Caste, Knowledge, and Power
Ways of Knowing in Twentieth Century Malabar

Analyses the relation between caste and knowledge practices and the exploration of the hierarchical colonial–Brahmanical forms of knowledge production.

Sunandan K. N. (Author)

9781009273121, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 February 2023

240 pages
23.7 x 16.1 x 2.2 cm, 0.46 kg

Caste, Knowledge, and Power investigates the transformations of caste practices in twentieth century India and the role of knowledge in this transformation and in the continuing of these oppressive practices. The author situates the domination and subordination in the domain of knowledge production in India not just in the emergence of colonial modernity but in the formation of colonial–Brahminical modernity. It engages less with the marginalization of the oppressed castes in the modern institutions of knowledge production which has already been discussed widely in the scholarship. Rather, the author focuses on how the modern colonial–Brahminical concept of knowledge invalidated many other forms of knowing practices and how historically caste domination transformed from the claims of superiority in acharam (ritual hierarchy) to the claims of superiority in possession of knowledge.

Acknowledgements
Notes of Transliteration
Introduction: Caste, Knowledge, and Power
1. An Ashari World of Knowing
2. An Ashari World of Ignoring
3. A Nampoothiri World of Acharam
4. Nampoothiris and the Order of Knowledge
5. Asharis and the Order of Knowledge
Postscript: Towards and Artisanal Way of Practice of Knowing
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH], Oral history [HBTD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], History [HB]