Full Description
Often identified as leatherworkers or characterized as a criminal caste, Chamars of North India have long been stigmatized as untouchables. In this pathbreaking study, Ramnarayan S. Rawat shows that in fact the majority of Chamars have always been agriculturalists, and their association with the ritually impure occupation of leatherworking has largely been constructed through Hindu, colonial, and postcolonial representations of untouchability. Rawat undertakes a comprehensive reconsideration of the history, identity, and politics of this important Dalit group. Using Dalit vernacular literature, local-level archival sources, and interviews in Dalit neighborhoods, he reveals a previously unrecognized Dalit movement which has flourished in North India from the earliest decades of the 20th century and which has recently achieved major political successes.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Untouchable Boundaries: Chamars and the Politics of Identity and History
1. Making Chamars Criminal: The Crime of Cattle Poisoning
2. Investigating the Stereotype: Chamar Peasants and Agricultural Laborers
3. Is the Leather Industry a Chamar Enterprise? The Making of Leatherworkers
4. Struggle for Identities: Chamar Histories and Politics
5. From Chamars to Dalits: The Making of an Achhut Identity and Politics, 1927-56
Conclusion: Overcoming Domination: The Emergence of a New Achhut Identity
Appendix: Statistical Tables
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
