Source Themes

In this paper, I examine caste-based identities in one context of pressing importance: researching caste-based discrimination in universities. While sociologists and anthropologists have examined the materiality (Gupta, 2005) and experiential aspects of caste (Thorat & Umakant, 2004), and caste-based oppression (Deshpande, 2011), little research has examined how caste-based identities complicate the process of researching casteist discrimination. This is compounded by huge inequities in academic institutions where majority of research on these concerns is conducted by those from oppressor castes. Using fine-grained discursive analysis, I examine the interconnectedness of caste identities in conducting research on caste-based discrimination. I examine data from an interview study about student protests against caste-based discrimination in a South Indian university in January 2016, where I conducted 20 interviews. I examine those instances where my identity as an ‘upper’ caste researcher is implicated in the research process. Specifically, I examine how articulations of my own and participants’ identities are involved in research interviews on caste-based discrimination. Analysis focused on the construction, ascription, and negotiation of specific caste identities for the interviewer and interviewees, and the social actions accomplished in the context of these interviews (McKinlay & McVittie, 2008). Analysis reveals that identities were a flexible resource for both me and the interviewees in negotiating the difficulty in talking about caste. In the then context of protests against caste-based discrimination, topics such as the extent of caste-based discrimination, and the role for individuals themselves were treated as difficult since these implicated identities for me and the interviewees. Caste-based identities then both hindered affiliation with the interviewees in contributing to the difficulty of speaking about caste, while also allowing for the articulation of specific forms of caste-based oppression. These findings are discussed in relation to current inequities in participation of Dalits and members in other oppressed groups in academia.

The analysis proceeded on a social constructionist basis (Potter, 1996), which meant analysing interview interactions as constructing specific versions of the caste system and caste identities in ways that accomplished specific social actions in the context of these interviews (McKinlay & McVittie, 2008). Potter and Hepburn (2005) argue that interview data are saturated by social science categories and understandings. This however can be used to examine how some of these categories are understood by participants themselves (Sacks, 1995). In the present case then, interview data were examined for how caste-identities were developed in describing their lived experiences in higher education, instances of caste-based discrimination, and efforts to navigate and address these concerns. In so doing, analysis examines discursive practices by which caste-based identities are implicated and subsequently negotiated in talk.

Preliminary results Analysis reveals that identities were a flexible resource for both me and the interviewees in negotiating the difficulty in talking about caste. In the present context of protests against caste-based discrimination, topics such as the extent of caste-based discrimination, and the role for individuals themselves were treated as difficult since these implicated identities for me and the interviewees. For interviewees their own identities were treated as resources from which they could talk about caste and as a restraint in offering specific forms of responses to the interview questions. Simultaneously, my identity as a so-called ‘upper’ caste interviewer limited possibilities for affiliation with the interviewees, while enabling interviewees to talk about their own troubles to an ‘outsider’. Caste-based identities then both hindered affiliation with the interviewees in contributing to the difficulty of speaking about caste, while allowing for the articulation of specific forms of caste-based oppression. Findings such as these take-on an urgency in the context where alongside an overwhelming dominance of upper caste individuals in research on Dalits and members of other oppressed caste groups (Ganguly, 2000). Research that takes-on this form of research should centrally consider the role of identities and their gradients in making claims about societal inequalities.

References

Deshpande, A. (2011). The grammar of caste: Economic discrimination in contemporary India. Oxford University Press. Deshpande, A. (2017, December 11). The ugly reality of caste violence and discrimination in urban India. The Wire. https:// thewire.in/caste/ugly-reality-caste-violence-discriminationurban-india Durrheim, K., Greener, R., & Whitehead, K. (2015). Race trouble: Attending to race and racism in online interaction. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(1): 84- 99.https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12070