Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Untouchables'

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2005.
Thesis Advisor(s): Gordon McCormick, George Lober. Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-58). Also available online.

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
Os direitos fundamentais são a base de sustentação dos estados democráticos de direito. No entanto, a efetivação dos direitos não ocorre de modo equitativo em todas as sociedades que os proclamam, nem tampouco para todas as pessoas dentro de cada uma delas. A cisão entre direitos civis e políticos de um lado e dhesca`s (direitos humanos econômicos, sociais, culturais e ambientais) de outro contraria a própria essência desses direitos, assim como, é uma afronta a normativa internacional que enumera entre suas propriedades a indivisibilidade, interdependência e inter-relação. Por isso, minha proposta é repensar a interconexão entre os direitos fundamentais mediante um substrato teórico capaz de tornar esses princípios mais claros e operativos e levando em consideração a desigualdade no desfrute dos direitos e as raízes dessa márepartição. Assim, uni debates da teoria da capacitação apresentada por Amartya Sen e Marta Nussbaum às tensões sociais identificadas por Nancy Fraser. Além disso, dentro das inúmeras arenas através da quais é possível se empreender a busca pela realização destes direitos busquei o foco na contribuição do sistema de justiça a esse processo. Para tanto, precisei destacar que o sistema de justiça não age sozinho. Ele é parte de uma rede que nomeei Sistema de Garantia de Direitos Fundamentais (SGDF) a qual se constitui na articulação e integração das funções estatais (administração pública, órgãos do legislativo e órgãos do Judiciário) nos três planos federativos, com a sociedade civil organizada e os cidadãos de modo individual ou através de grupos de interesse Embora tenha ressaltado que o SGDF estrutura-se por matéria e não através dos sujeitos, destaquei que o recorte epistemológico dessa tese enfoca os grupos historicamente credores de direitos em três sociedades, a Indiana, a Brasileira, e a Sulafricana. Tais grupos foram escolhidos por serem eles não apenas os mais carentes no desfrute de direitos, mas também no acesso ao sistema de justiça. Os três eixos são interligados, mas o sistema de justiça tem atuação protagônica no eixo da defesa. Nele analisei a atuação das Cortes Constitucionais da Índia, Brasil e África do Sul na realização destes direitos para aquelas pessoas com déficit histórico significativo de acesso a direitos fundamentais. Os dados provenientes da Índia e da África do Sul foram utilizados com o intuito de obter um olhar mais inspirado para o contexto brasileiro. O intuito não era comparar os países, mas valorizar o intercambio de experiência entre países do sul há tantas vivências similares ainda que originadas de contextos históricos, sociais e jurídicos diversos. A constatação de que o acesso dos grupos credores de direitos ao Supremo Tribunal Federal persiste bastante deficitário, mesmo ante o significativo esforço desta Corte em julgar um número imenso de processos fez com que fossem delineadas duas propostas com clara inspiração no contexto sulafricano e indiano: o acesso direto a Corte Constitucional e a instituição de uma nova forma de julgamento dos direitos sociais, condizentes com seu caráter de normas-base do estado de direito contemporâneo.
Fundamental rights are the supporting basis of democratic states that follow the rule of law. The appliance of these rights does not happen in an equal way in all societies that proclaim them, nor to all the people within these societies. The divide between civil and political rights on one hand, and economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights on the other is defended by the very own essence of these rights, and by the principles of the international normative that considers them indivisible, interdependent, and inter-related. Because of that, I proposed that the interconnection between fundamental rights be rethought through a theoretical substrate capable of making these principles clearer and operative and taking into consideration the inequality in the enjoyment of these rights and the root of this unequal division. With that in mind, it unites debates about the capability theory presented by Amartya Sen and Marta Nussbaum to the social tensions identified by Nancy Fraser. Moreover, within the several arenas through which it is possible to search for the effectiveness of these rights I tried to focus on the contribution made by the justice system to this process. For that, I needed to highlight that the justice system does not act alone, it is part of a network that I named Fundamental Rights Assurance System (SGDF), which is formed through the articulation and integration of state functions (public administration, legislative offices, and judiciary offices) in the three federative levels, with organized civil society and citizens in an individual manner or through groups of interest. The SGDF should act through three paths, in favor of the effectiveness of fundamental rights: promotion, defense, and control. Although I have emphasized that the SGDF structures itself materially and not through individuals, I highlighted that the epistemological frame of this thesis focuses on the groups historically denied rights in these three societies due to the fact that they are not only the neediest in the enjoyment of rights, but also in the access to justice. The three axes are interconnected, but the justice system has the main role in the defense field. In such area I have analyzed the role of Constitutional Courts in India, Brazil, and South Africa in the appliance of these rights for those people with a significant historical deficit of access to fundamental rights. The data coming from India and South Africa were used with the intent of obtaining a more inspired insight on the Brazilian context. The intent was not to compare these countries, but value the exchange of experiences among countries in the south with similar issues to face. The conclusion that the access to the Supreme Federal Court by underprivileged groups remains with a large deficit, even with the huge effort the Court makes in judging a large number of cases, lead to the outline of two proposals with clear inspiration in the South African and Indian context: the direct access to a Constitutional Court and the creation a new way to decide about social rights.

This thesis analyses the Dalit Movement with regards to the twentieth century Indian nationalism and independence movement. Within this epoch, India was dealing with both internal and external problems, and this thesis confronts with the process of double freedom movement rolled into one, in India. On one side Indian nation was fighting against the British Imperialism and on the other hand the least level of the ancient Hindu social order varna, the Untouchables, were fighting against the higher castes for eradication of their historical backwardness. This solution of both problems pointed out changes in social and political terms. The mentioned movement under the leadership of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who is recognized as the architect of the Indian constitution, aimed to obtain both political and social rights and freedom for the Untouchables. By this movement, Dalits initially managed to attain political rights and to outlaw discrimination among people. And then, in order to facilitate the integration of Dalits within the social sphere, they decided to convert from Br&
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hmanism to Buddhism in year 1956 and ten thousands of Dalits converted following Dr. Ambedkar. In the present day, the ex-Untouchables are living under the umbrellas of Buddhism, Islam or Christianity in various parts of India. Even though the mentioned ex-Untouchables survive normally and non-problematically in urban, those of them living in the rural front against the violence of radical rightist, nationalist Hindus.

Cette étude est une tentative de comprendre le processus par lequel une secte religieuse mineure s'est installée dans une nouvelle région au passé historique complexe et comment elle s'est transformée par la suite en organisation politique. Dans ma thèse, je me concentre sur la transformation d'un panth hindou dans le Sindh depuis son arrivée au 19ème siècle pendant la colonisation britannique des régions transfrontalières voisines du Rajasthan et du Gujarat, jusqu'à leur transformation en un mouvement politique. Les membres ont commencé à s'organiser en tant que communauté religieuse autour d'un site religieux principal situé dans le Tando Allahyar et, plus tard, ils ont été confrontés à des scissions qui ont provoqué l'émergence de multiples sites, justifiées par leurs différences linguistiques, régionales et la guerre de 1971 entre les Indiens et les Pakistanais. Il est important de préciser ici que cette communauté a été classée dès l'époque britannique comme Intouchables, pour parler franchement, bien que différentes dénominations lui aient été données, comme les castes répertoriées, classification qui est toujours utilisée par l'administration pakistanaise. L’épisode de rupture au sein de la communauté a restructuré et réorganisé le panth, puisqu'il a entraîné l'apparition de différents modèles de changements dans la même Panth en raison de leurs différents sites et groupes. En outre, ils sont devenus moins connectés qu'auparavant mais, fait intéressant, le site central est resté important et c'est pourquoi la partie principale de cette étude lui est consacrée. Et après la guerre, l'allégation et la relation de méfiance à l'égard des hindous en général ont conduit un groupe de la communauté à se solidifier politiquement avec une nouvelle identité politique en raison de leur nombre dominant et de leur frontière commune avec l'Inde. Cela s'est fait par la circulation de la littérature de dévotion d'abord, en enregistrant la nostalgie de leurs anciennes régions et l'importance du culte du sauveur et du héros. La majeure partie de la littérature dévotionnelle a été produite en 1990, suivie plus tard par la production de la littérature politique. Elle a contribué à l'établissement d'un mouvement dalit dans une ville. Il est vraiment intéressant de noter qu'en 1980, le mouvement et la littérature dalits ont été produits dans l'état indien du Gujarat et plus tard, ils ont été suivis par le Sind au Pakistan, bien que la politique au Gujarat ne soit pas discutée de façon majeure dans la présente étude. Cette politique identitaire a réagi différemment en raison de l'emplacement de leur nouveau site religieux multiple, de leur nombre dans la population et de leurs propres différences au sein de la Panth. Toute la thèse est conclue sur la façon dont un Panth hindou a changé et transformé sa politique hindoue dans un État islamique
This study is an attempt to understand the process through which a minor religious sect settled in a new region with an intricate historical past and transform later in to a political organization. In my thesis, I focus on the transformation of a Hindu panth in Sindh from its arrival in the 19th century during British colonization from the neighboring cross border regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat, to their transformation into a political movement. The members started to organize themselves as a religious community around a main religious site located in Tando Allahyar and later on, it faced splits which caused the emergence of multiple sites, justified by their linguistic, regional differences and Indo Pak war of 1971. It is important to state here this community was classified from the British times as Untouchables, to speak frankly, althobreakuperent denominations were given to it, such as Scheduled castes, a classification which is still used by Pakistan administration.This breakup episode has re-structured and re-organized the panth, since it has led to the emergence of different patterns of changes in the same panth because of their different sites and groups. Furthermore, they got less connected as compared to before but interestingly, the central site remained impo, in general,hat is why the main part of this study is devoted to it. And after the war, the allegation and relationship of mistrust on Hindus in general led a group among the communitythe to solidify politically with new political identity because of their dominant number and shared border with India. It has been done through circulation of devotional literature first, recording the longingness for their old regions and the importance of savior and hero worship. Most of the devotional literature was produced in 1990 which later was followed by producing the and literatureerature. It contributed to establish a Dalit movement in one city. It is really interesting that in the 1980, the Dalit movement and literature was prothe duced in the Indian state of Gujarat and later it was followed by Sindh in Pakistan though the politics in Gujarat is not majorly discussed in present study. This Identity politics have responded differently because of the location of their new religious multiple sites, their number in the population and their own differences within the panth. The whole thesis is concluded that how a Hindu Panth changed and transformed their Hindu politics in an Islamic state

Education is one of the powerful instruments of social change and mobility in caste structured Nepalese society. The thesis investigates the sociocultural mediation of school learning of 'untouchable' children to explore the impact of legislation and policy in achieving social change for those ethnic minorities who suffer a legacy of social, cultural and economic deprivation within a hierarchical caste structure.

Historically, oppression has been and continues to be a serious issue of concern worldwide in both developed and underdeveloped countries. The structure of Indian society, with its hierarchies and power structures, is an ideal place to better understand the experience of oppression. Women throughout the long established Indian hierarchy, and members of the lower castes and classes, have traditionally born the force of oppression generated by the Indian social structure. The focus of this research explored the way the way class, caste, and gender hierarchies coalesce to influence the life choices and experiences of an Indian woman born into the lowest level of the caste and class structure. This research specifically addressed the female Dalit cobbler (leatherworker), who exists among a caste and class of people who have been severely oppressed throughout Indian history. One female Dalit cobbler from a rural village was studied. Her life represents three levels of oppression: females (gender), Dalits (caste), and cobblers (class). This study was based on three interconnected research questions that attempted to uncover the way class, caste, and gender hierarchies influence the lives of Dalit female cobblers: what the Dalit female cobbler has experienced in terms of economic, personal, and social struggle; how the Dalit female cobbler manages to get through her day-to-day struggles; and where the Dalit female cobbler sees herself in the future. Participant observation and triangulation were major components in the design of this study, as it was important to view the local daily life of this individual. Detailed field notes were collected and recorded, interviews based on open-ended questions were conducted, and site documents were gathered. The findings that have become evident throughout this observation have increasingly exposed one continuous theme in particular: the "lived' experience and position that one must accept his or her station in life without question. This dissertation, however, has shown how acceptance does not mean that one stops trying to thrive. On the contrary, the life of this particular female Dalit cobbler exemplifies the ingenuity and perseverance of people who are not members of the dominant social structure. It demonstrates how one individual had the ability to negotiate multiple levels of oppression and succeed in sustaining herself, her family, and her community.
Ph. D.

In 1950 the constitution of independent India rendered the practice of untouchability a criminal offence. Special programmes of affirmative action were also instituted on behalf of the Untouchables, now known as Scheduled Castes, to offset centuries of deprivation. Theoretically the introduction of the universal franchise created a nation of equal citizens, and the reservation of parliamentary seats for the SCs guaranteed that they would be represented. The de jure abolition of untouchability has not, however, resulted in its de facto eradication (Desai 1978: 111). Structural and social inequalities have conspired to ensure the continuing subordination of the majority of the Scheduled Castes. Disillusionment with the inadequacies of the institutions of interest mediation has, since the 1970s, been channelled into extra-institutional mobilisation and protest for change. Drawing upon the example of civil rights activists in the United States, many of the SCs have rejected the appellations by which they are commonly known and have called themselves Dalits. Dalit is a Marathi word meaning ‘downtrodden’ and it has been adopted to symbolise the rejection of the caste system and the values that sustain it. Most authors have focused on the experience of Dalit movements in the north of India. This thesis charts the rise, and attempts an analysis of the Liberation Panther (LPs) movement in the southern state of Tamilnadu. The particular history of political development in the state, a form of Dravidian nationalism, resulted in the polity that was ideologically committed to the eradication of caste. Only in recent decades have autonomous Dalit organisations have been able to challenge the Dravidian hegemony. Using the insights of social movement theory this thesis charts the conditions of Dalit mobilisation in Tamil Nadu, its modes of protest and organisation and its impact in the state. Whilst much has been written about participatory ‘new social movements’, this thesis highlights the problematic of leadership and the dilemmas of caste-based mobilisation. Social movements, it is argued, are shaped by the culture from which they emerge - both in terms of their social and spatial practices. Most Dalits are poor, and continue to reside in segregated housing areas, but this thesis argues that they are increasingly assertive in their demand for equal rights and social respect. Of particular significance is the entry of the LPs into electoral politics in 1999. Dalit movements and parties may be flawed, but in challenging the status quo and opening up the political process to hitherto excluded groups of people, they are contributing toward the democratisation of Indian democracy.

This thesis examines how the experience of touch is depicted in modern/contemporary Japanese literature and culture. Employing touch-related 20th century French thought (Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Nancy) and psychoanalytic theory (Klein, Anzieu, Kimura), it discusses how the representations of touch illuminate various aspects of human existence, specifically: the mediated nature of touch, the process of the bodily encounters, the formation of subject identity, sexual differences, and the way memories of touch depicted in literature affect our sense of temporality. Touch is a particularly interesting way of approaching Japanese literature because touching between people (apart from mother and child, called skinship) has been considerably repressed at least until after WW2, due to the relative absence of public practices of touch, authors’ aesthetic choices and censorship. Opposing this tendency, female authors born postwar write freely about touch. In comparison to Judeo-Christian cultures, Japanese culture has historically not been open to tactile communication, nor is explicit articulation of internal experience, as in psychoanalysis, particularly prominent. Japanese literary characters are thus especially self-conscious about touch. Following a theoretical and historical overview regarding touch and contact in the Introduction, Chapter 1 discusses different ways of mediating touch in the works of Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, and Abe Kōbō. Chapter 2 argues how high levels of mediation affect the manners of engaging in direct encounters with others in Yoshiyuki, Kawabata Yasunari, and Matsuura Rieko. Chapter 3 discusses the temporality of tactile memories in Yoshiyuki, Kawabata, and Ogawa Yoko. Reflecting on such a complicated portrayal of touch in Japanese culture will help fill a gap in the existing scholarship regarding touch in literature. By critically examining the relationship between theories and literature in the East and West, this thesis also significantly contributes to the field of comparative literature and cultural studies as an example of cross-cultural research on touch.

This thesis analyses the language of touch in the poetry of Michael Symmons Roberts. A single-author study, it uses key tropes in Roberts’s poetry (shell/spark, ghost/machine, body/soul) as points of engagement with the wider concerns of contemporary poetry discourse. The mechanics of contact are explored through the investigation of the limit of the conceit and the trope of the ‘edgelands’. The thesis concludes with four case studies in which touchable touches on untouchable in Roberts’s work (‘voice-print’, care, contamination, ‘metaxu’). The tactile textual analysis of Roberts’s poetry is read in relation to the writings on touch of Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Derrida in order to explore the various aspects in which touch is meaningful as a critical and poetical concept. Specifically, this thesis draws on their writings to demonstrate the insistence on separation as a condition of contact in Roberts’s poetry, an emphasis which allows Roberts to create alternatives to traditional, Cartesian binaries of the touchable and untouchable. Furthermore, the language of touch draws attention to the shared concerns in Roberts’s poetry and different poetic traditions, in particular Metaphysical poetry and Modernism. A central concern of this thesis is the extent to which Roberts’s poetry represents a metaphysical poetry of the twenty-first century. This thesis contributes to the existing discourse on Roberts’s writing, by extending and critiquing the engagement with his work to date. This thesis ultimately suggests that Roberts is a model poet of the contemporary period for the way his poetry negotiates contemporary events and social developments, and for the way his underlying poetics resonate with contemporary thinking in other disciplines such as theology and philosophy.

As a moment of slipping in, turning away and recovering from; the thinking for this project is focused on understanding through and from within culture. With this the paper begins to weave itself through a guided journey of my own personal accounts and the theorists that align and/or challenge such accounts. It moves between investigating my relationship with my father, to interrogating the ways in which men have spoken specific violence's into existence. This thesis does not look to be the reason of, nor the answer to, the way in which men ‘act'; but it does employ a keen eye into understanding the way in which meanings are produced. The paper then embeds itself in interrogating each of these instances through four different performances that were created by Mlondi Dubazane. These performances should be understood as thinking through and with/in representation and the different mediums that representing takes shape. It is vital to understand that even in its attempt at the poetics, the paper expresses itself through, within, around and beside language. This is but the first attempt of finding a language in speaking about my own maleness, a maleness that is not universal, a maleness that is moving forward in advance of nowhere, a maleness that seeks to dare touch on the untouchable. This, then serves as a written explication of research that seeks to engage the meanings and limitations of contemporary Black south african cultural identity (and in particular, the gendered dimensions of this experience) through the careful and nuanced crafting of public performances that draw on both public and intimate experiences.

This thesis undertakes a close study of a single manuscript of the early 1320s, written at the priory of Fineshade, Northamptonshire. The manuscript contains a short chronicle and several documents related to the failed baronial rebellion of 1321-22. I argue that, in collaboration with the priory’s patrons, the Engayne family, the chronicler responds to the current situation with an attempt to create meaning from a time of crisis. In the process, he attempts to shape his material through patterns of style and thought inherited from both chronicle and hagiographical traditions, to make the present conform to the known and understood shape of the past. His success is limited by his inability to establish sufficient distance from traumatic events, a difficulty that many chroniclers seemed to encounter when they attempted to turn current events into meaningful historical narrative.

I investigate the spoken dialogue of four Indian novels in English: Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable (1935), Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan (1956), Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan's The World of Nagaraj (1990), and Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters (2002). Roger Fowler has said that literature, as a form of discourse, articulates ideology; it is through linguistic criticism (combination of literary criticism and linguistic analyses) that the ideologies in a literary text are uncovered. Shobhana Chelliah in her study of Indian novels in English concludes that the authors use Indian English (IndE) as a device to characterize buffoons and villains. Drawing upon Fowler's and Chelliah's framework, my investigation employs linguistic criticism of the four novels to expose the ideologies reflected in the use of fictionalized English in the Indian context. A quantitative inquiry based on thirty-five IndE features reveals that the authors appropriate these features, either to a greater or lesser degree, to almost all their characters, suggesting that IndE functions as the mainstream variety in these novels and creating an illusion that the authors are merely representing the characters' unique Indian worldviews. But within this dialect range, the appropriation of higher percentages of IndE features to specific characters or groups of characters reveal the authors' manipulation of IndE as a counter-realist and ideological device to portray deviant and defective characters. This subordinating of IndE as a substandard variety of English functions as the dominant ideology in my investigation of the four novels. Nevertheless, I also uncover the appropriation of a higher percentage of IndE features to foreground the masculinity of specific characters and to heighten the quintessentially traditional values of the older Brahmin generation, which justifies a contesting ideology about IndE that elevates it as the prestigious variety, not an aberration. Using an approach which combines literary criticism with linguistic analysis, I map and recommend a multidisciplinary methodology, which allows for a reevaluation of fictionalized IndE speech that goes beyond impressionistic analyses.

This dissertation investigates how stories about the Marathi sant-poet Eknath of Paithan (1533-1599) interacting with untouchables changed over the course of three centuries of textual repetition and dramatic representation. In tracing memories of Eknath over such time and through various Marathi public spheres, the dissertation sheds light on why Eknath has come to be viewed in complicated and conflicted ways in the present. This examination of stories, particularly as they pertain to inter-caste relations and the expression of a bhakti social outlook, offers a chance to view how understandings of devotional religion and caste changed in Maharashtrian society between 1700 and the present. At the heart of these stories is a narrative tension between Eknath's boundary-transgressing actions that are presented in spiritually egalitarian terms, and societal expectations about ritual purity and brahman-ness. I show that although the details of the stories change through various repetitions and renditions, this tension endures and produces an ambiguity in the narrative that (perhaps intentionally) makes Eknath's social allegiance impossible to determine. My sources for this study include hagiographical texts (ca. 1650-1800), biographical books and essays (1880-1925), and six major dramas and films (1903-2005) -- all of which richly portray aspects of Eknath's life, and nearly all of which are in Marathi. In the course of preparing this historiographical analysis, I introduce many Marathi sources to the English scholarly world for the first time and call attention to several historical texts and plays that have been forgotten or overlooked by Marathi scholars as well.

D.Litt. et Phil.
The study draws on a post-structural epistemology to interrogate ‘the truths’ of marriage, to foreground the interplay between the institution and society as the site of poetic and political struggle, and in particular psychology’s influence (on marriage) as a dominant knowledge system. This exploration of marriage shows marriage to be anything but ‘neutral’; it highlights marriage as the receptacle of societal, ideological struggle and in the process it highlights the tensions inherent to our subjectivity, in relation to marriage. It then asks the question as to how psychology and in particular marital (couple) therapy has played a role in the sedimentation of certain dominant stories of marriage and self (in relation to marriage), how it has reified marriage as the preferred form of heterosexual pair bonding and how it has reified ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ as dominant templates of being. The implicit question here concerns, one, the silencing and marginalization of alternative descriptions of marriage and, two, alternative ways of pair-bonding. The critical analysis of the knowledge/power interrelationship, as it plays out in the sphere of intersection between marriage and psychology, raises questions about the (ideological) accountability of the profession: for the kind of world we manufacture and maintain. The critical-affirmative paradigm of the thesis compels an engagement with ‘alternatives’ in response to the critical deconstruction of marriage. In the final analysis the study then moves into the arena of ‘challenges’. The latter constitutes an attempt to construct an agenda for action (on the level of psychological practice) that would allow for re-description and alternative descriptions of pair-bonding and self.

碩士
國立臺北藝術大學
美術學系美術創作碩士班
99
Self-Imagining: Touching the Untouchable includes 5 main chapters discussing art-making related to the searching of ideal self and the relationship between art works, self and self definition. To specify the relationship between self and art-making process, this statement is made by first person grammar. 5 chapter summaries are below. Preface “Self Talking” Introduced to the core statement in a way of sentimental self-talking. It indicates the process of defying art-making and speculation of word accuracy. Chapter 1 “Motive Behind Creation” This chapter divides to 3 sections discussing motivation of art-making, transformation of its definition and the self’s status of quo in art-making. Chapter 2 “Process of Creation” This chapter discusses instinctive technique during art-making and standard of one art work’s competency. Chapter 3 “Content and Expression” This chapter discusses in what way one art wok is expressed. Content includes relationship between self and body appearing in art works, expression of body with its suggestion to sex consciousness and comparison of all artworks. Chapter 4 “Analysis of Creation” This chapter discusses contradiction between art-making itself and statement from both points of view before and after artwork is completed. Chapter 5 “Conclusion” This chapter intends to clarify connection between self and society, art-making and its ambiguity to metaphor. Reference

The thesis deals with dalit literature and its role in the dalit movement. In the preface it summarizes information about indian caste system, untouchability and outlines the history of the dalit movement. It tries to highlight certain important points within the history of dalit movement that were significant for the evolvement and development of the dalit literature. Then it goes onto the dalit literature itself. The brief historical depiction is devided into parts based on geographic and lingual regions (Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Gujarati). Further the author deals with classification of dalit literature and its relation with afro- american literature. She poses and tries to answer the question of who in fact is the dalit writer, how is dalit literature received by literature critics and briefly also mentions its language specificities. In the analysis of dalit literature motives the author describes significant and frequent storylines and shows the connection of literature and dalit movement. Specific examples taken from dalit works point out particular motives and nicely illustrate the character of this literature. Separate chapter deals with recently current theme of women in dalit literature. In conclusion author offers summary of the whole theme, emphasizes its most important points...

Defence date: 10 October 2011
Examining Board: Dr. Jaap Dronkers, EUI Dr. Steven Smith, EUI Dr. Staffan Lindberg, University of Lund Dr. Eleanor Nesbitt, University of Warwick
First made available online: 23 August 2021
This thesis is an ethnographic study of an ex-untouchable group from the Punjab region of India known as the Ravidassias. Its aim is twofold: on the one hand to elucidate the mechanisms of caste in social life and in particular, to analyse how ex-untouchables negotiate caste stigma, and on the other, to explore the caste, gender, and youth dimensions of the Ravidassia community in Catalonia, Spain. This study is comparative in nature, discussing caste, the management of caste stigma, and the Ravidassia sociocultural/religious movement in the Punjab, India and Catalonia, Spain. The Ravidassia community is an interesting case study for the study of caste, because the Ravidassias are the most important former untouchable group demographically in both the Punjab and in the diaspora. They have also become in the postwar period one of India´s most economically and socially assertive ´Scheduled Caste´ or SC caste groups, an assertion which is articulated symbolically in the field of religion. The Ravidassias are thus an excellent example of a transnational group whose diaspora status is playing a key role in changing the caste status quo in their native Punjab. In focusing on the individual experience of caste stigma, this thesis seeks to highlight an aspect of caste discrimination that is frequently overlooked in debates on ´casteism´, and to reveal how Dalits who are now educated and middle-class still struggle with the legacy of untouchability. During the course of my research, a significant portion of the global Ravidassia community, including the Spanish Ravidassia community, chose to break with Sikhism and form a completely autonomous religious identity. I thus had the privilege to witness a profound identity shift on the part of my interviewees which has seen new forms of caste pride emerge that would have been unthinkable only a generation ago. This ethnographic study reveals that while caste prejudice/stigma has not diminished with migration, caste as institution and social organisation has assumed new forms that can be strategically used by those who were once completely crushed by the caste system.

Ambedkar’s role as an Indian political leader during the late colonial period has attracted increased attention politically and historically. However, there is a startling disconnect between the modern, often mythological, construction of Ambedkar and the near forgotten historical figure. His broader programme for social uplift of the underprivileged is often lost in the record of his conflict with M. K. Gandhi and the Indian National Congress and their role as the dominant nationalist group in India at the time. The deification that has resulted from his use of Buddhism as an emancipatory identity has obscured his interpretation of it as a secular political tool in a political debate shaped and dominated by religious identity. This thesis will argue that the Buddhist conversion was a continuation of his political and social programme, not, as some have suggested, a retreat to religion after failing to secure reforms to Indian law and society.
February 2009

We study the existence of special points in extremally disconnected compact topological spaces that witness their nonhomogeneity. Via Stone duality, we are looking for ultrafilters on complete Boolean algebras with special combinatorial properties. We introduce the notion of a coherent ultrafilter (coherent P-point, coherently selective). We show that generic existence of such ultrafilters on every complete ccc Boolean algebra of weight not exceeding the continuum is consistent with set theory, and that they witness the nonhomogeneity of the corresponding Stone spaces. We study the properties of the order-sequential property on σ-complete Boolean algebras and its relation to measure-theoretic properties. We ask whether the order-sequential topology can be compact in a nontrivial case, and partially answer the question in a special case of the Suslin algebra associated with a Suslin tree.