The
Origins, History, and Present Practice of Untouchability
A RISA-L
Annotated Bibliography
By J. E. Llewellyn, Missouri State University
Aktor, Mikael. Ritualization and Segregation: The Untouchability Complex
in the Scholarly Indian Lliterature on Dharma with Special Reference to
Parasarasmrti and Parasaramadhaviya. Ph.D. dissertation. Copenhagen,
University of Copenhagen, 1997. Unpublished but can be loaned through
interlibrary loan from The Royal Library in Copenhagen.
Aktor, Mikael, "Rules of Untouchability in Ancient and Medieval Law
Books: Householders, Competence and Inauspiciousness." International
Journal of Hindu Studies 6, 3 (2002): 243-274. For an approach that sees
"untouchability" as a total complex (caste as well as other
untouchable categories such as menstruating women, etc.).
Beteille, A. Caste, Class and Power.: Changing Patterns of
Stratification in a Tanjore Village. Bombay: Oxford University Press,
1966.
Biardeau, M. Hinduism, the Anthropology of a Civilization. Translated
from the French by Richard Nice. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Bremen, Jan. Patronage and Exploitation: Changing Agrarian Relations in
South Gujarat, India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. Good
place to start for modern historical accounts of Dalits as agrarian
landless laborers.
Clark-Deces, Isabella. No One Cries for the Dead: Tamil Dirges, Rowdy
Songs, and Graveyard Petitions. Berkeley: University of California Press,
2005. Ethnographies of various Dalit groups in different parts of India;
for Tamil Nadu, a new excellent study.
Clarke, Sathianathan. Dalits and Christianity: Subaltern Religion and
Liberation Theology in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Dangle, Arjun, ed.
Poisoned bread : translations from modern Marathi Dalit literature.
Bombay: Orient Longman, c1992.
Deliege, Robert. The Untouchables of India. Oxford: Berg, 1999.
Deliege, Robert. The World of the "Untouchables": Paraiyars of
Tamil Nadu. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997. Ethnographies of various
Dalit groups in different parts of India; for Tamil Nadu, influential
works are by Robert Deliege, Kathleen Gough.
Dubey, Siddharth. Words Like Freedomm: The Memoirs of an Impoverished
Indian Family, 1947-97. Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India, 1998.
Wonderfully up close account‹in their own words or reported
conversations‹of several generations of a single untouchable family.
Galanter, Marc. Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in
Contemporary India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. The
best source on postcolonial policies of compensatory discrimination.
Gorringe, H. Untouchable Citizens : Dalit Movements and Democratization
in Tamil Nadu. Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005.
Gough, K. "Harijans in Thanjavur." In Imperialism and
Revolution in South Asia, K. Gough and H. Sharma, eds., 222-245. New York:
Monthly Review Press, 1973.
Habib, I. Essays in Indian History: Towards a Marxist Perception.
London: Anthem Press, 2002.
Hanumanthan, K.R. Untouchability: A Historical Study up to 1500 A.D.
(with Special Reference to Tamil Nadu). Madurai: Koodal Publishers, 1979.
With some information about the social history of South India.
Ilaiah, Kancha. Buffalo Nationalism. No publication information found.
Collection of short pieces originally published in the popular press,
accessible and lively.
Ilaiah, Kancha. Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva
Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy. Kolkata: Samya, 1996.
Jadhav, Narendra. Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of
the Caste System in Modern India. New York: Scribner, 2005. Author is
chief economist of the Reserve Bank of India.
Jaffrelot, Christopher. Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Fighting the
Indian Caste System. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Jha, Vivekanand N. "Candala and the Origin of Untouchability".
The Indian Historical Review 13, 1-2 (no date): 1-36. For the history of
untouchability.
Jha, Vivekanand. "From Tribe to Untouchable: The Case of Nisadas."
In Indian Society: Historical Probings, R. S. Sharma and Vivekanand Jha,
eds., 67-84. Delhi: ICHR and People's Publishing House, 1974.
Jha, Vivekanand. "Social Stratification in Ancient India: Some
Reflections." Social Scientist 19, 3-4 (no date): 19-40.
Jha, Vivekanand N. "Stages in the History of Untouchability".
The Indian Historical Review 2, 1 (no date): 14-31. For the history of
untouchability.
Jondhale, Surendra and Johannes Beltz, eds. Reconstructing the World: B.R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in
India. New Delhi, Oxford
Univ. Press, 2004. (with lots of recent bibliography)
Kosambi, D. D. The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in
Historical Outline. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1956.
Lamb, Ramdas. Rapt in the Name: The Ramnamis, Ramnam, and Untouchable
Religion in Central India. Albany: State University of New York Press,
2002. Deals with Harijan
religious movements in Central India, addresses the issue of
untouchability and also gives some bio sketches.
Leslie, Julie. Authority and Meaning in Indian Religions: Hinduism and
the Case of Valmiki. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003. Chapter two has a good
overview of the subject and refers to many important sources.
Mahar, J. Michael, and S. Chandrasekhar, eds. Untouchables in
Contemporary India. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1972. A classic
which provides good historical, legal and ethnographic perspectives in one
volume.
Mencher, J.: 1972. "Continuity
and Change in an Ex-Community of South India." In The Untouchables in
Contemporary India, J. Michael Mahar and S. Chandrasekhar, eds., 33-58.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1972.
Mendelsohn, O., and M. Vicziany. The Untouchables: Subordination,
Poverty, and the State in Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1998.
Narula, Smita. Broken People: Caste Violence against India's
"Untouchables". New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999. Describes
the rise of violence against Dalits in the 1990s.
Prakash, Gyan. Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in
Colonial India. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Good place to
start for modern historical accounts of Dalits as agrarian landless
laborers.
Prasad, Chandra Bhan. Dalit Diary, 1999-2003: Reflections on Apartheid
in India: Selected from the Weekly Column in the Pioneer. Pondicherry,
Navayana, 2004. Collection of short pieces originally published in the
popular press, accessible and lively.
Sharma, Ram Sharan. Sudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the
lower order down to circa A.D. 600. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1958 (and
later editions). For the history of untouchability.
Viramma, Josiane Racine, and
Jean-Luc Racine. Viramma: Life of an Untouchable. London: Verso, 1997.
Excellent life-account of the "Adidravidar" (=Tamil untouchable)
woman, translated on the basis of interview-recordings.
Webster, John. Dalit Christians: A History. 2d ed. Delhi: ISPCK, 1994.
Zelliot, Eleanor and Rohini Mokashi-Punekar. Untouchable Saints: An
Indian Phenomenon. Manohar, 2005. (Has articles on Tiruppan Alvar,
Nandanar, Chokamela, Soyrabai, Banka Mahar, Nirmala, Karmamela, and
Ravidas. Vasudha Narayan writes: <<A disclaimer about my article in
it--it was written about 13-14 years ago and I was quite surprised to
suddenly get the book. I do
not recall using the word "untouchable" -- but, alas, my essay
seems to be liberally sprinkled with the term.>>)
Thanks for suggestions from Simon Brodbeck, Rupa Viswanath, Mikael Aktor,
Linda Hess, S. Palaniappan, Ulrike Niklas, Vasudha Narayan, and John
Oliver Perry.
Revised: November 01, 2005
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