Caste in History

The Intangibility of caste-as a concept and in practice–retains centrality in discussions on the sociopolitical scenario in India today. For a category whose viability itself has been questioned, the last few years have seen the production of an enormous scholarly corpus on various aspects of caste. However, such studies have only rarely considered the myriad, historical articulations of caste. Caste in History redresses this imbalance by tracking the contentious careers of caste among different groups and in distinct regions of India from the seventeenth century through to the present. By bringing together a careful selection of old and new works, seminal and recent studies by historians and social scientists, this interdisciplinary reader in the Themes in Indian History Series reflects on the diverse understanding of caste in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial India. It examines caste as institution and ideology and as perception and practice by charting its varied trajectories and changing contours. It also explores the experiences in everyday life of hierarchies and disabilities of caste. The result is a questioning of pervasive presuppositions regarding the given-ness of caste as involving tacit structures of belief and action. Organized thematically, the volume has four sections. The first part focuses on the distinct yet overlapping ways in which configurations of caste changed and gained legitimacy during colonial times. The next section opens up new vistas of thinking about caste, kingship, identity and hierarchy. Questions arising from multiple pasts of communities and identities concerns the third part on caste and politics. The concluding section explores the vicissitudes of caste in everyday lives through personal accounts and emotive portrayals of disability and discrimination. In her introduction to the volume, Ishita Banerjee-Dube discusses the varied historical and epistemological trajectories of caste as well as key debates around identity and consciousness in modern India. She further underlines issues and themes for future research. This reader will interest scholars, teachers, students and researchers of modern and contemporary Indian history, political science, sociology, and anthropology, particularly those concerned with the study of caste in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial societies.