Caste in contemporary India and its diaspora

This project consists of a series of studies that are examining how we make sense of caste-based identities and hierarchies.

a) Caste identities in negotiating casteism on campus

Here, I’m examining interview data where students were participating in a protest about caste-based discrimination. A broad focus is how interviewees made sense of caste on a university campus. Among several interesting findings, one that is of current focus is how interviewer (mine) and interviewees’ caste identities are oriented to as implicated in discussing caste.

The pre-print for this is here: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sb4nu

b) Rejecting caste-based reservation

Along with Dr Arti Singh of OP Jindal University, I’m examining how opposition and support for caste-based reservation are justified and negotiated in Quora. We are exclusively focusing on discussions that relate to caste-based reservation. A core focus here is the juxtaposition of caste-based reservations with that of reservations for ’economically weaker sections’. We are then examining the intersections (or not) of caste and class as made sense of by users on Quora.

c) Caste, vegetarianism, and morality

This project has two aims: one is to examine how caste is used to promote vegetarian practices in India and the other is to examine how vegetarianism and morality are rescued from casteism.

d) Rejecting outlawing of caste based discrimination in the US and UK

In its early stages, this project will examine how liberalism and Hindu-phobia are mobilized to reject proposals that would outlaw caste based discrimination in the US and UK