Caste and Emancipatory Quest Ethnography of Dalits in an Urban Neighborhood

The book unravels the entangled relationship between ascriptive identity (caste) and space (urban) and how this interaction (re)moulds urban stratification. Urban rather represents a liminal space while offering promising opportunities to aspire and achieve upward mobility, it presents structural constraints frustrating the march of Dalits to claim desired mobility.  Through descriptive and nuanced accounts of various aspects of Dalit lives in urban, it foregrounds how caste permeates everyday city life.  The book debunks the mirage of urban castelessness.

Chapter I Neighbourhood Encounters: Inter-caste relations and Perceptions.- Chapter II Yaha Padhai Ka Mahaul Nahi Hai: Education, Caste and Gender.- Chapter III Intergenerational Mobility: Occupational Aspirations, Struggles and Precarity.- Chapter IV Politics of Representation: Caste, Co-option and Dalit Politics.

Rama Devi is a sociologist whose research focuses on contemporary caste, and urban Dalit lives. She is a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre De Sciences and Humaines (CSH), Delhi. Previously, she taught social science courses at KREA University. Her research work and opinion pieces have been published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Sociological Bulletin, LSE Blogs, and Economic and Political Weekly.