Dalit Studies: Key Terms and Concepts undertakes a critical engagement with nearly fifty foundational terms and concepts that have shaped—and continue to shape—the field of Dalit Studies.
Dalit Studies: Key Terms and Concepts undertakes a critical engagement with nearly fifty foundational terms and concepts that have shaped—and continue to shape—the field of Dalit Studies.
The entries in the volume:
• Are lucid, accessible and interdisciplinary—detailed in information, comprehensive in perspective, and critical in argumentation.
• Integrate quantitative and qualitative research methods by interfacing facts, data, and information with critical, textual, historical, and discourse analysis.
• Discuss the genealogy of each term or concept; provide relevant literary, cultural, and socio-political examples and references; and examine its contemporary significance.
A key text for an evolving field, the book foregrounds the fundamentals—the critical nuances and far-reaching implications of concepts central to Dalit Studies that are frequently invoked but rarely examined in depth. The volume will be essential reading for students and researchers of literary and critical theory, social and cultural theory, discrimination and ethnic studies, and South Asian studies.
Fundamentals of Dalit Studies: An Introduction
Mahitosh Mandal and Sanjiv Kondekar
Chapter 1 Annihilation of Caste
Debdas Roy
Chapter 2 Anti-caste Thinkers
Palash Biswas
Chapter 3 Anti-casteism
Mohankumar B. S.
Chapter 4 Bahujan
Jyoti Biswas
Chapter 5 Brahmanical Literature
Aarti Vishwakarma
Chapter 6 Caste
Priyanka Choudhary
Chapter 7 Caste and Class
Surajkumar Thube
Chapter 8 Caste and Law
Puspa Damai
Chapter 9 Caste and Race
Puspa Damai
Chapter 10 Caste Atrocities
Mahitosh Mandal
Chapter 11 Caste Microaggressions
M. Rejoyson Thangal
Chapter 12 Casteism in the Indian Diaspora
Rishi R. Gune
Chapter 13 Critical Caste Studies
Dhivya Sivaramane
Chapter 14 Dalit
Mahitosh Mandal
Chapter 15 Dalit Activism
Nivea Thomas K.
Chapter 16 Dalit Aesthetics
Ram Avadh Prajapati
Chapter 17 Dalit Cinema
Subhayu Bhattacharjee
Chapter 18 Dalit Converts
Amit Titare
Chapter 19 Dalit Environmentalism
Sanjeev Kumar Vishwakarma
Chapter 20 Dalit Experience
Rajdeep Mondal
Chapter 21 Dalit Feminism
Priyanka Verma
Chapter 22 Dalit Historiography
Dhanesh Mankulam
Chapter 23 Dalit Life Narratives
Sruti M. D.
Chapter 24 Dalit Literature
Damayanti Das
Chapter 25 Dalit Media
Aazhi Arasi A.
Chapter 26 Dalit Music
Mahitosh Mandal
Chapter 27 Dalit Panthers
Sanjiv Kondekar
Chapter 28 Dalit Political Parties
Priyanka Verma
Chapter 29 Dalit Studies
Nivea Thomas K.
Chapter 30 Dalitization
Sanjeev Kumar Vishwakarma
Chapter 31 Dalits and Hindutva
Abdul Najeeb Noorul Ameen
Chapter 32 Dalits and the British Raj
Jyoti Biswas
Chapter 33 Debrahmanization
Dhanesh Mankulam
Chapter 34 Disability and the Dalit
Anubha Anushree
Chapter 35 Educate, Agitate, Organize
Abdul Najeeb Noorul Ameen
Chapter 36 Gandhi-Ambedkar Debate
Madhabi Karmakar
Chapter 37 Graded Inequality
Abdul Najeeb Noorul Ameen
Chapter 38 Jai Bhim
Subhayu Bhattacharjee
Chapter 39 Kshatriyaization
Priyanka Choudhary
Chapter 40 Mahad Satyagraha
Tufan Bhaskar Awatale
Chapter 41 Manuvad
Sruti M. D.
Chapter 42 Queering Caste
Rishi R. Gune
Chapter 43 Reservation
Jyoti Biswas
Chapter 44 Satyashodhak Samaj
Surajkumar Thube
Chapter 45 Scheduled Castes
Proggya Ghatak
Chapter 46 Self-Respect Movement of Periyar
Dhivya Sivaramane
Chapter 47 Separate Electorate
Chandan Kumar
Mahitosh Mandal is an Assistant Professor of English at Presidency University, Kolkata, India. He earned his BA (Hons), MA, MPhil, and PhD from the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His research interests include literature and psychoanalysis, Holocaust and popular culture, and Dalit and marginality studies. He is the author of Jacques Lacan: From Clinic to Culture (2018) and co-editor of Holocaust vs. Popular Culture: Interrogating Incompatibility and Universalization (Routledge, 2023). His research has been published in leading academic journals, including Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, Lacunae: APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, and Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.
Sanjiv Kondekar is an Assistant Professor of English at Nutan Adarsh Arts, Commerce & Smt. M. H. Wegad Science College, Umred, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. He earned PhD on Saint Tukaram from the Department of English, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Maharashtra. He is the recipient of Junior Research Fellowship (University Grants Commission, India). His research interests include Bhakti Movement, Tukaram Studies, Dalit Studies, and Indian Knowledge Systems. He is the author of History of Tukaram Studies: A Critical Survey (2022) and co-editor of Indian Knowledge Systems: Values and Philosophies (2024). He also co-edited Mithak: Sahitya va Sanskruti (2024). His latest Marathi-language book, titled Jivanvadi Nittitatve (2025), studies the Tamil poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar.
