Caste, Social Formation and Political Mobilization

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Debajit Goswami is presently serving as Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration, Netaji Subhas Open University. He has earlier served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science in Amity University, Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Engineering and Management and Assistant Professor of Political Science in DDE, Rabindra Bharati University respectively. He has several research articles to his credit and participated in various national and international conferences till date. His research interests include Indian government and politics, and public policy. Presently he is undertaking a research project on the Assessment of the Central and State Government sponsored Health cover policies: A Study on theinhabitants of informal housings and slums in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal.

Dr. Manoj Kumar Haldar (b. 1975) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science (Stage-III) at Netaji Subhas Open University. He became masters from the University of Calcutta in Political Science and did his Ph.D. from Jadavpur University. His area of interest is gender politics, state politics, local government and politics, and marginal studies. He has completed a UGC minor research project as a principal investigator. Earlier, he served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Head of the Department of Panchthupi Haripada Gouribala College, Kandi, Murshidabad, through the West Bengal College Service Commission. He has also served under West Bengal Education Service (WBSE) at Krishnagar Government College, Nadia and Coochbehar A.BN Seal College, Coochbehar. Presently, he is a coordinator of the NSOU Centre for Social Studies. He has published his research papers in different reputed and UGC referred journals of his particular area. He is co-editor of "Social Exclusion in Bengal: Culture, Politics and Minority" and "Modern Bengal in Search of Tradition and Discourses of Margins."

In the Rig-Vedic society Varna denoted colour, outward appearance Land such physical qualities of a person. It was initially used to differentiate between the Arya and the Dasa races. The former is thought to have migrated from Central Asia to India, while the latter were the original inhabitants of this subcontinent. In the Rig-Vedic society, the varna system was not too rigid, in the sense that there was mobility amongst the varnas in relation to their occupation. However, in the later Vedic age the caste system started developing when the occupational rules became more orthodox. While Varna was largely based around one's occupation, the focus of Caste was centered on heredity. Although the caste hierarchy was synonymous with hereditary identity, it initially did not have discriminatory practices such as untouchability, which emerged later around 3rd century CE. Around this time, the caste system and its orthodoxies in the form of untouchability and other exploitative tendencies took a dramatic turn, becoming a rigid structural basis of social stratification. Inhumane practices such as slavery, mulakkaram, tala-karam, social ostracism and other forms of humiiliation and exploitation are known to be some of the evils of the caste system. In addition to the social evils and adverse effects felt at the community level, caste also affected the economic and political opportunities that one could enjoy, greatly diminishing the socio-economic rights of the lower caste groups. With the advent of modernization, democratization, liberalization and constitutionalism, it is expected that there would be a holistic reformation from such archaic practices and abolition of such forms of discrimination.

It my immense pleasure note that The NSOU Centre for Social studies in association with the School of Social Sciences, Netaji Subhas Open University have organized the International Webinar on Caste, Social Formation and Political Mobilization. This academic endeavour is in continuation to the National seminar organized by the School of Social Sciences, on the same theme in 2019, which was funded by the Higher Education Dept. Government of West Bengal. I am extremely glad that the International Webinar was very well received by the academicians, scholars and participants who took part whole-heartedly. The webinar witnessed scintillating presentations made by the speakers who elaborated on the various dimensions of the issues surrounding caste.

Caste and caste-based practices are have long been associated with the Indian subcontinent and majorly with Hinduism. This structural, exclusionary process operates on entrenched, subconscious notions of heritable hierarchy, trans-historically modified by capitalism, environmental progressions, liberal democratization, globalization and other complex socioeconomic processes. The changing dynamics of these complex social patterns are equally susceptible to postmodern discourses of categories and identities, decolonial and postcolonial critical movements and political imaginaries that range from reification of status quo to challenging the immutability of the nation state. Recent scholarship however, has moved beyond the traditional paradigm and now, even issues like racism in the United States of America, is being examined from the perspective of caste and its interrelated dynamics. As such the webinar was most pertinent, in pandemic times.