Caste, Culture and Hegemony

This book looks at how the caste system has withstood resistance from below and survived the challenge of colonial modernity.

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay is Emeritus Professor of History at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he was previously the director of the New Zealand India Research Institute.

Introduction: Historiography of caste in Bengal Chapter 1. Caste and power: competing discourses in colonial Bengal Chapter 2. Caste and popular religion: revolt against hierarchy and its limits Chapter 3. Caste and social reform: the case of widow-remarriage Chapter 4. Caste and gender: social mobility and status of women Chapter 5. Caste and the territorial nation: Hindu nationalism, partition and the dalit Chapter 6. Hegemony, self-perception and liminality: Two dalit autobiographies