Suchergebnisse

"Once known as 'Pariahs, ' Dalits are primarily descendants of unfree agrarian laborers. They belong to India's lowest castes, face overwhelming poverty and discrimination, and continue to be a source of public anxiety. Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, this book follows the conception and evolution of the 'Pariah problem' in public consciousness in the 1890s. It shows how high-caste landlords, state officials, and well-intentioned missionaries conceived of Dalit oppression and prevented substantive solutions to the 'Pariah Problem' with consequences that continue to be felt today. The book begins with a description of the everyday lives of Dalit laborers in the 1890s and highlights the systematic efforts made by the state and Indian elites to protect Indian slavery from public scrutiny. Protestant missionaries were the first non-Dalits to draw attention to their plight. However, their vision of the Pariahs' suffering as a result of Hindu religious prejudice obscured the fact that the entire agrarian political-economic system depended on Pariah labor. The Indian public as well as colonial officials came to share a view compatible with missionary explanations, which meant all subsequent welfare efforts directed at Dalits focused on religious and social transformation rather than on structural reform. Methodologically, theoretically, and empirically, this book breaks new ground to demonstrate how events in the early decades of state-sponsored welfare directed at Dalits laid the groundwork for the present day, where the postcolonial state and well-meaning social and religious reformers continue to downplay Dalits' landlessness, violent suppression, and political subordination"--Provided by publisher

Published online : 02 September 2020 ; Codified in Articles 15 and 27(1)(a) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR] and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights [ICESCR], respectively, cultural rights are still read as distinct from linguistic and religious freedoms. The ICCPR vests cultural rights only in "persons belonging to minorities", instead of groups. This paper attempts to analyze the reasons for the deficiencies in the ICCPR/ICESCR cultural rights regimes. In so doing, it unpacks the implications of these deficiencies for three current conflicts in Asia—the alleged persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar, Uighurs in China, and Kashmiri Muslims in India—which are replete with cultural rights violations. It then tests whether the richer culture-based jurisprudence in international criminal law can offer lessons for the recalibration of cultural rights under the ICCPR/ICESCR. In particular, whether such cross-fertilization can trigger the jurisdiction of alternative forums to enforce state responsibility for these violations.

This article draws on theories of material feminism and children's literature scholarship to examine the relationship between the metamorphing adolescent body and language in two texts that deal with girl-animal metamorphoses: Justine Larbalestier's Liar and Peter Dickinson's Eva. In particular, it examines how the materiality of the characters' transforming bodies gives them agency when they are silenced on the level of the human, and more important, how the liminality of the metamorph's body influences their access to human language, which in turn enables them to survive in their respective societies.

This article follows the administrative usage of the term ''labour'' and its political effects in the period from roughly 1918–1924 in Madras Presidency, India. In this short period, I will argue, fundamental tensions in the ability of the concept to refer coherently to its object came violently to the surface. The prevailing tension in both governmental discourse and in the sphere of political representation concerned the extent to which either caste status or economic class were to be understood as the primary determinant of the meaning of labour. At the nub of this conflict lay the contested status of the descendants of hereditarily unfree labourers who supplied the bulk of the Presidency's labour requirements and were referred to in this period as Adi-Dravidas. Should they be construed as ritually disadvantaged caste subjects who also happened to labour, or as paradigmatic labourers who were also subjected to caste discrimination? Adi-Dravidas provoked both the anxiety of the elite political classes who wished to incorporate them into larger nationalist projects, as well as the reformist zeal of the colonial state, throwing the category ''labour'' into crisis. By navigating the use to which ''labour'' was put by caste elites, state officials, and Adi-Dravidas themselves, I will reflect on the coherence of caste and class as analytic concepts for political and social struggles of the kind I am describing. ; Rupa Viswanath. Une nouvelle re´flexion sur les castes et les classes: ''Main d'oeuvre'', les ''classes de´prime´es'', et la politique des distinctions, Madras 1918–1924. Cet article suit l'utilisation administrative du terme de 'main d'oeuvre' et ses effets politiques dans la pe´riode allant d'environ 1918 a` 1924 dans la pre´sidence de Madras en Inde. Pendant cette bre`ve pe´riode, comme je le de´montrerai, des tensions fondamentales dans la capacite´ de ce concept a` e´tablir une distinction cohe´rente surgirent violemment. La tension pre´dominante, tant dans le discours gouvernemental que dans la sphe`re de la repre´sentation politique, concernait la mesure dans laquelle soit le statut de caste, soit la classe e´conomique, devaient eˆtre compris comme le principal de´terminant de la signification du terme de ''main d'oeuvre''. Au coeur de ce conflit re´sidait le statut conteste´ des descendants des travailleurs he´re´ditairement non libres qui fournissaient la plus grande partie de la main d'oeuvre exige´e par la pre´sidence et e´taient de´signe´s comme intouchables: devaient-ils eˆtre conside´re´s comme les sujets d'une caste rituellement de´savantage´s qui travaillaient accessoirement ou bien comme des travailleurs paradigmatiques qui e´taient e´galement soumis a` une discrimination de caste? Les intouchables provoque` rent tant l'anxie´te´ des classes politiques de l'e´lite, qui souhaitaient les inte´grer dans de plus amples projets nationalistes, que le ze`le re´formiste de l'e´tat colonial, mettant la cate´gorie de la ''main-d'oeuvre'' en crise. En e´tudiant l'utilisation faite du terme de ''main d'oeuvre'' par les e´lites de caste, les agents de l'e´tat et les intouchables euxme ˆmes, j'examinerai la cohe´rence de caste et la cohe´rence de classe en tant que concepts analytiques pour les luttes politiques et sociales du type que je de´cris. ; Rupa Viswanath. Eine Rekonzeptualisierung von Kaste und Klasse: ''Arbeit'', die ''niederen klassen'', und die Politik der Unterscheidungen in Madras, 1918–1924. Der Beitrag verfolgt die behördliche Verwendung des Begriffs ''Arbeit'' (''labour'') und ihre politischen Auswirkungen in der Prasidentschaft Madras, Indien zwischen etwa 1918 und etwa 1924. Innerhalb dieses kurzen Zeitraums sind, so wird im Beitrag argumentiert, grundlegende Spannungen hinsichtlich der Fähigkeit des Begriffs zutage getreten, einen kohärenten Gegenstandsbezug aufzuweisen. Die wichtigste dieser Spannungen, sowohl im Regierungsdiskurs als auch in der Sphäre der politischen Repräsentation, betraf die Frage, ob der Kastenstatus oder die wirtschaftliche Klassenlage als Hauptdeterminante der Bedeutung von ''Arbeit'' zu begreifen sei. Mittelpunkt dieser Auseinandersetzung war der umstrittene Stellenwert jener qua Geburt unfreien Arbeiter, die in der Präsidentschaft Madras den Großteil des Arbeitskräftebedarfs deckten und in diesem Zeitraum als ''Adi-Dravidas'' bezeichnet wurden. Waren sie als rituell benachteiligte Kastensubjekte zu begreifen, die zusätzlich auch arbeiteten, oder waren sie paradigmatische Arbeiter, die außerdem der Kastendiskriminierung unterlagen? Die Adi-Dravidas riefen nicht nur das Unbehagen jener die Elite stellenden politischen Klassen hervor, die sie in umfassendere nationalistische Projekte zu integrieren suchten, sondern auch den reformistischen Eifer des Kolonialstaats, was zu einer Krise der Kategorie ''Arbeit'' führte. Der Artikel vollzieht den Gebrauch nach, den Kasteneliten, Staatsfunktionäre und die Adi-Dravidas selbst vom Begriff ''Arbeit'' machten; auf dieser Grundlage werden Überlegungen angestellt, die die Kohärenz der analytischen Begriffe ''Kaste'' und ''Klasse'' mit Bezug auf politische und soziale Kämpfe der beschriebenen Art betreffen. ; Rupa Viswanath. Repensando la casta y la clase: ''Trabajo'', las ''clases desfavorecidas'', y la polı´tica de las distinciones, Madras 1918–1924. Este artı´culo se adentra en el uso administrativo del te´rmino ''trabajo'' y sus efectos polı´ticos en el periodo que aproximadamente va entre 1918–1924 en la Presidencia de Madras, India. En este corto espacio considerare´ co´mo las tensiones fundamentales que se plantean en la capacidad del concepto para poder hacer uso del mismo de manera coherente salen a la superficie de forma abrupta. La tensio´n predominante tanto en el discurso gubernamental como en la esfera de la representacio ´n polı´tica referida a la cuestio´n del lugar que ocupaba cada estatus de casta o clase econo´mica debe ser entendida como un determinante principal del significado del trabajo. En el meollo de este conflicto reside la condicio´ n puesta en entredicho de los descendientes de los trabajadores hereditariamente no-libres encargados del suministro de la mayor parte de las necesidades de trabajo de la Presidencia y que eran designados a lo largo de ese periodo como los Adi-Dravidas: +deberı´an ser interpretados como individuos pertenecientes a una casta ritualmente desfavorecida que trasladaba tal condicio´n al mundo del trabajo, o como trabajadores paradigma´ticos que al mismo tiempo quedaban sujetos a la discriminacio´n del sistema de castas? Los Adi-Dravidas provocaron tanto la preocupacio´n de la elite de las clases polı´ticas que aspiraban a incorporar a estos sectores en los proyectos nacionalistas ma´s amplios como la preocupacio´n en el fervor de los reformistas del estado colonial, poniendo la categorı´a ''trabajo'' en crisis. Abrie´ndome paso a trave´s del uso que las castas elitistas, los funcionarios y los propios Adi-Dravidas han atribuido al te´rmino ''trabajo'' reflexionare´ sobre la coherencia de las castas y de las clases como conceptos analı´ticos para analizar las luchas polı´ticas y sociales del tipo que hemos descrito anteriormente. ; peerReviewed

AbstractIn 2002, the Indian state of Tamil Nadu passed a law that illustrates the centrality of what may be called "authentic religious selves" to postcolonial Indian statecraft. It banned religious conversions brought about by what it termed "material allurement," and it especially targeted those who might attempt to convert impoverished Dalits, descendants of unfree laborers who now constitute India's lowest castes. Conversion, thus conceived, is itself founded upon the idea that the self must be autonomous; religion ought to be freely chosen and not brought about by "allurement." Philosophers like Charles Taylor have provided accounts of how selfhood of this kind became lodged in the Westernimaginaire, but how was it able to take hold in very different social configurations, and to what effect? By attending to this more specific history, this essay brings a correlated but widely overlooked question to center stage: under what distinctive circumstances areparticularselves called upon to actively demonstrate their autonomy and authenticity by divulging putatively secreted contents? In colonial South India, I will argue, the problem of authentic conversion only captured the public imagination when Dalit conversions to Christianity in colonial Madras threatened the stability of the agrarian labor regimes to which they were subject. And today, as in nineteenth-century Madras, it is Dalit selfhood that remains an object of intense public scrutiny and the target of legal interventions.