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Textual Lives of Caste Across the Ages

Hierarchy, Humanity and Equality in Indian History

Prathama Banerjee editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:14th Nov '24

£85.00

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Textual Lives of Caste Across the Ages cover

This edited volume explores how caste has been theorized and critiqued in multiple philosophical, religious and narrative traditions in India across ancient, medieval and modern times.

The essays in this volume explore the myriad ways in which caste (varna and jati) has been theorized and critiqued in multiple philosophical, religious, logical and narrative traditions in India. Spanning ancient, medieval and modern times, and in diverse classical and vernacular languages, the chapters show how the social fact of caste, and imaginations of kinship, community and humanity were historically subject to epistemological, spiritual, and existential debate in both elite and popular circles in India.

Textual Lives of Caste Across the Ages seeks to bridge the interdisciplinary gap between historians and sociologists by focusing on texts that help us think across the sociological and philosophical, the political and the religious, the epistemological and the aesthetic, and indeed, the elite and the popular. The volume also sets up a conversation between scholars specializing in different regions, archives, and historical periods and demonstrates how caste imaginaries have been deeply diverse and contested in India’s past. Reconstructing these diverse traditions of social and existential criticism helps us in our contemporary struggles against caste hierarchy and untouchability and enriches our contemporary critical repertoire.

This important collection moves seamlessly between premodern and modern iterations of caste to illuminate philosophically rich and diverse regional debates which challenge any singular focus on caste’s coloniality. Their inquiry into the historical ontology of caste across diverse disciplinary domains opens new horizons for future research while recalling the depth, duration, and remarkable durability of an anticaste philosophy. * Anupama Rao, Professor of History and MESAAS; Director, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society; and convenor of the Ambedkar Initiative at Columbia University, USA *

ISBN: 9781350355019

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

296 pages