Abstract
How have neo-liberal policies affected the lives of historically marginalised and discriminated, disadvantaged communities in India? Such communities include Dalits (formerly known as ‘outcastes’, ‘untouchables’) and indigenous people of India, the Adivasis. In the caste-based social system of India, occupation was based on birth, endogamy was strictly practised, and untouchability was followed against Dalits, who were considered lowest in the caste hierarchy. Long-standing argument that had dominated the field of sociology in relation to the study of caste system was that with deepening democratic participation and global modernity caste will wither away. However, recent literature focusing on Dalit lives including this book exemplifies how caste still dominates Indian society and economy. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography in five economically better-off states, the authors illustrate how the ‘trickle-down’ approach has failed to reduce poverty in India, and poverty continues to remain caste-cum-identity based. Ground Down by Growth is a joint initiative of multiple authors who conducted fieldwork in different sites and reflected on each other’s work. The preface and the introductory chapter discuss the background and methodological framework of the book. Here, Shah and Lerche show how different processes such as historically inherited inequalities of power, exploitation of migrant labour, and ‘conjugated oppression’ have contributed to the entrenchment of social differences and expansion of capitalism in India.
Taking this into account, Kannan’s chapter provides a macro-level analysis to understand how Dalits and Adivasis still belong to the lower echelons of Indian society. However, the following five chapters, excluding conclusion, are based on detailed ethnographic studies. Besides showing identity-based data, these chapters discuss intra-community differences which importantly challenge the homogeneity of the given communities. For example, Raj’s chapter shows how under Kerala’s success story about higher education levels and human development caste oppression faced by Dalits and Tribals has remained hidden. In particular, Raj brings much deserved attention to the historical oppression faced by Dalits and Adivasis. He analyses the cases of migrated Dalit indentured labourers from Tamil Nadu in the colonial period, and the labour contractors employing seasonal migrant Adivasi workers from poorer states of India in the Tea Belts of Kerala. In contrast, Donegan’s study on the bone factory in Tamil Nadu highlights how despite the shift from agrarian economy to industrial economy, caste hierarchies continue to operate with changed forms. Specifically, Donegan captures vivid demarcations that exist between the progress made by Dalits and Adivasis and other higher-caste communities; he emphasises that while the higher castes have shifted from ‘agriculture into non-agriculture accumulation’ (p. 112), the marginalised have to take multiple jobs to sustain themselves.
Dalel Benbabaali’s study of the Tribal Belt of Telangana brings into focus the declining living standards of Dalits and Adivasis in the ‘resource-rich’ (p. 142) areas. Benbabaali shows how newly formed states like Telangana, despite having pro-poor and communist frameworks and histories, initiate and support policies that affect the working class negatively. Axelby gives historical trajectories of the two nomadic communities – Gaddi (Hindus) and Gujjars (Muslims) that now come under the Scheduled Tribe status in Himachal Pradesh. Although Axelby notes the details of the transitions that have happened in the livelihood and migration patterns of these communities, it would have been beneficial to underline the heterogeneity of (or the existence of caste within) these communities. Thakur’s study on the Bhil community of Maharashtra shows the diversification of the livelihood and standard of living of the same communities in three different areas. With Gujar landlord’s case, Thakur exemplifies how despite migrating to new areas, the high castes manage to maintain their social and economic dominance, whereas all the case-studies show that migration does not work in favour of the marginalised.
What the book shows is that capitalism has touched all communities, but in different terms. On one hand, it has increased the gap between the rich and poor, on the other hand, it has pitted the marginalised communities against each other, leaving them with no avenues to move out of the vicious cycle of poverty and caste-based subordination. While the book brings Dalit and Adivasi lives into focus, we also need more studies that focus on the middle castes to get a full sense of how the caste economy works in India. Shah and Lerche in the concluding chapter suggest that resistance by the marginalised is giving and would give the best momentum for change in future, but as the work of historians and anthropologists show, the marginalised have always resisted the rule of the high castes, hence may be the need of the time is the attitudinal change among the high castes towards the marginalised.