Dalits and Upper Castes : Essays in Social History

Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Caste and class in rural Andhra, 1947-1967: a historical perspective. 2. Caste and entrepreneurship in Colonial Andhra, South India 1900-1947. 3. Growth of education among the Dalit-Bahujan Communities in Colonial Andhra, 1893-1947. 4. Dalit Protest Literature in Telugu: a historical perspective. 5. Dalit identity and consciousness in Colonial Andhra, 1917-1947. 6. "Against social imperialism": ideology and consciousness of Dalit-Bahujans in Colonial Andhra, 1842-1947. 7. "Swarajyam/Swatantryam": Dalit visions of freedom. 8. Religion of the poor: Dalits and Christianity in Colonial Andhra. 9. Upper caste violence against Dalits in Andhra Pradesh, 1947-1985. 10. "Birds of passage" migration of South Indian laborers to Southeast Asia. Index.

"This volume deals with the interrelationship between caste system, land control, and domination in modern Andhra. It seeks to examine the social origins, material basis and crystalization of the dominant upper castes in a long term historical and sociological perspective. Taking caste as the central problematic of historiography this study views caste as a dynamic, historically evolved structure of power relations of domination and subordination. The historical trajectory of the evolution of caste system is sought to be examined not merely in terms of its materiality, but also in its dialectical inter-relationship with the social cultural and ideological-intellectual domains. Hence this study, instead of viewing caste as a cultural construct by the Brahmanical forces, seeks to unravel the dynamics of Indian social system by viewing it as determined by the dialectic of upper caste dominance and lower caste resistance." (jacket)