Caste Dynamics Among the Bengali Hindus

Caste Dynamics Among the Bengali Hindus PDF Author: Jyotirmoyee Sarma
Publisher: Calcutta : Firma KLM
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Caste Dynamics Among the Bengali Hindus

Caste Dynamics Among the Bengali Hindus PDF Author: Jyotirmoyee Sarma
Publisher: Calcutta : Firma KLM
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description


Caste, Culture and Hegemony

Caste, Culture and Hegemony PDF Author: Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761998495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
It is widely believed that, because of its exceptional social development, the caste system in colonial Bengal differed considerably from the rest of India. Through a study of the complex interplay between caste, culture and power, this book convincingly demonstrates that Bengali Hindu society preserved the essentials of caste discrimination in colonial times, even while giving the outward appearance of having changed. Using empirical data combined with an impressive array of secondary sources, Dr Bandyopadhyay delineates the manner in which Hindu caste society maintained its cultural hegemony and structural cohesion. This was primarily achieved by frustrating reformist endeavours, by co-opting the challenges of the dalit, and by marginalising dissidence. It was through such a process of constant negotiation in the realm of popular culture, argues the author, that this oppressive social structure and its hierarchical ideology and values have survived. Starting with an examination of the relationship between caste and power, the book examines early cultural encounters between `high' Brahmanical tradition and the more egalitarian `popular' religious cults of the lower castes. It moves on to take a close look at the relationship between caste and gender showing the reasons why the reform movement for widow remarriage failed. It ends with an examination of the Hindu `partition' campaign, which appropriated dalit autonomous politics and made Hinduism the foundation of an emergent Indian national identity. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay breaks with many of the assumptions of two important schools of thought - the Dumontian and the subaltern - and takes instead a more nuanced approach to show how high caste hegemony has been able to perpetuate itself. He thus takes up issues which go to the heart of contemporary problems in India's social and political fabric. This important and original contribution will be widely welcomed by historians, sociologists and political scientists.

Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture

Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture PDF Author: Ronald B. Inden
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520025691
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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The Politics of Caste in West Bengal

The Politics of Caste in West Bengal PDF Author: Uday Chandra
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317414772
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This volume offers for the first time a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the making and maintenance of a modern caste society in colonial and postcolonial West Bengal in India. Drawing on cutting-edge multidisciplinary scholarship, it explains why caste continues to be neglected in the politics of and scholarship on West Bengal, and how caste relations have permeated the politics of the region until today. The essays presented here dispel the myth that caste does not matter in Bengali society and politics, and make possible meaningful comparisons and contrasts with other regions in South Asia. The work will interest scholars and researchers in sociology, social anthropology, politics, modern Indian history and cultural studies.

Caste, Culture, and Hegemony

Caste, Culture, and Hegemony PDF Author: Śekhara Bandyopādhyāẏa
Publisher: Sage Publications Limited
ISBN: 9780761932345
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
It is widely believed that, because of its exceptional social development, the caste system in colonial Bengal differed considerably from the rest of India. Through a study of the complex interplay between caste, culture and power, this book convincingly demonstrates that Bengali Hindu society preserved the essentials of caste discrimination in colonial times, even while giving the outward appearance of having changed. Using empirical data combined with an impressive array of secondary sources, Dr Bandyopadhyay delineates the manner in which Hindu caste society maintained its cultural hegemony and structural cohesion. Starting with an examination of the relationship between caste and power, the book examines early cultural encounters between `high` Brahmanical tradition and the more egalitarian `popular` religious cults of the lower castes. It moves on to take a close look at the relationship between caste and gender showing the reasons why the reform movement for widow remarriage failed. It ends with an examination of the Hindu `partition` campaign, which appropriated dalit autonomous politics and made Hinduism the foundation of an emergent Indian national identity. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay breaks with many of the assumptions of two important schools of thought--the Dumontian and the subaltern--and takes instead a more nuanced approach to show how high caste hegemony has been able to perpetuate itself. He thus takes up issues which go to the heart of contemporary problems in India`s social and political fabric.

The Tribes and Castes of Bengal

The Tribes and Castes of Bengal PDF Author: Sir Herbert Hope Risley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropometry
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description


Caste, Politics, and the Raj

Caste, Politics, and the Raj PDF Author: Śekhara Bandyopādhyāẏa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Explores The Attitude Of Certain Lower Casts To Nationalist Movement In Bengal. It Shows That Their Aspirations Were Not Accommodated Within The Mainstream Of Nationalist Politics And This Led Ito Emphasize On Caste Which In Turn Delayed Their Integration Into The Nation. Has 4 Chapters Followed By Conclusion, Appendix And A Bibliography.

Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India

Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India PDF Author: Śekhara Bandyopādhyāẏa
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780700706266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Movement by low-caste Hindu groups and their struggles for social and political recognition have been the subject of a number of academic studies in recent years - in anthropology and religious and political studies as well as history. The Namasudras of Bengal, however, represent a particularly interesting and important case, given their standing as the largest Hindu caste in eastern Bengal before Partition and their apparent lack of a single, shared identity before the late 19th century. Bandyopadhyay provides an intelligent and well-researched study of the Namasudras from their emergence as a census-defined community in 1872 to their disintegration with the Partition of 1947. The author makes very extensive use of Bengali tracts, pamphlets and newspapers as well as English materials (including official and archival materials). Bandyopadhyay gives an in-depth narrative and provides an analysis of the Namasudras that is both sensitive to their internal differentiation and their place in the wider political and social context of Bengal and India.

Cultural Constellations, Place-Making and Ethnicity in Eastern India, c. 1850-1927

Cultural Constellations, Place-Making and Ethnicity in Eastern India, c. 1850-1927 PDF Author: Swarupa Gupta
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004349766
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
In Cultural Constellations, Place-Making and Ethnicity in Eastern India, c. 1850-1927, Swarupa Gupta outlines a fresh paradigm moving beyond stereotypical representations of eastern India as a site of ethnic fragmentation. The book traces unities by exploring intersections between (1) cultural constellations; (2) place-making and (3) ethnicity. Centralising place-making, it tells the story of how people made places, mediating caste / religious / linguistic contestations. It offers new meanings of ‘region’ in Eastern Indian and global contexts by showing how an interregional arena comprising Bengal, Assam and Orissa was forged. Using historical tracts, novels, poetry and travelogues, the book argues that commonalities in Eastern India were linked to imaginings of Indian nationhood. The analysis contains interpretive strategies for mediating federalist separatisms and fragmentation in contemporary India.

Caste, Marginalisation, and Resistance

Caste, Marginalisation, and Resistance PDF Author: Kunal Debnath
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004689389
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The identity politics of the householder Naths (Yogis), on the one hand, is one of the oldest and most persistent identity assertions in Bengal and Assam. On the other, for an array of reasons, the identity assertion of the householder Naths of Bengal and Assam has failed to draw academic curiosity so far. Since the late nineteenth century, a segment of the Naths, largely educated and elite, has been crafting their identity as Brahman grounded on their “origin myth”, negotiating with the British colonial administration through different census enumerations, as well as internal social reforms. One of the primary reasons for their current lagging is that the Naths never politicised their identity and demands, and did not mobilise themselves in the democratic political arena.