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  • © 2017

Western Foundations of the Caste System

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides a bold reconceptualision of caste
  • Argues that the dominant descriptions we have today are results of originally Christian themes and questions
  • Uniquely ties together theological reflections on India, Orientalist scholarship, and contemporary social science and legal understandings of caste

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
  2. Introduction: Caste Studies and the Apocryphal Elephant

    • Martin Fárek, Dunkin Jalki, Sufiya Pathan, Prakash Shah
    Pages 1-30
  3. Caste-Based Reservation and Social Justice in India

    • S. N. Balagangadhara
    Pages 31-55
  4. Dissimulating on Caste in British Law

    • Prakash Shah
    Pages 85-126
  5. The Aryans and the Ancient System of Caste

    • Marianne Keppens
    Pages 221-251
  6. Afterword

    • Martin Fárek, Dunkin Jalki, Sufiya Pathan, Prakash Shah
    Pages 253-261
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 263-274

About this book

This book argues that the dominant descriptions of the ‘caste system’ are rooted in the Western Christian experience of India. Thus, caste studies tell us more about the West than about India. It further demonstrates the imperative to move beyond this scholarship in order to generate descriptions of Indian social reality.

 

The dominant descriptions of the ‘caste system’ that we have today are results of originally Christian themes and questions. The authors of this collection show how this hypothesis can be applied beyond South Asia to the diasporic cultures that have made a home in Western countries, and how the inheritance of caste studies as structured by European scholarship impacts on our understanding of contemporary India and the Indians of the diaspora.

 

This collection will be of interest to scholars and students of caste studies, India studies, religion in South Asia, postcolonial studies, history, anthropology and sociology.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czech Republic

    Martin Fárek

  • CIRHS, SDMES, Ujire, India

    Dunkin Jalki, Sufiya Pathan

  • Department of Law, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Prakash Shah

About the editors

Martin Fárek is the Head of the Department for the Study of Religions, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic.

 

Dunkin Jalki is the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Humanities and the Social Sciences, SDM PG College, Ujire, India.

 

Sufiya Pathan is Associate Professor at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Humanities and the Social Sciences, SDM PG College, Ujire, India.

 

Prakash Shah is a Reader in Culture and Law, Queen Mary, University of London, UK. 

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access