CLASS, CASTE, GENDER

Description

Contemporary India’s political landscape is characterized by a great deal of social upheaval. This is the result of growing democratic consciousness which is increasingly conflicting with the forces of domination, authoritarianism and hegemony. Against this backdrop, this volume provides an understanding of these forces in both historical and analytical terms. In particular, the seminal essays gathered here explore the specificities of the crucial social categories of class, caste and gender, while simultaneously drawing attention to the arenas in which they intersect.

Manoranjan Mohanty, formerly Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi, is currently Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi, and Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi.

Review extract

This edited collection by Mohanty swiftly and effectively takes the reader through India’s historical and contemporary political climate, charting extensive social upheavals, reconstitutions and actions in terms of the interconnected aspects of class, caste and gender. The authors point to ever growing democratic movements in India, across different regions, with greater or lesser effects, and the ways that such movements conflict with state domination and hegemony. The central thesis of this book, as suggested in the title, is in the inevitable and embedded intersection of social inequalities; the book is nonetheless organized into three rather different sections, Part 1: Class Structure and the State, Part 2: Caste Domination and Political Power, Part 3: Gender Inequality and Social Change. Beyond the introduction and conclusion the instances of such intersection appear more between the lines often alluded to, perhaps assumed by the reader, that things are better or worse, according to respective dis/advantages in terms of gender, class and caste…. Nonetheless this book, on the whole, speaks to state and social processes, political movements and corresponding social transformations waged by those most adversely effected by social inequalities and in this respect pays attention to the continued salience of living in these identity categories, in experiencing and resisting the oppression suffered therein. Further, the authors engage with theoretical and analytical debates around issues of post-colonialism and the intensification of economic reforms which herald a new stage of capitalist development in India, where India is situated within the global context of class (if not gender) structures. Each chapter explores specific areas of Indian society and locates recent changes within wider debates of economy, culture and politics…..