Research Catalog

Title

The untouchables : subordination, poverty, and the state in modern India / Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany.

Author

Mendelsohn, Oliver.

Publication

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Vicziany, Marika.

Description

xviii, 289 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"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."--Publisher description.

Series Statement

Contemporary South Asia ; 4

Uniform Title

Contemporary South Asia (Cambridge, England) ; 4.

Subject

• Since 1947
• Dalits > India > Politics and government
• Dalits > India > Economic conditions
• Dalits > India > Social conditions
• India > Politics and government > 1947-

Genre/Form

• bibliography.
• glossary.
• bibliographie.
• glossaire.
• bibliografía.
• glosario.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 272-283) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Who are the Untouchables? -- The question of the 'Harijan atrocity' -- Religion, politics and the Untouchables from the nineteenth century to 1956 -- Public policy I : adverse discrimination and compensatory discrimination -- Public policy II : the anti-poverty programs -- The new Untouchables proletariat : a case study of the Faridabad stone quarries -- Untouchable politics and Untouchable politicians since 1956 -- The question of reservation : the lives and careers of some scheduled caste MPs and MLAs -- Subordiantion, poverty and the state in modern India.

ISBN

• 0521553628
• 0521556716 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^97027947^

OCLC

• 37397862
• SCSB-12394772

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library