Top 5 books to read this Dalit History Month
Which offer a fresh perspective to Dalit history and the issue of caste hierarchies in India
The movement for the education and upliftment of Dalits, quite unfortunately, starts and stops with Dr. Ambedkar.
Perhaps this is poor choice of words to begin the article with, since all our “Ambedkarites” get pretty defensive if one even remotely cites any scholar on Dalit history, who is not Dr. Ambedkar but I assure you, I mean no malevolence towards the works and legacy of Dr. Ambedkar.
I only mean that when we talk about the Schedule Castes or “Dalits”, we often dont realise that we are talking about hundreds of different communities, spread all over the country, diverse in their language, custom, culture, etc. We superimpose a homogenous definition of “Dalit” on castes that are manifold and heterogenous. I am perfectly aware that perhaps using this homogenous definition was needed to mobilise such castes to fight under one cause - i.e., to end caste discrimination and one cant begrudge the oppressed castes for doing so.
However, I am only trying to point out (without trying to offend) that as a consequence of such superimposition, we have forgotten the numerous other Dalit personalities, who carved a niche for themselves in the Dalit struggle. Moreover and as perhaps as corollary of such forgetfulness, we have also repeatedly dismissed literature which was divergent from Dr. Ambedkar’s point of view on caste.
It is important to remember that while Dr. Ambedkar was an erudite scholar of law and economics, he did not possess the same expertise in Hindu scripture, anthropology, cultural sciences or even history. In fact, despite the misconceptions of Dr. Ambedkar having studied Sanskrit at Bonn University, Germany, he had never studied Sanskriti in his lifetime1. His understanding of Hindu scripture was derived from the translated works of various colonial and Indian scholars. Thus, almost all of the literature cited by him has either come from colonial interpretation of caste or Indian scholars having published literature derived from colonial interpretation of caste.
Why is that a problem? Colonialists were pretty spot on in diagnosing the issue of caste right?
Wrong.
Almost the entirety of decolonial literature published today points to the fact that colonialists fundamentally changed the meaning and nature of “caste” and that how they understood caste, says more about the coloniser than the colonised2.
This is not to suggest that India was the little piece of heaven that some extremists claim it to be. It only means that we can conclude with reasonable certainty that the system was not what the British have made it out to be. Thus, in order to truly understand the issue of “caste” we must examine what the system was before the colonialists. This way we may also ascertain just how deep the colonial misperception of caste runs.
Unfortunately, a large amount of the literature on caste we have inherited has been from the eyes of the colonialists, which has been passed down to us as “facts” about caste hierarchies in pre colonial India. We have cogent evidence and reasonable ground to suspect such a view. So what do we do with caste now, given that we have manifested it into the creature colonialists imagined it to be?
Well, for starters, we stop getting defensive upon someone disagreeing with Dr. Ambedkar. He may (quite literally) be a god to some people but if India has a policy of allowing different religious faiths and beliefs to co-exist, then surely we can allow for a different view than that of Dr. Ambedkar, to exist.
On that note, here are the books I am going to be reading, which offer an unconventional take on caste.
Book No.1:- “Dynamics of a Caste Movement: The Rajbansis of North Bengal” by Swaraj Basu
This book is about the Rajbansis of North Bengal and their attempts to establish themselves as Kshatriyas in the eyes of the British in the first half of 20th century Bengal.
When the British first came to India, they conducted a census, categorising the population of different areas into various castes. The exercise was necessary for them to “make sense” of the local population and understand the institution of caste.
By trying to force each community in India to fit the four fold caste hierarchy, many communities felt misnomered by the labels of the British. This also pushed certain communities, which were an amalgamation of different castes (such as Rajbansis) to identify themselves within the narrow walls of the caste system. This led to the Rajabansis Kshatriya movement between 1891 to 1936, to force the British to recognise the Rajbansis3 as Kshatriyas.
While explaining the Rajbansi Kshatriya movement, the book highlights some significant lapses with the caste system as we understand it.
Book No.2:- ‘‘Western Foundations of the Caste System” by Martin Fárek; Dunkin Jalki; Sufiya Pathan; Prakash Shah
Even though I have included this book in my list of suggested reads, I would not recommend it to someone who does not want to study the issue of caste academically.
The book is a work of great scholarly significance and costs Rs.10,000/- on Amazon4 (Yikes!) but the summary of the book looks very promising, which is why this book is definitely on my reading list.
The book blurb reads as follows:
“This book argues that the dominant descriptions of the ‘caste system’ are rooted in the Western Christian experience of India. Thus, caste studies tell us more about the West than about India. It further demonstrates the imperative to move beyond this scholarship in order to generate descriptions of Indian social reality.”
What is also really cool is the credentials of the authors of the book, all of whom have masters and doctorates in fields such as India Europe Cultural Relations, Philosophy, Religious studies, etc., which goes to show how the authors know their subject and are not presenting research of a field in which they don’t have expertise.
However, it also goes without saying that one would have to study other more accessible scholars before they read such books. So I wouldn’t hold it against you if you skip this one.
Book No.3:- ‘‘Castes of Mind” by Nicholas B Dirks
While this book is also a heavy read, it is certainly more accessible than ‘Western Foundations of Caste’. While the book itself was published in 2002, Mr. Dirks has written extensively on caste since 1992.
The book challenges our conventional views of caste, Jaati, varna and Hinduism. And most importantly the emergence of the caste system itself. I shall let the book blurb make a case for the book, which reads as follows:-
“Nicholas Dirks argues that caste is, in fact, neither an unchanged survival of ancient India nor a single system that reflects a core cultural value. Rather than a basic expression of Indian tradition, caste is a modern phenomenon--the product of a concrete historical encounter between India and British colonial rule. Dirks does not contend that caste was invented by the British. But under British domination caste did become a single term capable of naming and above all subsuming India's diverse forms of social identity and organization.
Dirks traces the career of caste from the medieval kingdoms of southern India to the textual traces of early colonial archives; from the commentaries of an eighteenth-century Jesuit to the enumerative obsessions of the late-nineteenth-century census; from the ethnographic writings of colonial administrators to those of twentieth-century Indian scholars seeking to rescue ethnography from its colonial legacy. The book also surveys the rise of caste politics in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the emergence of caste-based movements that have threatened nationalist consensus….”
If that doesnt make you want to read the book, I dont know what will.
Book No.4:- ‘‘ Unforgettable Dalit Voice: Life, Writings & Speeches of M C Rajah” by Swaraj Basu
MC Rajah was born in a Dalit family in Tamil Nadu in 1883. He was at the forefront of the Dalit struggle for equality and justice, till his last breath in 1943. He was also the first Dalit leader to be member of the Madras Legislative Council and also the first Dalit leader to be member of Central Legislative Assembly.
What is even more peculiar about M. C. Rajah is that, as opposed to Dr. Ambedkar, he was a devout Hindu and also refused to convert out of Hinduism. Thus, here we have two Dalit leaders, equally dedicated to the Dalit struggle, in juxtaposition to one another. While one believes that converting out of Hinduism and its complete destruction is the only way, the other believed it to be vital to his identity.
Why is that? Don’t we owe it to ourselves to atleast read the biography of his life, before we spark a discussion or formulate an opinion on whether an entire belief system needs to be thrown out the window for the ‘true upliftment of the oppressed castes’?
And finally, Book No.5:- ‘‘ Scheduled Castes vs. Caste Hindus: About a Colonial Distinction and Its Legal Impact” by Dr. Jakob De Roover
Okay I lied. This is not a book. It is a paper. But please don’t let it stop you from reading it.
Dr. Jakob De Roover who is a professor at Department of Comparative Science of Cultures, Ghent University, Belgium has written extensively on the topic of caste and religion and is a leading expert of Indology and comparative science of cultures.
His paper critiques India’s distinction of castes as “Scheduled” and “upper castes” and argues that “the colonial administration had failed to find empirical tests that allowed it to identify the ‘Depressed Classes’ as a distinct set of castes. He further argues that the notion of ‘untouchability’ did not help either because it functioned as a label used to name a collection of practices. It was unclear how to identify the victims at the receiving end of ‘untouchability’, since these practices could be found both among groups classified as Depressed Classes and among those considered Caste Hindus.”
Scholars like Dr. Jakob De Roover have often never even been discussed in mainstream media and public debates. One may not agree with his scholarship but given his credentials, expertise and experience in the field of religious studies and Indology, he certainly deserves an audience.
He had enrolled for the subject at Elphinstone college but the Sanskrit teachers refused to teach the language to a lower caste student. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national//article61759185.ece
See ‘Western Foundations of Caste System’ by Martin Fárek; Dunkin Jalki; Sufiya Pathan; Prakash Shah
The Rajbansis, along with many other communities, are a good example of how our understanding of the four fold varna system is flawed. Many academicians identify the Rajbansis as a community of tribals who acquired economic progress upon moving out of the Koch Bihar King after its acquisition by Warren Hastings in 1773. (See https://www.jstor.org/stable/44144770)
https://www.amazon.in/Western-Foundations-Caste-System-Prakash/dp/331938760X
Thank you for the list of books. These should expand my understanding of dalit history. Wonderful article.
Wonderful 👏👏