The Dalit Movement in India

This work traces new 'practices' and discourses among Dalit activists since the 1990s and shows how these practices both shaped and changed social relations. It is an anthropological attempt to reach behind the surface of the contemporary Dalit movement. It discusses the kind of discourses found among Dalit activists; the organizational structure of the movement; local practices among activists, among others. This study also relates the method of anthropological fieldwork to theories about social movements. It offers a historical context as a prerequisite to understanding processes in the contemporary Dalit movement focus on the heterogeneity and the geographical spread of the contemporary Dalit movement. The fieldwork moves from a small locality of Dalits in Lucknow to interaction with Davit activists in Maharashtra to the life of Punjabi Dalit migrants in Birmingham.