Religion, Caste, Tribe and Gender: Essays on Society, Culture and Development in India Book

Contents: Preface. Introduction. I. Caste Classification, Subalternity and colonial Historiography: 1. Determinism in the Mahabharata and the origin of the Candala: implications for colonial ethnography/Greg Bailey. 2. Subaltern peasants, elite society and socio-religious reforms: discordant notes on nationalism in colonial Bengal/Manoj Kumar Sanyal. 3. Colonial and other uses of two Tibetan Historical works by Taranatha (1575-1634)/David Templeman. II. Subalternity: subjection, stratigication and cultural practice: 4. On the making of Subalternity/Harald Tambs-Lyche. 5. The twin Martyrs of our destiny: the Billava reappropriation of a possession cult (Karnataka)/Marine Carrin. III. Entitlement and empowerment: 6. Gajan: the magin and the myth/Modhura Banerjee. 7. Access to food and nutritional well-being for social and religious groups in India/Panchanan Das. 8. Emergence of women entrepreneurs in India in the New Millennium: a case of inclusive growth/Pradip Kumar Biswas. 9. Women’s political empowerment, leadership and education: the Indian context/Debjani Guha. Index. 

This volume brings together essays on some fundamental themes of Indian culture and society, now and in the past. They bring to bear contemporary social science methods and historiography to explore the interface between religion, social conflict, gender status and economic inequality. The essays in Section I dwell on the origin of social classes, elitism and nationalist consciousness. One essay in this section brings out the falsehood of the imperial myth that it was the British who exhumed India’s past. Section II addresses some issues relating to the creation of Subalternity, a survey-based study of the process of differentiations of Billavas of Karnataka, and the culture of the Santals of Bengal. The first two chapters in section III discuss problems of food entitlement and other issues of empowerment  by socio-religious and gender groups in terms of their participation in small business in the new millennium. The final chapter dwells on women’s participation in Indian politics. (jacket)