Exploring Dalit Experiences in Colonial and Post-Colonial India

The book essentially is a collective of twelve essays, dealing with the past and contemporary experiences of the Dalits, who in most parts of India continue to be denied the basic rights and facilities of human existence. Some of the essays narrativise the perceptions of the Dalits vis a vis the broader issues of nationalism, nationalist politics and national community. They bring out a whole range of differing perspectives and responses on the part of the Dalit communities, which always seemed to be in a kind of a 'double bind'. Despite being in terms of class and economic standing, the articulate sections of the Dalit communities could easily mobilize the ordinary sections, since both seemed to share the same sense of injustice and exploitation that had been meted out to them by the upper caste groups. In the case of colonial India, the movements of protest were often appropriated by the forces of nationalism and this possibly obliterated the prospects of an autonomous brand of Dalit politics. At the time of the Indian Independence in 1947, Dalit politics stood at an interesting phase of protest and accommodation. There were groups which favoured to align with the Indian National Congress and gain the benefits of protective discrimination, hut there were some others who favoured protest in the form of peoples' movement by aligning with more radical political groups like the Communists in the expectation of eliminating the last vestiges of an old feudal order. Definitely, the essays contained herein will delight and enlighten one and all concerned.

Dr. Raj Sekhar Basu is presently serving as a Reader in the Department of History, University of Calcutta. He has contributed articles in national and international journals and monographs on the experiences of Dalit communities in colonial and post colonial India. He has co edited a volume entitled, Narratives of the Excluded: Caste Issues in Colonial India. He has been a visiting scholar to many national and foreign universities.

Dalits in India constitute a major section of the Hindu society who is considered to be 'low' and belonging to the ex-untouchable communities. Untouchability in the past had meant a number of social implications and issues. In the first place, it meant that the humanity which was looked upon as 'untouchable' was bound to maintain a distance from the savarna Hindus, who enjoyed the benefits of a privileged birth. Secondly, they had to bear the humiliation of being labeled as 'unapproachable'. And last but not the least, they had to bear the stigma of being branded as 'untouchables'. This social distancing of a wide group of people which had serious economic and social connotations was justified in the name of the Hindu dharmic code, which emphasized on issues of birth and pollution. Social scientists have pointed out that this form of social segregation was not practiced with the same rigour in all parts of the country. Its intensity was severe especially in those regions where Aryanic cultural domination had flourished and had reached a point of fruition. On the contrary, there was a little respite for the members of the Dalit communities inhabiting those regions, where the Aryanic cultural and political domination had not been all that pervasive.
Over several centuries, Dalits had waged long struggles for their emancipation from the oppressive caste discriminations and the inhuman social practice of untouchability. There had been protest against their economic exploitation and their marginalized social presence within the hierarchical social order. Their marginalized political participation had also been an issue which had acquired prominence within the articulate sections of their communities in both colonial and post-colonial India. The last years of the twentieth century, coincided with nationwide political mobilization both in favour and opposition of the Mandal Commission recommendations, which essentially related to the issue of protective discrimination in the country. The adoption of these recommendations on the part of central and the provincial governments not only embroiled the nation within the vortex of a caste Hindu backlash but also led to a serious introspection over the implications of caste consciousness in an apparently secular nation.