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The Untouchables
Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India

This book explores the background and position of the Untouchables in India.

Oliver Mendelsohn (Author), Marika Vicziany (Author)

9780521553629, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 April 1998

308 pages, 2 tables
23.6 x 15.6 x 2.5 cm, 0.615 kg

'Clearly written and lucidly argued, this book is an important study of a very sensitive subject.' Journal of Asian Studies

In a sensitive and compelling account of the lives of those at the very bottom of Indian society, Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany explore the construction of the Untouchables as a social and political category, the historical background which led to such a definition, and their position in India today. The authors argue that, despite efforts to ameliorate their condition on the part of the state, a considerable edifice of discrimination persists on the basis of a tradition of ritual subordination. Even now, therefore, it still makes sense to categorise these people as 'Untouchables'. The book promises to make a major contribution to the social and economic debates on poverty, while its wide-ranging perspectives will ensure an interdisciplinary readership from historians of South Asia, to students of politics, economics, religion and sociology.

Glossary
1. Who are the Untouchables?
2. The question of the 'Harijan atrocity'
3. Religion, politics and the Untouchables from the nineteenth century to 1956
4. Public policy I: adverse discrimination and compensatory discrimination
5. Public policy II: the anti-poverty programs
6. The new Untouchable proletariat: a case study of the Faridabad stone quarries
7. Untouchable politics and Untouchable politicians since 1956
8. The question of reservation: lives and careers of some scheduled castes MPs and MLAs
9. Subordination, poverty and the state in modern India
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]

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