Civility Against Caste: Dalit Politics and Citizenship in Western India

Based on an ethnographic study of Dalit movements in Maharashtra, the volume studies the role of caste in the context of the evolution of the civil society, such as, in building up localised forms and processes of civil society. Pointing out that studies have generally focused on the role of the state in shaping the civil society and ignored the caste factor, it deals with the nature and forms of Dalit assertion in the 1990s—the post-Panther phase (after the decline of the Dalit Panthers in the 1980s). A critique of normative liberal assumptions of the civil society, it examines Dalit politics and movements especially the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Manavi Hakk Abhiyaan (MHA) that are representative of the growth and changes in Dalit politics over the last few decades. It tries to show how Dalit movements challenge and reform the state and civil society through innovative strategies.