aspirations and history among the general public. Thus, the article endeavours to explore and analyse those symbols, narratives and songs, and their contributions towards Dalits’ renewed aspirations, historical claims and craving for democratic space.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-25T06:56:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221083726
       
  • The Process of Childbirth of the Malo Women in Bangladesh: Birth Ritual
           Based on Archaeological Evidence and Ethnographic Observation

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      Authors: Md. Rifat-Ur-Rahman, Mst. Sabrina Moonajilin, Muhammad Shohrab Uddin, Sharmin Rezowana, Snigdha Sarker, Md. Tajuddin Sikder
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Globally, tribal women are less privileged than mainstream or non-tribal women. Noticeably, the socio-economically backward tribal women usually follow the traditional methods instead of the so-called modern medical system for childbirth in Bangladesh. Conversely, archaeologically, terracotta plaques and sculptures found from several archaeological sites in Bangladesh, and globally childbirth motifs indicate that the delivery of the baby was carried out through some special ceremonial observances in the past. This study examines women’s personified acquaintance of pregnancy and childbirth, preparations during pregnancy for trouble-free birth and the responsibility of a traditional birth attendant in Malo community birthing customs. To conduct this study, ten Malo women were interviewed extensively relating to customary and transformed beliefs and practices of pregnancy and childbirth. This study revealed that the long-established childbirth practices have not disappeared from the tribal groups inhabited in the plains in Bangladesh. However, this traditional aspect is gradually diminishing from the mainstream society of Bangladesh. Therefore, this study may assist health professionals in understanding traditional birthing systems from diverse cultures. Subsequently, a profound and in-depth analysis of the tribal tradition of childbirth can lead to new insights, enriching the range of perceptions.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-23T04:35:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094366
       
  • Kalabhavan Mani: The Metaphysics of the Acting of a Dalit Actor from South
           India

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      Authors: Anilkumar Payyappilly Vijayan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This monograph explores in detail the acting persona of Kalabhavan Mani (1971–2016), a prominent film actor of Dalit origin from Kerala, who acted as hero and villain in many south Indian movies. Well known and loved for his singing, acting, mimicking skills, comic anecdotes and spontaneous humour, this actor was never taken as a serious intellectual/thinker by the Kerala mainstream ostensibly because of him being a school dropout. Drawing on Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, a methodological inquiry is made into the casteist dimension of this strategy of framing, real as well as reel, by which the metaphysics of the acting out of laughter and laughing out of acting enacted/embodied by Dalit body/discourse is contained, distorted and nullified.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-23T04:33:57Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221089788
       
  • Hunger as a Political Critique: Memories as Resistance in M.
           Kunhaman’s Ethiru

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      Authors: Shalini M., Moncy Mathew
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The article looks at how memories and experiences of hunger in Dalit life writings form a strong political critique against the claims of modern welfare society. The instances of hunger recorded in Ethiru by Kunhaman are analysed in order to see how hunger itself constitutes a humiliating experience when it is combined with experiences of caste discriminations.Despite developing juridical as well as social sensibilities to irradicate hunger and poverty, caste-ridden contexts give rise to situations of death by hunger not due to any shortage of food but due to ostracization and alienation of the marginalized communities. These moments also expose the colonial and feudal views and prejudices about the poor, their attitude to hard work, and value of labour and charity which still lie deep in the social psyche of many developed countries. The article attempts to locate Kunhaman’s work within the context of emerging critiques from the marginalized communities against tall claims of the progressivism and development indices of Kerala society.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-23T04:33:46Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221089787
       
  • Book review: Aparna Vaidik, My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of
           Lynching and Blood Justice in India

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      Authors: Haroon Rashid
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Aparna Vaidik, My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Lynching and Blood Justice in India. New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2020, pp. 173, ₹499. ISBN: 978-81-942337-8-7.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-22T12:57:04Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221091619
       
  • Creating Enterprise Ecosystem in Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas: A
           Case on Inclusive Entrepreneurship

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      Authors: Rajesh Gupta, Akash Sahu, Piyush Kumar Sinha
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Rural development is a key component and main pillar of the approach towards the development of the nation. Inclusive entrepreneurship (IE) has been propounded to support development of enterprises for the disfranchised and underprivileged section of population. This article studies the IE framework, as developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and implemented in many European countries, and applies the same to a village entrepreneurship development programme in left wing extremism affected rural areas of India. In the process it suggests an implementation framework for setting up and sustaining an IE ecosystem. The study is based on the implementation of SVEP programme in 12 blocks in 6 states which have been infested with Naxal extremities and have been classified as LWE by government of India. The learning brings out the importance of community ownership and the role of creating a team with members from the same localities. The role of capacity building and handholding of entrepreneurs comes up as a prime requirement of the sustainability of enterprises and the ecosystem.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-21T10:40:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094378
       
  • An Exploration into the History of ‘Unclean People’ Who Clean
           the City of Kashmir

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      Authors: Javid Ahmad Moochi
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Ideally, we want to believe, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 ce during the beginning of the American Revolution, that ‘all men are created equal’. But that is not always the case in the real world because some groups have greater access to the resources of society than others, due to the social and economic barriers that they have created for their own benefit, so as to exploit the lower and poor sections of the society. The sweeper community of Kashmir Valley is one of the communities that have remained behind socially, economically and educationally from ancient times till now. There is a deep and pertinent history of the discrimination that they have faced. There are well-established evidences that help us understand their sufferings and miseries from time immemorial. This community is one of several marginalized communities of Kashmir that were dominated by other groups on account of its socio-economic backwardness. This community has suffered through a wide range of social, economic and political disadvantages that have rendered their position to a sub-human living. In this article, an attempt has been made to highlight the problems and discrimination faced by this community for decades.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-21T10:40:16Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221091607
       
  • Dalit-Renaissance in Bengal: Relocating Namasudras’ Literature and
           Culture in Colonial Bengal

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      Authors: Mustakim Ansary
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The present essay investigates how the monolithic and mono-dimensional aspect of the Bengal-Renaissance which was pioneered and vanguarded by the so called upper-caste people somehow failed to address and attest crucial issues and multiple voices of the lower castes and other depressed and dispossessed people of Bengal province. One of the central postulates of this article is to foreground and put forward countless measures initiated by the Namasudra community in colonial Bengal through their socio-political and cultural assertions. It further critically engages with an investigative reading of existing archives and historiographies of Bengal that tend to explicate Namasudras’ ideological aspiration and identity consciousness as inseparable and integrative within the hegemonic dominance of upper-castes’ framework. Hence, it intends to provide a counter analysis against this approach by mapping countless Dalit political imaginative manifestos embedded within Namasudra movement during the latter half of the nineteenth century in undivided colonial Bengal province. The primary concern of this article, therefore, is to locate their sociocultural reform movement and other perceptions by tracing their fundamental texts—Sri Sri Harileelamrita and Sri Sri Guruchand Charita, Namasudras’ tracts, booklets, and their festivities, kabigaan, Harisangeet, and so on.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-18T06:49:38Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221094680
       
  • Reading the ‘Caste’ in the Minds of ‘Aspirant
           Teachers’

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      Authors: Seema Sarohe
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores the notions of caste among the student-teachers of a popular teacher education programme in India. The study attempts to gauge the abilities of the student-teachers to delve into the structures of inequality and address issues from different social, political, economic and philosophical viewpoints. Findings reveal that the common concern for most student-teachers was their discontent with the reservation policy for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. The majority of the student-teachers believed that economic class should be the single most criterion to define ‘deprivation’ while formulating any affirmative policies. Student-teachers’ narratives reflect how there is a need to engage in dialogue with their notions of caste as well as class. This article argues to take the preparation of teachers seriously as teacher’s own knowledge and beliefs on several issues of identity vis-à-vis caste come to influence their pedagogical interactions with the learners in a great way.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-15T02:11:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221088446
       
  • Can Valmiki Become a Poet'

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      Authors: Kashyap Deepak
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dayachand Mayna is one of the most robbed folk poets of Haryana. The article attempts to highlight the ways in which his poetry is stolen by Jaat singers and editors to build the reputation of a Jaat poet, Mehar Singh. The aim of article is to present how Dayachand suffered due to caste barriers, and it is caste that becomes one of the hurdles that blocked his path to success. The hypothesis will present how Dayachand was a victim of caste-based politics that did not allow a talented Valmiki poet to flourish.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-08T08:05:01Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221082498
       
  • Book review: Secular Sectarianism: Limits of Subaltern Politics

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      Authors: Kumar Rana
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Secular Sectarianism: Limits of Subaltern Politics. Edited by Ajay Gudavarthy (New Delhi: SAGE, 2019). viii + 280 pp, ₹1095. ISBN: 978-93-532-8677-4.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-06T11:57:16Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066099
       
  • Book review: Suraj Yengde, Caste Matters

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      Authors: Vicky Nandgaye
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Suraj Yengde, Caste Matters. New Delhi: Penguin Random House India Publication, 2019, 304 pp., ₹599 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-0670091225.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-06T05:07:04Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211020538
       
  • Book review: Amit Ahuja, Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties
           without Ethnic Movements

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      Authors: Vicky Nandgaye
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Amit Ahuja, Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019, 266 pp., ₹550.00 (Paperback). ISBN-13: 9780197529515
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-06T05:05:51Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211020533
       
  • Book review: K. S. Chalam, Political Economy of Caste in India

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      Authors: Akanksha Sanil
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      K. S. Chalam, Political Economy of Caste in India (New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2020), 270 pp. ₹1,250 (Hardcover). ISBN: 978-93-5388-407-9.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-05T05:12:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069475
       
  • Book review: Narrations about the Fringe Review of Reading the Margins,
           History, Culture, Literature

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      Authors: Bonita Aleaz
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Narrations about the Fringe Review of Reading the Margins, History, Culture, Literature. Edited by Provakar Palaka (Mumbai: People’s Literature Publication, 2020), 279pp., ₹750. ISBN-13: 978-8193485668 (Paperback)
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-04T05:13:45Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066082
       
  • Book review: Looking Back: The 1947 Partition of India 70 Years On, Edited
           by Rakhshanda Jalil, Tarun K. Saint and Debjani Sengupta

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      Authors: Rup Kumar Barman
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Looking Back: The 1947 Partition of India 70 Years On, Edited by Rakhshanda Jalil, Tarun K. Saint and Debjani Sengupta (Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2019). xxxviii + 355pp, ₹995.00 (Paperback).
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-03T03:21:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066084
       
  • Book review: The Intersectional Ties of Caste, Class and Language in the
           Making of the Goanese

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      Authors: Bonita Aleaz
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Jason Keith Fernandes, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2020, 361 + xvi pp., ₹900 (hardback). ISBN-10: 9352879945; ISBN-13: 978-9352879946.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-03T03:21:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211042741
       
  • Book review: Judith Misrahi-Barak, K. Satyanarayana and Nicole Thiara
           (Eds.), Dalit Text: Aesthetics and Politics Re-Imagined

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      Authors: Sristi Mondal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Judith Misrahi-Barak, K. Satyanarayana and Nicole Thiara (Eds.), Dalit Text: Aesthetics and Politics Re-Imagined. New York: Routledge, 2020, xxiv + 238 pp., ₹641 (paperback). ISBN: 978-0-367-21841-6.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-03T03:20:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211033220
       
  • The New Contours of Identity Politics: Saffron Mobilization of Dalit and
           Backward Caste in Uttar Pradesh

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      Authors: Shilp Shikha Singh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The intense electoral competition has made it imperative for political parties to invent new languages and newer modes of organizing the demos. The interchanging registers of Mandal and Kamandal have so far configured the trajectory to power in the state. A careful reading reveals that both these registers have employed the discourse of ‘identity’ to mobilize people. The popularity of this discourse hinges on the fact that it is dynamic and can touch upon the idea of the ‘political’ of diverse people. However, the appropriation and reappropriation of this discourse has transformed its meaning over time. While caste remains the centre around which it is woven, the way in which caste entities are captured to form alignments has changed over time. While the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) used it for arousing critical consciousness of the Dalit-Bahujan caste to challenge caste hegemony, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used it successfully for constructing a rightist identity and dismantling the Bahujan politics. BSP strengthened the Dalit-Bahujan identity to fight caste discrimination, turning caste disadvantage into caste advantage. To counter this BJP too engaged in caste-based community mobilization, while simultaneously giving a rhetoric of caste-free developmental politics to consolidated upper-caste–lower-caste Hindu alliance.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-01T08:10:28Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221082497
       
  • Representation of Dalits in Hindi Cinema After Liberalization

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      Authors: Amit Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article delineates the transition of the representation of Dalits in Hindi cinema. For that purpose, the article categorizes Hindi cinema into two phases—first, the pre-liberalization phase, and the second, is the post-liberalization phase for the understanding of—why Dalits are treated as ‘Others’. The question of Dalit is fixed in the imaginaries of upper-caste as a matter of consumption. In the pre-1991 era, Dalit’s were represented as poor, wretched, non-heroic, and absolutely clientele characters. In the post-1991 scenario, Dalits came up as educated, skilled, competent and confident in the modern institutional setup, but Hindi Cinema did not present Dalits as protagonists. The continuous clientele depiction of Dalit characters in Hindi Cinema aggravates upper-caste prejudices against Dalits. The article argues that there is an ‘Absence of Presence’ of Dalit experiences beyond upper-caste imaginaries, and also, there is a complete exclusion of ‘New Dalit Middle Class’ from the popular cinema narratives. A commoner troupe is used to represent the Dalit and it further extends the question of ‘Real’ and ‘Reel’ representation. Thus, this article tries to investigate the above-mentioned questions in the broad context of post-liberal Hindi cinema and flag some theoretical issues emerging from this engagement.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-01T08:10:08Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221082484
       
  • Under the Sentence of Caste: Twin Peak Dalit Massacres in the Siwalik

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      Authors: Nirmal Acharya
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) launched the ‘People’s War’ from 1996 to 2006. The 10-year long insurgency in Nepal claimed over 13, 000 lives, and left over 1, 300 missing. As the Maoists professed themselves as a vanguard of a rebellion against the structural inequalities, they lured the members of the Dalit community into their ideology, and drafted many of them in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). State security forces, on the other hand, in a rapid escalation, targeted Dalit as Maoists or their allies. The shift in combat strategy of the Maoists in 2001, and the counter-insurgency tactics resulted in an increase of human rights violations against Dalit in the western hinterlands. By a qualitative interviewing of 17 Dalit families, of the two adjoining villages of west Nepal, of which 20 men were killed in two separate incidents by then Royal Nepal Army (RNA) in 2002, this article expounds the broad structural issues, the liberation and security discourses, and the local geography-time susceptibility of the families as the targets of state power enmeshed in the massacres as narrated by the family members, the contexts and grounds that culminated in the two events, and the social aftermath.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-04-01T08:09:38Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221082468
       
  • Karnan: An Assertion of Dalit Identity

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      Authors: Premila Swamy D
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Indian films, both mainstream Bollywood (Hindi cinema) and regional films have captured issues related to caste, class and gender disparities, and have enabled directors/producers to experiment with techniques so as to challenge stereotypical representations. Tamil cinema in this context has gone through a sea change in its representation of the subaltern class. From being silent and passive sufferers, the characters on screen now raise to speak for their community and assert their identity. This article explores the representation of Dalits on visual platform and how contemporary filmmakers seek to challenge and demystify the established narratives/canon. The article further analyses the recent Tamil cinema titled Karnan (April 2021) which challenges dominant ideologies that perpetuates discrimination, objectification, exclusion and silence to sustain its power. Using the Mahabharata mythical characters and employing cinematic techniques, the film resists and subverts dominant perception which aims to silence the other.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-29T05:22:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221088084
       
  • Pandit C. Iyothee Thass and Christianity

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      Authors: T. Maria Dhanaraj
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Iyothee Thass (1845–1914), a forgotten Dalit activist, has become part of serious academic discussions in the recent times. Various studies had been carried out, such as I. Thass as a Dalit journalist; I. Thass as a Forerunner of Buddhist Renaissance in the Tamil region and I. Thass as an anti-caste activist. This article analyses Thass’ articles related to Christianity. These articles can roughly be classified into two categories: articles that are exegetical (explaining the Biblical passages/events/personalities) and articles that are critical of the institution of the Church and its mission. The analysis of all the articles on Christianity reveals that Thass emerges both as a strong critic of Christianity in India, specially its adaptation of caste in its Indian version and a Buddhist exegete who could explain the whole Bible as a veiled doctrine of Buddhism.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-29T05:22:17Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221086440
       
  • Caste Maters: An Empirical Study on Asset Structure of Dalit Woman Labour
           Households

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      Authors: Dharam Pal, Gian Singh, Veerpal Kaur, Gurinder Kaur, Jyoti
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The primary data were collected from 927 Dalit woman labour households belonging to all the three geographical regions of Punjab (India) to analyse the asset structure of these households. The study revealed that a Dalit woman labour household had assets worth ₹128,750.98. Out of the total value of assets, 90.81% were durable assets and the remaining 9.19% were livestock assets. All the respondent households were found landless. The ratio of debt to household assets was found to be 0.41 which indicates that 41% of the household assets would be needed to pay off their current debt. More than 70% of the total value of durable assets was swallowed only by the dwelling house. Most of the durable items in these households were found useless, old and broken. Actually, the relatively rich households of the village used to give them these already used items in order to seek their cheap or free labour.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-29T05:21:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221086359
       
  • Rekhiyo Jugajug Aage: A Reading of Caste and Gender in the Aaradhivani of
           Kachchh

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      Authors: Keshabhai Marvada
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article attempts to read and analyse the aaradhivani of Kachchh in terms of caste and gender. The first section explores the genre and looks into the narrative style of Rekhiyo Jugajug Aage Aarth, a performance text that is deeply tied to Dalit spirituality in Kachchh. The second section looks at this narrative ethnographically, and it further studies its historical development and circulation in different media: oral, written and digital. It intends to understand the functionality of the performance. It will examine the question of authorship as it emerges through the circulation of such texts. In the third section, with the close reading of the text, I will examine the problematized ideas of caste and gender. Chamars or Shudras are at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy. I argue that this Dalit narrative challenges this social structure and older ideas though radical perspectives so as to subvert caste hierarchy by means of narrating the great deeds of Meghwar (Dalit) sants. It also seeks to study the transactionality of caste and region across a pan-Indian imaginary.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-29T05:13:25Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221088078
       
  • Resonance of Ambedkar’s Vision of Social Democracy in Bama’s Karukku:
           Empowerment of Dalits Through Education

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      Authors: Meghna Mathur, Pallavi Thakur
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Social democracy demands existence of freedom, equality, justice and solidarity among masses. Doyens like John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx decrypted the social inequalities that deprived people of human rights. Dr B. R. Ambedkar, being the most influential figure vis-à-vis social democracy in Indian context, voiced the deprived status of Dalits. Inspired by John Dewey’s idea of social endosmosis, he concluded that education can help to dissolve the rigid boundaries of caste. He also vociferously advocated education for Dalits to erase the status quo of being a society’s underbelly and overcome the quotidian humiliations. Discourses on Dalits since then have converged to an infectious expansive debate on the concomitant subjugated status of Dalits in the Indian social structure. Many Dalits have procured agency through education and have been vociferously voicing the subjugated position of Dalits in the cultural apparatus of caste. Bama is one such educated Dalit woman who has laid bare through her writings the complexities existing in a Dalit’s life. Her autobiography invocates Dalits to empower themselves through education and transgress the rigid boundaries of caste. The article examines her vision of Dalits’ emancipation vis-à-vis Ambedkar’s notion of social democracy.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-29T05:13:05Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221088077
       
  • Forest, Adivasis and the Rule of Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled
           Areas) in Jharkhand: A Critical Inquiry

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      Authors: Anju Helen Bara
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Adivasis have always lived in symbiosis with the forest for generations. In the recent two decades, it has been realized that it is only through the process of democratic decentralization sustainable development could be achieved. The present model of development augments the participation of people in local governance. In the post-colonial India, the government enacted a new law known as Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, popularly known as PESA. Jharkhand, which has been a home for adivasis, conducted its first panchayat election in 2010. Consequently, the next election was conducted in 2015, and in 2022, the third panchayat election is going to be held. Being a tribal dominated region, it is governed by the regulations of PESA. Though PESA has been projected as a progressive Act, however, it has not been successfully implemented. Lack of political willingness, political apathy, internal conflicts, lack of knowledge and awareness among people are some of the reasons for the failure of PESA in the region. For the people who lived in the forest, these laws essentially overturned their unstructured, undocumented and ‘symbiotic’ relationship with the land, rivers and forests. Under this backdrop, this article addresses the issue of local self-governance and the fate of PESA in Jharkhand. It aims to uncover the factors which are creating hindrances in the functioning of PESA in Jharkhand. This article seeks to unfold the struggle of the adivasis for the protection of their resources, livelihoods and their own lives.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-29T05:12:51Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221081648
       
  • Odia Dalit Migrants in Hyderabad City: A Case Study

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      Authors: Ganesh Digal, N. Atungbou
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Every thread of caste and occupation in India is intrinsically linked to the migration patterns. Migration of the upper caste is more of an economic, while the lower castes are both social and economic. Differential distribution of resources deprived the Dalits, reduced them to degraded social status. To escape from the clutches of caste discrimination, Dalits migrated to different places. In this context, this study unravels the lived experiences and socio-economic changes among the Odia Dalit migrant workers in Hyderabad city and how they reconstruct their identities in the urban landscape, reasons leaving their home, challenges, and difficulties in new social space. The study employed a qualitative research approach assisted by in-depth interviews and informal discussions. Hyderabad city is chosen for this study, as it attracts migrant workers across the country, and a majority of the Odia migrants are found working in different industrial sectors. Study shows migration offered an opportunity not only in economic and employment spheres but also in the socio-cultural spheres. The city gives a space to escape from caste discrimination, and significantly improved their lifestyle but fear psychosis of caste identity is prevalent. To escape their Dalit identity, they identify themselves as other backward classes (OBCs) or Khandayat. Improvement in economic life has little impact on the social structure. Migration brings wealth but not the alteration in caste structure. Methodologically and conceptually, the study contributes to the knowledge of the lived experience of the Odia Dalit migrants in city space, how they identify themselves, and how they make sense of themselves and others, and how Hyderabad shapes their experiences.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-27T06:23:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221088086
       
  • Oppari: A Tamil Musical Elegy Laced with Caste Prejudices and Identities

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      Authors: Deivendra Kumar A.
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Though popular culture is celebrated among people across the country, the admiration for folklore and performing arts is very limited. In the domain of folklore, performing art forms are categorized and stratified based on ‘who is performing it’ or ‘who is eligible to perform’ with a benchmark of the social status of purity and pollution. This article discusses and reflects the dilution of casteism and fabricated caste identities and prejudices in oppari, ancient folklore and a musical dirge song performed in Tamil Nadu, which is considered as a polluted, discriminated cultural outcome and custom to be performed and etched with people belonging to oppressed classes in society. It also keeps a close lens and discussion on change in oppari, the role of casteism and its revamp in the contemporary scenario and sociocultural aspects of oppari within the realm of caste and performance.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-25T12:40:43Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221088079
       
  • The Games People Play: A Psychological Analysis of Dalit Victimization in
           Ozhivudivasathe Kali

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      Authors: Mary Sapna Peter Miranda
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Ozhivudivasathe Kali is a 2003 Malayalam short story written by Unni R. which shot into limelight with the release of the Kerala State Award winning film with the same title by Sanal K. Sasidharan. As the title suggests, the story recounts an ‘off-day game’ played by four middle-aged men in a dingy lodge. The drunken revelry soon turns into a cruel game exposing the fissures that exist under the guise of equality and acceptance. It echoes Golding’s Lord of the Flies and is a scathing and unsettling expose of the Kerala mindscape where Dalits still continue to be considered less human. A deadly game where the victim is ruthlessly hounded and finally killed for his ‘fault’ of being different, the story is arresting for its foreboding tone, given the way reality is shaping out all over the world these days where being the ‘other’ is an invitation to harassment and even decimation.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-23T06:01:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221082501
       
  • Discrimination in Educational Institutions: A Case Study of Bihar

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      Authors: Aviral Pandey, Awadhesh Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      According to the state government report, 4% of Scheduled Castes (SCs) population in Bihar is able to study up to the graduate level or above, and the representation of SC communities is negligible in senior positions in government jobs in the state. In this report, discrimination and poverty have been identified as a contributing cause for the current situation of SCs in Bihar. In this context, this study examines the level of discrimination and constraints that SCs students face at school and college levels in Bihar. The analysis done in this article is based on primary data collected from five districts, namely, Kaimur, Gaya, Siwan, Katihar and Patna of Bihar state. This study examines the level of achievements, constraints and discrimination faced by SCs students at different institution levels and identifies the reasons behind the existing situation. The study finds discrimination between SCs and Non-SCs students in case of use of service/ facilities available at educational institutions in Bihar, state. SCs students get less benefits from education, as they face problems related to classroom teaching and understanding. Considering these facts, the state government should provide free guidance/counselling, vocational training and capacity building classes to SCs students in Bihar.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-21T09:04:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211067603
       
  • Determinants of Financial Inclusion Among Dalit Women in Kancheepuram
           District, Tamil Nadu

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      Authors: Vemulapalli Aparna, Victor Louis Anthuvan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Over the years many efforts were made to improve the status of financial inclusion of people. Financial inclusion measures access and usage of financial products such as deposits, loans, insurance products and quality of financial services. Financial inclusion is the process of providing financial services to the people who are outside the formal financial system. High levels of financial inclusion improve economic development and equitable distribution of wealth. This study focuses on status of financial inclusion among Dalit women in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. It was found that education level of the people; government initiatives such as general credit card, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana; satisfaction of the self-help group model; financial practices and financial literacy were positively and significantly associated with financial inclusion. Usage of non-bank agencies and cultural barriers were negative and insignificant.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-17T05:37:45Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221082486
       
  • Between Isolation and Autonomy: A Study of the Anti-caste Struggle in the
           University of Hyderabad

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      Authors: Munna Sannaki
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Chinese adage goes: ‘Teach a person how to catch a fish but don’t catch one’. For a long time, Dalits have been represented or led by socio-economically dominant communities in all disciplines and walks of life. However, Dalits have been trying by their own means to maintain their autonomy in all domains. Specifically, in self-respect struggles or anti-caste movements, there are enough examples to reinforce the idea that isolated struggles led by Dalit-Bahujan’s must be acknowledged as autonomous. This article analyses Ambedkar’s engagement with parties led by caste elites, while maintaining his social/political/cultural autonomy. This article also draws attention to how caste elites have tried to appropriate Dalit-Bahujan movements. This article was presented at the South Asia Anthropologists Group (SAAG) Annual Conference. The main idea of this article is to register the autonomy and isolation of Dalit students’ struggle through a case study at the University of Hyderabad. The anti-caste ‘Rohith Vemula’ struggle provides an instance of how political representation was practiced and how autonomy can be maintained in future struggles. The article argues this case out through the author’s experiential opinions as a participant, Ambedkar’s views and the carefully carved out vision of Dalit-Bahujan political movements.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-11T07:31:13Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069686
       
  • Book review: Bellapu Anuradha and Gita Ramaswamy (eds.), Prison Notes of a
           Woman Activist

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      Authors: Vipanchika Sahasri Bhagyanagar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Bellapu Anuradha and Gita Ramaswamy (eds.), Prison Notes of a Woman Activist. Ratna Books, 2021, 195 pp., ₹399. ISBN-10: 9352907442, ISBN-13: 978-9352907441
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-10T07:25:22Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221074733
       
  • Housing Condition, Livelihood Pattern and Socio-cultural Life of Oraon,
           Munda and Santal Tribes in Dooars, Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal: The
           Migrants from Chota Nagpur Plateau Region

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      Authors: Pamela Deb
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The Oraon, Munda and Santal are the three major Scheduled Tribes of the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. During the colonial period (mainly between 1880 and 1930), their arrival from the Chota Nagpur region to the Dooars region (Jalpaiguri district) took place by the British. In the present article, an attempt has been made to assess housing condition, livelihood pattern and socio-cultural life of the concerned tribes. For this purpose, 650 household surveys were carried out with the help of semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussion, informal interviews and field visits. The study finds that, after being displaced from their homeland (Chota Nagpur Plateau region) and settled for long in the Jalpaiguri district, they undergone many changes in their habitat, economic condition and society, but it did not bring any improvement in their quality of life. The deplorable residence, lack of housing amenities and necessities, inadequate income, illiteracy, loosening of social organization are the major features presently prevalent among them.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-03-03T09:16:27Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069487
       
  • The Biopolitics of Caste: Analysing the (Dis)honour Killings in South
           India

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      Authors: Gurram Ashok, Ramdas Rupavath
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Even after 75 years of independence, India witnesses the increasing violence unleashed by the upper caste families against the individuals for inter-caste love or marriage. The objective of this article is to critically engage with the operational aspects of Michel Foucault’s biopolitics of caste system in enforcing endogamy in the marital relationship between two individuals. Caste as a social institution governs every aspect of Dalit’s life, ranging from cradle to graveyard. As such, the increasing incidents of (dis)honour killings, from South India, reflect the idea of endogamy, with the ulterior motto of controlling the sexuality of the Dalits and women, thereby ensuring the purity of the caste Hindu society. Thus, the patriarchy is an inseparable element of caste system in controlling the freedom of women in choosing her partner and it is prevalent in sub-castes of Dalit folds also. The question of discrimination and practice of endogamy within Dalit communities should be addressed in marching towards annihilation of the caste.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-26T05:43:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221076657
       
  • Understanding Identity, Education and Multi-religiosity Among the Nat
           Tribe of Paschim Champaran in India

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      Authors: Md Moshabbir Alam, Moksha Singh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Invisible social groups are systematically left out of the process of development and have to make choices that are predetermined. Research suggests that the tribal and nomadic communities have been majorly affected by such processes. Nat, a peripatetic nomadic tribe in India has undergone similar exclusionary process. However, they continue to survive as a social group and maintain their distinguishing character. This study, therefore, is an attempt to understand their survival within the mainstream society by systematically analysing the following sociocultural attributes: identity construction, education and mobility, and multi-religious belonging. The Nat of Paschim Champaran, in the state of Bihar in India, were the focus of the study. Data was collected from 30 respondents and analysed by applying narrative inquiry. The findings suggest that their professional identity as acrobats continues to define their distinctiveness even when a few have chosen to shift towards other forms of livelihood. This distinctiveness continues to negatively influence their access to education and as a result no major change is witnessed in terms of social mobility of the group. However, it is observed that they have intelligently assimilated themselves within the popular culture by adopting multiple identities with respect to religion and which are activated for diverse purposes and at different times.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-26T05:42:37Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069494
       
  • Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme: ‘From Local to
           Vocal’

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      Authors: Krishna Dixit, Debashish Sakunia
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Rural entrepreneurship is one of the most attention-seeker segments nowadays because if we want to solve the various problems in the third-most rising economy with rural composition at 68.8%, we need to open new rural ventures. So rural entrepreneurship defines itself by creating new employment opportunities and creating new ventures. Through this article, researchers want to stress readers on the current schemes for rural ventures and focus on the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), introduced by the Ministry of Rural Development and supported by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), which provides sustainable employment to youths in villages. We have explained the whole process of SVEP by citing an example of two blocks of Chhattisgarh state then we measure the impact of this programme in 11 states on different social categories, gender-wise analysis in which female dominates, as well as overall impact among the different enterprise in India. It was found that the trading sector creates the highest overall impact among the new ventures. Among all the social categories we have, the list of beneficiaries includes OBC Category with the mean value of 475.90 in 2018, while 972.72 in 2019 followed by ST, SC, General and Minority. The result found could be a demographic dividend because of stratified random sampling.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-26T05:36:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211042723
       
  • Book review: Dwaipayan Sen, The Decline of the Caste Question:
           Jogendranath Mandal and the Defeat of the Dalit Politics in Bengal

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      Authors: Mustakim Ansary
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dwaipayan Sen, The Decline of the Caste Question: Jogendranath Mandal and the Defeat of the Dalit Politics in Bengal. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2018, xii + 305 pp., ₹7725.00 (Hardcover). ISBN: 9781108417761.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-26T05:35:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211052209
       
  • Dalit Middle Class and the Crisis of Colonial Modernity: A Study of Ajay
           Navaria’s Yes Sir

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      Authors: Diksha Beniwal, Sayan Chattopadhyay
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This study attempts to understand the relatively new phenomenon of the rise of Dalit middle class by examining Ajay Navaria’s short story titled Yes Sir. The continued survival of caste in modern India compels one to ask if it is possible to enter modernity and achieve class mobility without shedding one’s caste identity as a Dalit. This study shall focus on how Narottam, a Dalit officer’s character, as a representative of the modern Dalit male, manages to renegotiate the very margins he comes from, as he is vested with the ultimate power of promoting Tiwari, his Brahmin clerk. To understand the contradictions inherent in the term ‘Dalit middle class’, the study traces the workings of caste and class since the British rule, to the contemporary notions of modern society driven by individuality and social mobility. It traces the emergence of the middle class, along with the transforming ideas of race and purity as they outlive the traditional understanding of caste as division of labour.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-22T04:14:47Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211042490
       
  • Contours of ‘Naming’ and ‘Renaming’: Mapping the Identity
           Discourse Among Scheduled Castes

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      Authors: Bhawna Shivan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Scheduled Caste (SC) is an administrative term comprising touchable and untouchable groups of people. SCs are defined as ‘homogeneous’ classes under Article 341 for all constitutional purposes. It emerged as an official term for the recognition of groups to have preferential treatment in the form of compensatory measurements in the educational, governmental and legislative sectors. The emergence of the term ‘Scheduled Castes’ ignores the viable differentiation among them, existing on the basis of their status and identity. On the other hand, the problem of nomenclature among SCs is indirectly related to their social identification at the societal and community levels. The article will delve into the discourses of naming and renaming of SCs/Dalits/untouchables and various other terminologies that emerged as an imperative to represent them. Therefore, it is significant to understand the dilemma of homogeneity versus the heterogeneous nature of the identity of SCs.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-21T08:01:07Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069492
       
  • Sanitation Workers: A Neglected Community of Indian Civilized Society

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      Authors: R. H. Raghavendra, R. Anil Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Sanitation workers are those who work in any part of the sanitation chain. They perform one of the most important jobs in the society, and still, they remain unseen and unappreciated. The stigmatized caste system in India remains to be the key determinant of the fate of these workers. These workers often come into direct contact with human waste, working with no equipment or protection, which exposes them to a wide variety of health hazards and diseases that can cause unconsciousness or death. There is an urgent need to look into their problems, and this cannot be addressed without having a detailed understanding of the depth and width of their problems. Hence, the present study covers a number of areas such as the vast prevalence of sanitation workers in India, their pathetic conditions, their social and economic status, deaths due to sanitation related works and an alternative livelihood to sanitation work. Finally, this article suggests what the government needs to do for improving the lives of sanitation workers.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-17T10:43:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069683
       
  • Dalit Muslims and the State: Pasmanda Movement and Struggle for
           ‘Scheduled Castes Status’

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      Authors: Shamsher Alam
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This paper attempts to understand the state’s role in providing Scheduled Castes (SC) status for Arzal or Dalit Muslims, and the struggle of Pasmanda Muslims through the Pasmanda movement for inclusion in the SC list. While doing so, it traces the trajectory of marginalization of Dalit Muslims by the state. It argues that since the inception of SC status in independent India, it was reserved only for the Hindu religion. Later on, it was amended twice: first, in 1956 for the inclusion of Sikh, and second, for neo-Buddhist in 1990. It did not include Dalit from the Muslim community. It also attempts to map the effort of Pasmanda Muslims for SC status. In this context, the paper tries to comprehend the role of the Pasmanda movement along with the struggle of social organizations. Consequently, the paper argues that these organizations fight for SC status; however, unable to make any significant intervention at the policy level. This paper also argues that there is a dissensus and intra-community contestation among Muslims regarding the Pasmanda movement and the demand of SC status for Dalit Muslims.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-17T10:43:27Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069478
       
  • Traditional Ideas and Institutions of Democracy in India’s North
           East

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      Authors: Thongkholal Haokip
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores the traditional ideas and practices of indigenous democracy among the tribal communities in North East India. Traditional institutions of governance in the region are repudiated today as autocratic and authoritarian, or at best oligarchic. This oversight is imminent unless their cultures and customs, which are closely linked to their institutions of governance, are examined. In most traditional tribal institutions at the grassroot level, there is either a direct participation of all adult male or a representative system in which each clan or sub-clan is represented in the village council. Thus, one finds pre-modern roots of direct and representative democracy in the traditional polity of indigenous communities in the North East. The article identifies ‘consensus’ as the heart of tribal democracy and argues for the strengthening of indigenous democracy for deepening democracy in India. However, more democratic reforms of the traditional institutions are needed to particularly include women and the ‘others’. The findings contribute to the growing literature on the pre-modern roots of modern democracy.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-17T08:29:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069680
       
  • Reflections on the Republican Party: (Prompted by Recollections of
           Encounters at 15 Janpath)

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      Authors: Ian Duncan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Towards the end of the 1960s, the Ambedkarite Republican Party of India was facing a serious crisis. Its plight intensified with the death of the leader Dadasaheb Gaikwad at the end of 1971. This article takes the long view of the predicament of the party and asks why it had suffered such frequent and lasting instability. Drawing on interviews conducted at that time, including those conducted at the party New Delhi headquarters on Janpath, more recent discussions and a close examination of documentary records, the article examines the volatility and factional conflict exhibited by the party. In contrast to approaches that seek to find the roots of factionalism in personal rivalries and individual animosities, the article searches for more structural causes. It concludes that the inability of the party to broker differences about political cooperation and electoral alliances was a major cause of dissent. Particularly intense differences and division were generated by the issue of cooperation with the Congress party. Ultimately, it was the absence of any institutional procedures for settling disputes that caused the party to decline and eventually collapse into rival factional organizations.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-16T09:29:13Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066097
       
  • Economic Growth, Development and Education of Scheduled Castes: Line Drawn
           from Neoliberal Era

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      Authors: Dhaneswar Bhoi
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The economy of India was reasonably well during the world economic crisis and is performing well in the economic growth of the nation. However, relatively high aggregate economic growth also co-exists with the persistence of less social development for more than a decade. The exclusiveness of this growth rate is associated with region, locality, education, employment, living standard and social position. In this situation, this study poses questions: what are the changing impacts of neoliberalism in India and does economic growth co-exist with social development' What are the neoliberal experiences of marginal sections connected to economic growth' How are the educational attainments, retention and achievements of Scheduled Caste students connected to the structural changes in higher education'
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:41:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211073207
       
  • A Review of the Perspectives of Social Justice with Special Reference to
           the Ambedkarism

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      Authors: Bhimasen Hantal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The social justice is very old concept, which germinated at its mature forms during the era of Gautam Buddha, Plato and Aristotle, and started continual academic and sociopolitical refinements over the centuries through rich contributions of many Kings, Queens, Social Workers, Scholars and so. The concept social justice as always been placed at prominent places by the academic community whether discussing of the colonialism, globalism, communism or so on. Karl Marx has ignited again the notion of social justice among the intellectuals. After WWII, most of the nations got independence, and thus significance of the social justice increased manifold than ever before—to see that how far these countries deliver justice to the marginal communities at their territories, since they are no more under the clutch of their erstwhile colonial masters. Thus, during the entire periods starting from Plato to Rawals and beyond many scholars have contributed through various perspectives on the issue of justice. The major theories have been grouped here as various perspectives and briefly reviewed, while emphasizing previously somehow neglected Ambedkarism, as author found that this ideology could be even more relevant and practical in the modern context of globalization.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:40:03Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221076623
       
  • Caste Environment and the ‘Unthinkability’ of
           ‘Annihilation of Caste’

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      Authors: Ishita Roy
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article revisits Ambedkar’s speech ‘Annihilation of Caste’, the delivery of which was stalled as permission for it was withheld by the organization who had originally invited Ambedkar to deliver a talk on curbing denigrating social practices like ‘untouchability’. The article revisits this moment of denial as well as the speech in its written form and argues for the political significance both (the ‘speech’ and the ‘final act of denial’) hold in contemporary Indian socio-political culture with respect to caste and its ideological mechanisms. It is argued that the consequent ‘final un-deliverance of the speech’, owing to its cancellation by the Mandal, the conference organizer, accounts for political Hinduism’s ‘unthinkability’ to accept any intellectual that does not belong to the ‘upper’ caste/caste dominant to exegete on any matter requiring intellectual exercise. This article attempts a critique of this ‘unthinkability’, which it argues is a basic paradigm in the ideology of caste.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:39:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211072995
       
  • Lived Realities of Socio-political Negotiations by Marginalized Groups and
           the Inherent Rationality of Caste-Based Power Negotiations: A Study of
           Khap Regions of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh

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      Authors: Tarushikha Sarvesh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The article explores the lived realities of socio-political negotiations by marginalized groups and the inherent rationality of caste-based power negotiations at a micro level. It also explores the possibilities of alternate futures and alternate interpretations of the margins, through the study of caste-based negotiations and subversions in the Khap villages of western Uttar Pradesh. Stuart Hall, British Cultural theorist, draws attention to the perspective that cultural identification need not produce an essence but a positioning subject to the continuous ‘play’ of history, culture and power. B. R. Ambedkar had termed the hierarchical caste system in India as ‘graded inequality’, which resists any transformation in its oppressive framework because it gives a sense of superiority to each caste placed above the other in a descending order. Despite stiff resistance to any transformation, various forms of subversion—denting the rigid caste and cultural frames—exist in the Khap areas of western Uttar Pradesh.Ambedkar’s vision of a non-sectarian equitable new social order in combination with empirical study on the current socio-political negotiations by marginalized groups on the ground—with a hint to the possibilities of alternate futures through the efforts towards inducing a democratic environment—are explored here.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:38:29Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069689
       
  • Studying the Poetics of Violence: A Critical Take on the Selected Works of
           Dalit and Tribal Women Poets

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      Authors: Anjali Singh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye helped me to understand what it meant to be born black, poor woman in the USA. Her work gave me an ideal platform to explore what it means to be born a poor Dalit woman in contemporary India. In order to understand the layered connotation of the lives of Dalit women, I deliberated upon the selected poetry by Dalit and tribal women poets and came to the conclusion that apparent similarity between the two contexts comes under scanner and ends abruptly with the following comment by Bell Hook in her book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre. She writes, ‘when the child of two black parents is coming out of the womb the factor that is considered first is skin colour, then gender, because race and gender will determine that child’s fate’. On the contrary, a child of two parents from a lower caste will remain a low caste because caste is infallible and independent of the truce of fate-determining the skin colour that may redefine the gender experience. As a Telugu Dalit poet, Chillappa Swaroopa Rani laments, ‘Stamped with a low caste, I was born/that day it-self branded slut.’ Thus, the thrust of this article is not to bring forth the comparative study between the two contexts but to crystallize the issues of Dalit women as enunciated in their poetry and to engage with the nuances of gender and caste that punctuate their day-to-day lives. This article encompasses the post-colonial feminism theoretical framework that resists the universalization of feminist issues seen and perceived only from the ‘Euro-American feminists’ point of view and ignores the differences in race, ethnicity, regional diversity, etc., through which a woman experiences her gender biases. The selected Dalit poets are Rajni Tilak, Poonam Tushamed, Rajni Anuragi, Sushila Takbhure, Kunti and Nirmal Putul. The main issues expressed in a tribal poet’s works remain Jal-Jungle-Zameen, human trafficking, a lack of legal documentation, witch hunting, etc., while Dalit poets stress on police atrocities, a lack of basic amenities, a lack of quality schools for their children, a lack of access to health care, the domineering influence of patriarchy that punctures their private and public domain, etc.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:37:29Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069597
       
  • What Numbers Never Revealed: Tracing Dalit Christian Modernity Through
           Malayalam Literature

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      Authors: Christina Romeo, Anupama Nayar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Kerala has a long-standing history of Christianity as well as conversions. Conversions can be dated back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which saw a large number of slave caste conversions. For the slave castes of Kerala—Pulayas and Parayas—Christianity offered a salvation from the circle of pollution. Scriptures provided the slave castes new vistas of knowledge which they encultured to form a counter discourse against the public sphere set up by the dominant castes. The public sphere of the Malayalee psyche was formed by the ideas of caste pollution, which restricted the slave castes from accessing the social space. A new Dalit perspective on the religious consciousness of the converted Christians will show the role of the Bible, Original Sin, and Repentance on their daily lives. Dalit Christian literature becomes the primary source where Christianity metamorphoses into an oppositional force in resisting oppression as well as in creating a social space with agency.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:35:29Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069497
       
  • Anand Teltumbde on Globalization and Ambedkar: A Left Perspective

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      Authors: Swamy Kalva
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The left leaning or the Marxian school deals with the social, economic and political ideology or a movement, which aims at establishing a communist stateless society. According to the left-leaning thinkers, the proletarian rule will exist for some point of time, after which the state will wither away. In this case, understanding Ambedkar from a left perspective would be a new paradigm. Anand Teltumbde on one side says that Ambedkar was not a Marxist and that he was under the intellectual influence of his teachers, who were known as the Fabian socialists, and on the other side says that he practiced the class politics.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:34:40Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211067591
       
  • Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s Image and Thought as Perceived in Thailand
           From 1975 to 2017

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      Authors: Pittikorn Panyamanee
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination against untouchables (Dalits) while supporting the rights of women and labourers. This article examines how Ambedkar is characterized in Thai language academic and general writings published between 1975 and 2017. The paper is based on textual analysis that interprets the books and articles on Ambedkar in Thai language as primary sources for understanding his image and thought as portrayed in Thailand.Ambedkar’s forward-thinking ideas on democracy impressed Thai writers because Ambedkar attempted to dispense with the caste system and promote liberty, equality and fraternity among underprivileged communities in India. Ambedkar also served as chairman of drafting committee of Constitution and leader of the Dalit movement and community. Furthermore, Thai writers see Ambedkar’s ideas about Buddhism as qualifying him as a messiah or bodhisattva who revived a neo-Buddhist movement in India. Thai monks have served as significant intermediaries in narrating Ambedkar’s interpretation of Buddhism to the Thai Buddhist community because they have direct experience such as studying and staying in India. Academics and famous writers have also conveyed Ambedkar’s ideas about Buddhism and democracy, which qualify him as a modernist and maha manav [great man].
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-14T02:15:30Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066198
       
  • ‘No Means No’: People’s Protest Against Hydroelectric Development in
           Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India

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      Authors: Dandub Palzor Negi, Abdul Azeez EP
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Development projects, primarily hydroelectric power projects, are considered viable renewable energy sources and contribute to sustaining the economy at large. However, it has been contested over excessive exploitation and appropriation of environment and ecology. Such development models have been challenged worldwide for threatening human survival degrading ecology and the environment. Hydroelectric development in the geographically fragile regions of the Himalayas is on the rise owing to the great potential of hydro energy in the region. This article examines the public protest against the hydroelectric project, the Jangi-Thopan-Powari Hydro Electric project, in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-08T05:09:21Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211069481
       
  • Dalit and the Historiography of Temple Entry Movements in India: Mapping
           Social Exclusion and Cultural Subjugation

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      Authors: Suratha Kumar Malik
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The period between colonialism and the twenty-first century gives horrible glimpses of temple entry and the violence attached with that. Keeping temple entry as an important issue in mind, here, the article reveals the social exclusion and the cultural subjugation of the Dalits since the colonial period to the present day. Dalits in the colonial period and also in present day are denied their social and religious rights in Hindu religion. The right to enter the temple is a fundamental right of a citizen in a religion like Hinduism. Among the various issues that Dalits have voiced since the colonial period, the issue of temple entry along with untouchability is one of the most important. It is not only a matter of excuse that Dalits till the present day (after seven decades of India’s independence) are not allowed to enter inside the temple in some rural areas of the country. The temple entry bill and the legislations have also been adopted by the princely states and the Parliament of India in different times, but still, Dalits are not allowed to enter the Hindu temples even in various parts of India, for instance, in the Kendrapara district of Odisha. As temple entry is an important issue for Dalits as well as for upper caste Hindus in social and religious life, it is pertinent to revisit the historiography of temple entry movements including the contemporary movements which remain important in religious, social and academic spheres. With the aforementioned backdrop, the article first provides a synoptic view on the historiography of Dalit movements in India and on ‘the Gandhi–Ambedkar debate on caste, untouchability and the issue of temple entry’ as a background for the study, and the latter sections thoroughly explores the historicity of temple entry movements and the social exclusion and cultural subjugation inherited with it since the colonial period to the present day. The article also provides a particular section on the temple entry movement in Odisha (2005–2006) which is based on the empirical works of the author and examines the issue in a critical lens with observations and findings.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-08T04:50:31Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211063340
       
  • Basic Amenity and the Caste Conundrum: A Study of the Dalit Communities in
           East Uttar Pradesh

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      Authors: Bibhuti Bhushan Malik, Ajay Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalits lack the bare necessities, such as living in substandard houses with constrained space and rooms devoid of the kitchen, bathroom, and sanitation facilities; with a minuscule living area and limited access to safe drinking water. These aspects of civic amenities are empirically examined with qualitative and quantitative approach in east Uttar Pradesh using significant variables such as housing conditions, access to safe drinking water and toilet availability in households. The article also discuss the dimension and level of civic amenities in Dalit households. Based on research-based field data and ethnography, poverty and a lack of civic amenities are the convoluted pathways and fundamental causes of Dalit families living in poor health, unhygienic conditions and without sanitation. The explanation justifies how Dalits’ lack of public amenities, particularly in micro-settlements, intentionally manifests organized caste identity.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-06T05:55:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066189
       
  • Why the Aryans Still Matter' History, Historiography and Politics

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      Authors: Ashish Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This review article ponders over the debate on the river Sarasvati’s association with the Harappan civilization through a critical analysis of G. D. Bakshi’s book The Sarasvati Civilization: A Paradigm Shift in Ancient Indian History (2019, Gurugram: Garuda Prakashan). By identifying the Rigvedic river Sarasvati with the now dry Ghaggar-Hakra, scholars like G. D. Bakshi co-relate the Vedic-Aryan culture with the Harappans and, by doing this, they Aryanize the Harappan civilization. Since the Aryans are accepted as the ancestors of the modern Hindus, by locating the origin of the Aryans within India, right-leaning scholars put forth the exclusive claim of the Hindu community over the Indian nation. Contrary to them, the left-liberal scholars endorse the Aryan migration theory, and it allows them to explain the origin of the Indian civilization due to the contribution of different ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups that have had migrated into India from faraway lands. It is argued in this review paper that the Aryan debate is more about politics than academic endeavour, and its primarily focus is on the following question: Who has a righteous claim over the Indian nation'
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-06T05:54:52Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211063048
       
  • B. R. Ambedkar: The Messiah and Emancipator of Indian Women

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      Authors: Debjani Ghosal
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was not only the father of the Indian Constitution or a vociferous critique of caste and untouchability but he was also a staunch supporter of women’s rights, their upliftment and emancipation. He strongly criticized the ancient lawgiver Manu and the Manusmrirti or Manav Dharma Shastra for showing contempt towards women and degrading them as slaves who are devoid of intellect. Manu denied women the right to chant Vedas, the right to education and the right to property. Ambedkar requested Indian women not to abide by the Manusmriti and to openly defy the laws of Manu. In order to ensure gender equality and the emancipation and progress of Indian women, he incorporated several articles in the Indian Constitution. As the first law minister of independent India, he introduced the Hindu Code Bill to safeguard the rights of Hindu women. It was due to his tireless efforts that the Constitution of independent India today incorporates several legislations to ensure the protection of women.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T11:59:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211067113
       
  • How the Absence of Caste in Curriculum Aids the Presence of Caste in
           Pedagogy

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      Authors: Damni Kain
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      While caste has been invisibilized in the Indian curriculum, it is practised strongly in a pedagogical sense which maintains hierarchy in higher education. There exists a mutually reinforced relationship of absence (of caste in curriculum) and presence (of caste in pedagogy). The current study aims at assessing inclusivity in academic curriculum and pedagogy with regards to the question of caste in papers related to gender/women’s rights/feminism at the University of Delhi. The curriculum of gender-related papers provided by six departments at the University of Delhi for undergraduate students is assessed. Along with textual analysis, in depth phenomenological interviews were conducted with 20 respondents coming from diverse caste backgrounds. Professors and students who either taught or studied any paper related to gender/women’s rights at undergraduate level of the University of Delhi were interviewed. The results of the study highlight several mutually reinforcing relations between ‘caste-less curriculum’, ‘sacred teacher’ and methods of evaluation, which can be seen as an explanation of how invisibilization of caste in curriculum aids caste as a pedagogical practice.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:55:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066185
       
  • Media Influences on Caste-based Untouchability Practices in India

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      Authors: Archana, Pushpendra Singh
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This study is an attempt to record the extent of untouchability practices prevalent in India as well as to examine the role of the media such as TV, newspaper and radio, as a source of communication which has brought about shift in the practice of caste-based untouchability. For addressing the above-mentioned issues, the study has used the data of India Human Development Survey-II conducted in 2011–2012 by the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi. The findings of the study reveal that 27% of households practise untouchability in contemporary India. However, the households watching TV (25.6%) practise less untouchability than those reading newspapers (26.1%) and listening to the radio (29.6%). The culturally disadvantaged groups are excluded from the decision-making process of the media that communicates the untouchability practices with society. Hence, it is visible from the findings that the role of media is beyond the expectation related to controlling the caste-based untouchability practices.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:54:23Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066088
       
  • Translating Intent: Developments and Challenges in Translating Dalit
           Literature

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      Authors: Kunwar Nitin Pratap Gurjar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      There have been many studies on locating the developments and challenges encountered in the translation of Dalit literature and the numerous impacts introduced by translators, editors and publishers. But hardly any attempt has been made to understand how Dalit writers themselves understand the process of translation. This is important because they often work very closely with these agents, and yet their opinions seem to get lost in the nitty-gritties of translation studies. It is perhaps for this reason alone that Limbale’s response to his translator evinces out this need when he says ‘You are worrying about my books and I am worrying about my movement’. It seems that Dalit writers have a distinct understanding of the role and process of translation which needs a necessary extrapolation. This essay then makes an attempt to suggest a theoretical framework which Dalit writers seem to have in mind when they advocate a need for a ‘socially committed translator’. The expression ‘Socially or politically committed translator’ itself needs to be explained as Dalit writers and their translators continue to use this expression, but the expression itself remains relatively untouched. This paper will therefore address these two important issues to contribute some insights into this field.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:53:21Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066085
       
  • Narayana Guru and the Formation of Political Society in Kerala: Anti-Caste
           Revolt, Religion and the Untouchables

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      Authors: K. V. Cybil
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article is an attempt to examine the salient features of a lower caste revolt began in Kerala in the nineteenth century. It was led by Narayana Guru (1854–1928), a spiritual leader with a distinctive urge to break free from the rules of pollution demarcated by Brahmins in the practice of knowledge. I argue that in the wake of this movement, a strong assertion of community was represented by the Ezhava, a caste which suffered pollution in Hinduism. The defining characteristic of this community today is that of a class—the OBC. In the existing lacunae of non-governmental categories to define the nature of this community, and the philosophy of Advaita remaining an impediment rather than an empowerment to expand the central notions of his thought, I argue that the transition from caste to community represented by Narayana Guru can no longer be situated in the discourse either of Sanskritization or of subalternity, but of the use of technologies of deification.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:52:41Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211063073
       
  • The Subaltern Dalit Counterpublic: Implications for a Social Media Age

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      Authors: Abigail Samyuktha Rabindran
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:51:41Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211042736
       
  • Understanding Social Exclusion of the Low-caste Muslims in Kashmir

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      Authors: Hafsa Sayeed Shah
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This paper attempts to establish the prevalence of the caste system among Muslims in Kashmir. This has been achieved by pointing to aspects like endogamy, ghettoization as well as hereditary passing of ‘menial’ jobs among the ‘low caste’ groups. Further, these findings have been substantiated by the fieldwork done over three months. The essential premise borrowed here to understand caste in Kashmir is that of social exclusion, which the low-caste groups face.Social exclusion, in the context of this study, can be understood as a process that places certain caste groups in a disadvantaged position. This especially stems from being kept out of the larger social networks, in addition to not being able to access employment and education. It is also rooted in the overlapping layers of socio-cultural and economic deprivation. Poverty, in terms of material depravity, is starkly reinforced by such a socio-cultural identity of being a low-caste person employed in a ‘menial’ job. The objective of this paper, as such, is to theorize social exclusion faced by low-caste groups in Kashmir through a capability framework.This paper also investigates the importance of relational deprivation which leads to the capability failure and hence poverty, as well as the dynamics of caste-class interaction in the similar framework of social exclusion.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:50:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066199
       
  • Relationship Between Livelihood Capitals and Livelihood Strategies of
           Dalit

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      Authors: Yam Nath Giri
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit of Nepal are living with lack of opportunities and the high-level poverty of Dalit communities shows that capabilities or livelihood of Dalits have not been adequately increased in quantity and quality. In the absence of capabilities, they have been adopting unsecured livelihood strategies. In this context this study aims to find out the relationship between livelihood capitals and livelihood strategies adopted by the Dalit communities of Kusma municipality, Parbat, Nepal. The study was based on survey research design and 390 respondents were selected by using stratified random sampling method. The relationship between the livelihood strategies and livelihood capitals are found positive, statistically significant and moderate level strength with livelihood strategies. Access to capitals determines the livelihood strategies of the Dalit community. However, there is no rule and degree of relationship between the livelihood capitals and livelihood strategies. Likely, agency and structure of the society dominates the capabilities of the Dalit households. Therefore, even though they have good knowledge, skill, income and physical capital, they are not well supported to choose livelihood strategies. Similarly, livelihood strategies do not contribute to livelihood outcomes as well.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-02-03T09:49:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211060587
       
  • Dalit Bildungsroman: A Modernist Perspective into the Poetics of Self in
           Jhoothan

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      Authors: Bhargavi Jha, Vereendra Kumar Mishra
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This paper analyses the incompetency of Indian philosophy of ‘Absoluteness’ and Western genre of classical Bildungsroman to analyse process of self-formation in an odyssey of a Dalit. The modern contemporary era negotiates post-colonial and postmodern approach to provide a heuristic view to the subjected self of a Dalit. The modernist approach takes Dissensual Bildungsroman in consideration. Om Prakash Valmiki’s Jhoothan narrates an experience of a subjugated and unheard voice and his journey of self-acculturation. The paper pre-eminently concerns for unique and experimented form of self which can provide a tantamount status to the pariah community and their culture compared with elite Hindu community and among its wide range of readers and audience.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-30T05:28:41Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066087
       
  • Historiography of Caste: The Notion of the ‘Declassed’ Castes in
           Michel Boivin’s ‘Sufi Paradigm’

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      Authors: Ghulam Hussain
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The ethno-nationalist historiography in South Asia primarily emerged as the postcolonial critique of British colonialism. Alternatively, the anti-caste historiographers have criticized the postcolonial historiography for reflecting the similar hegemonic bias towards the possible pre-or-post colonial histories of the internally colonized classes and castes. In this article, while appreciating with epistemic humility the equally legitimate position of Michel Boivin, I interrogate the concept of the ‘declassed’ caste groups as it tends to relativize the erasure of caste, the structural aspect that is peripheral to Boivin’s avowed goal of capturing diversity instead of difference, but central to the contemporary critical anti-caste scholarship that I rely on as an alternative framework of reference. Contending his selective epistemic prioritizing of the privileged Amil, Khoja, Mirza castes, I argue that Boivin’s archival ethnography has not effectively attended to the embedded caste-based political orders. He has failed to adequately address the possible erasure of caste, thereby adding to the ahistorical portrayal of the underprivileged castes such as Kolhi, Bheel, Meghwar, and Jogi. Boivin’s rendering of the ‘Sufi Paradigm’, therefore, is in continuation with the scholarship on Sindh that undermines hierarchical differences based on caste discrimination, and facilitates Sindhi progressive intelligentsia to historicize the privileged caste myth of caste-neutral Sufi Sindh.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-30T05:27:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211063069
       
  • Gender Matters: Reappraising the Issues of Equity, Participation and
           Ownership in Watershed Management

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      Authors: Dhananjay Kumar, Dhiraj Kumar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Equal share in governance of managing natural resources is one of the strategic aspects of neoliberal developmentalism. Additionally, this process of natural resource governance (NRG) considers communities as a homogeneous entity by ignoring the cultural politics of gender division to maintain the latency and equilibrium of the existing gendered order and regime. Watershed developmental project is no exceptional in this regard. The existing empirical literature shows that the gender governance (GG) issues in development projects such as watershed is disproportionate between men and women.This article talks about GG by discussing the issues of equity, participation and ownership in NRG, and it argued that GG cannot be synonymous with gender mainstreaming. Watershed development in India has been taken to address the issues of conservation and production, but it doesn’t address the cultural politics of gendered division. Women are more inclined to be marginalized in the governance of watershed management due to the cultural politics of control and access over the ownership of the natural resource (land) which comes under the hegemonic control of their male counterparts. Women participation in watershed activities is merely for fulfilling the custom of the official quota. Considering the potential function of women participation in watershed activities, the present article seeks to explore the issues and approaches through which the participatory institutions must meet the emerging challenges. This study concludes that the role of women participation in NRG will help in the integration of various form of capital more effectively.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-30T05:26:56Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211063068
       
  • Demographic Descriptions and Socio-economic Status of Tribal People
           Subsisting in Rarh Region of West Bengal, India

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      Authors: Sandip Satpati, Kaushal Kumar Sharma
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      There is much discussion on the issue of forest-dependent livelihoods of tribes and their unique culture. It is essential to know the demographic structure of the tribal household and to understand the socio-economic status of the tribal household. The present study has attempted to analyze the demographic structure of the tribal household and to investigate the socio-economic status of the tribal household. The study mainly depends on the primary household survey. Only a base map has been collected from the secondary source. Purposive stratified random sampling technique has been used to collect primary data. A total of 150 households were surveyed. The findings indicate that the socio-economic status of the tribal household declined from east to west of the study region due to natural and human resources showing a declining trend towards the same direction. Also, the study compares inter-regional variation of different socio-economic factors. For their socio-economic empowerment, the tribal people deserve a very intensive development policy implementation with a bottom-up approach. The earlier studies are fragmented, haphazard and maximum works are on the cultural level, that’s why this study is very unique and important.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-30T05:25:38Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211060583
       
  • Quotidian Beliefs and Practices in Maternal and Child Health Care: An
           Empirical Study Among the Irula Tribe of Tamil Nadu

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      Authors: M. Roja Lakshmi, Kasi Eswarappa
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      The present paper explores the cultural context of maternal and child health (MCH) care practices and beliefs of Irula tribes. It identifies the factors and analyses the pattern of their domiciliary deliveries and neonatal care among Irula, which is one of the PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) in Tamil Nadu. The paper adopted a descriptive research design based on the pilot survey and ethnographic fieldwork. It examines the health care beliefs and practices relating to maternal and neonatal care connected with a holistic view of the Irula community’s cultural dimensions. The paper also demonstrates the factors for domiciliary deliveries, non-utilization of prevailing state’s health interventions, and incentives for maternal and child health care services among the Irulas. Keeping in view the aforementioned argument, an empirical study was carried out in six Irular settlements of Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-28T03:43:40Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211066193
       
  • From Dalits as a Political Category to Becoming Dalits in Post-Political
           Conditions: Explaining the Dual Challenges in Contemporary India

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      Authors: Gouri Sankar Nag, Santosh Kumar Behera, Arpan Bhattacharya
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      Dalit politics in India has substantially influenced the emerging post-political discourse. They have reinstated their dialectical mode of functioning in order to circumvent the dispersed social power and the disciplinary effects of civil society, albeit in its selective celebration of identity politics. However, this writing departs from locating the Dalit category as naively synonymous with the notion of victimhood of upper-caste violence. Rather, we contend that it is more important to conceive of the Dalit category in symbolic sense: to stay critical to the effects of dominant culture, lest it covertly imposes itself, and simultaneously to build and promote own counterculture with all sorts of folk forms and symbolic representation of identity that nurtures the existence and dignity of the ‘other’.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-28T03:43:22Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211054249
       
  • Contextualization of Curriculum: Inclusion of Caste Perspectives in Media
           Studies Curriculum

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      Authors: V. Ratnamala
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores caste as a site of communication. It also delves into how caste is a matter of concern in everyday news reporting, news selection, programme production, media history, community media, communication for development, advertising, gender studies, new media and film. It will also attempt to illuminate the role of caste in media ownership, newsroom diversity and creative content creation. This article will further examine the mandate for the inclusion of caste as a site of communication in media pedagogy. This study will analyse the data collected using desk research. Desk research refers to secondary data or the data collected without fieldwork. The data for this article are collected by reviewing published sources, that is, books, articles, reports, and the curriculum of media studies courses offered at different universities across the country.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-24T05:00:40Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211053577
       
  • Exploring the Presence of Avant-Garde in the Graphic Novel: Bhimayana

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      Authors: Rohit Pradhan
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This article attempts to understand the content and aesthetic of the graphic novel Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability, in determining if its nature could be understood as a work of the avant-garde. In order to do so, the article will closely examine the aesthetic style employed by the author, the essence of the story, the content and the nature of its publication. These aspects will then be linked to the various understandings of the avant-garde to find out whether the graphic novel resonates with the principles of questioning ideas, methodologies and power structures.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-22T03:07:48Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211060582
       
  • Trajectories of Persons with Visual Impairment: Narratives of a Woman

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      Authors: Preeti Panwar
      Abstract: Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
      This study discusses the lived-in experiences of a lady with visual impairment. The main objective of the study was to explore the trajectories of a female with visual impairment and understand life experiences from the lens of equality and justice perspectives. This study comes out with the finding that discrimination against visually impaired females is still prevalent in our society even after the enactment of acts and provision in Indian Constitution.
      Citation: Contemporary Voice of Dalit
      PubDate: 2022-01-16T03:57:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/2455328X211055368
       
 
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