About the Book

Based on empirical investigation of rural and urban Punjab, the book explores patterns of social mobility of dalits. Four dimensions, namely, education, empowerment, emigration and entrepreneurship, have been examined to map the changing character of dalits. In comparison to other states, Punjab is often considered free from acute caste-based inequalities and atrocities though caste system exists and prevails in the structure of everyday life of the Punjabis.

It has been argued that certain visible changes have occurred among the dalits of Punjab. Not all the castes among the dalits have been able to transform their social and economic conditions that could have altered their self-perception as well as their status. More mobile castes, particularly the Ad-dharmis, have constructed their own distinct and insulated world in which the dalit and self have become coterminous and all other dalit castes have been decentred from the discourse of caste equality.

The urban dalits have undergone rapid change in their conditions, which they transformed into political empowerment at the local level. Despite the changes, there are certain aspects of their social life, which have not undergone change. Much of this is related to the consciousness of the dalits. The existence and belief in the caste hierarchy could be gauged from the fact that they still are predominantly favouring caste endogamy. Moreover, the manifest emphasis on caste identity under the overarching influence of the politics of Bahujan Samaj Party has created conditions where the realisation of the goal of end of caste system seems a remote possibility.

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Contents

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About the Author / Editor

Paramjit S. Judge is Professor of Sociology and currently Coordinator, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. He has worked and published in the areas of Social Movements, Diaspora Studies and Historical Sociology. Some of his writings are: “Insurrection to Agitation: Naxalite Movement in Punjab, Terrorism in Punjab: Understanding Grassroots Reality, Religion, Identity and Nationhood: The Sikh Militant Movement, Punjabis in Canada, Max Weber” (in Punjabi), ” and “Reconstructing Identities” (co-edited).

Gurpreet Bal is Professor of Sociology and currently Head, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Her areas of interest are “Development and Change, Sociology of Literature and Sociology of Work and Entrepreneurship. Her publications include Development and Change in Punjab, Strategies of Social Change in India, Development, Gender and Diaspora: Context of Globalisation” (co-edited), ” and Reconstructing Identities” (co-edited).

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