Description
Book SynopsisWhile the caste system has been formally abolished under the Indian Constitution, according to official statistics, every eighteen minutes a crime is committed in India on a dalit-untouchable. The Persistence of Caste uses the shocking case of Khairlanji, the brutal murder of four members of a dalit family in 2006, to explode the myth that caste no longer matters. In this exposé, Anand Teltumbde locates the crime within the political economy of post-Independence India and across the global Indian diaspora. This book demonstrates how caste has shown amazing resilience - surviving feudalism, capitalist industrialization and a republican constitution - to still be alive and well today, despite all denial, under neoliberal globalization. This insightful new analysis not only provides a fascinating introduction to the issue of caste in a globalized world, but also sharpens our understanding of caste dynamics as they really exist.
Trade Review'Anand Teltumbde's analysis of the public, ritualist massacre of a dalit family in 21st century India exposes the gangrenous heart of Indian society. This is not a book about the last days of relict feudalism, but a book about what modernity means in India.' Arundhati Roy 'Every foreigner, who does not see how odious the caste system is, must read this.' Samir Amin
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: Caste: A Historical Outline
- 2. Beyond Varna: Caste in the 21st Century
- 3. The Political Economy: The Shaping of the Macabre Spectacle
- 4. Anti-Atrocity Law: Mitigation and its Malcontents
- 5. The Khairlanji Murders: Genealogy and Aftermath
- 6. Post-Khairlanji: A Chronicle of Repression
- 7. Mass Media: Massive Prejudice
- 8. Atrocities by the State: Neoliberalism, Naxalism and Dalits
- 9. Exploding Myths: Globalisation, Civil Society and the Bahujan
