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Dynamics of Caste and Law breaks new ground in understanding how caste and law relate in India's democratic order. Caste has become a visible phenomenon often associated with discrimination, inequality and politics in India and globally. India's constitutional democracy has had a remarkable goal of creating equality in a context of caste. Despite constitutional promises with equal opportunities for the lower castes and outlawing of untouchability at the time of independence, recurring atrocities and inadequate implementation of law have called for rethinking and legal change. This book sheds new light on why caste oppression persists by using new theoretical perspectives as well as Bhimrao Ambedkar's concepts of the caste system. Focusing on struggles among India's Dalits, the castes formerly known as untouchables, the book draws on a rich material and explains, among other things, mechanisms of oppression and how powerful actors may gain influence in institutions of law and state.

AbstractDigital tools, such as video conference technology, are currently transforming people's behaviour, social relations, and learning processes in higher education. But the digital tools used in teaching and learning are also part of a dynamic capitalism. This article focuses on democracy and subjectivity in higher education and outlines a critical approach in this context. I revisit John Dewey's philosophy to reflect on digital tools and the goals of education in a democratic society. Published more than a century ago, Dewey's seminal book Democracy and Education is relevant as a constructive approach to combining learning, experience, habits, and tools. Dewey argued that dualisms between mind and matter, knowledge and nature, undermine a democratic society. For Dewey, a society would require communication and the sharing of experiences whilst education would require democratic aims beyond the individual. Yet the contemporary challenges include a 'digital gaze' where the technology makes subjects more visible and observed. Foucault's analytics of power thus becomes a constructive supplement to Dewey's focus on participation and modes of inquiry to fully examine subjectivity and democracy in postdigital higher education.

The modern history of the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh involves significant experiences relevant to the sociology of caste and Dalit studies than is often reflected in existing scholarship. At the centre of this history is the massacre of six Dalits in Karamchedu village, coastal Andhra, in 1985. The article focuses on the Karamchedu massacre and how this event was decisive for the emergence of an independent Dalit movement, fully engaged in a struggle against untouchability, violence and caste-based discrimination. The Dalit Mahasabha was created, representing a collective, emancipatory project in opposition to the dominant Naxalite movement. The initial struggle started from a camp that was established to support the victims who had fled the attack in Karamchedu. Ambedkar, moreover, became the summarising symbol for the new Dalit movement, providing the basis for a Dalit approach and relations to other movements. Overall, the history of Karamchedu involves significant theoretical lessons concerning caste and class, Dalit discourse and ontology. The article concludes by sketching a hypothesis of how caste may be intensified in its social and political situation in India's modernity.

AbstractThis paper argues that the Dalit situation of caste-based oppression in India could be characterized by the enduring co-existence of upward social mobility and atrocities. While being a common-sense understanding, the paper suggests that the relation between upward social mobility and enduring atrocity could be referred to as a "structural mechanism" in the Dalit situation. The concept is used to explain the Dalit problem. Moreover, this structural mechanism sheds more light on developments and discursive breaks in the legal context. A central lesson in the post-colonial period is that the problem of "untouchables" could not simply be conceptualized as a problem of civil law and untouchability. Rather, the problem of atrocities created demands and a need to make caste-based atrocities a concern for criminal law. Ambedkar's significance as a symbol of Dalit assertion could be viewed in connection with the structural mechanism of Dalit achievements and caste-based exclusion.