This volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach to rethink the multiple dimensions of marginality political, societal, economic, cultural, legal and spatial. It explores their new representations in colonial and post-colonial India. Departing from extant analyses of experiences of marginalization in diverse social groups, it proposes to problematize the conceptualization of marginality, focusing on its evolution through space and time. A relational position, marginality, it is argued, presupposes a confrontation with centrality or the mainstream within a common discourse of knowledge and power. The volume emphasizes that the process of marginalization is not a marginal phenomenon and draws attention to the historical processes which determine, establish and perpetuate the margins.
The book reflects on varied aspects of evolving marginalities structural, cultural and psychological in South Asia in diverse temporal, spatial or societal contexts. It examines the discourses, institutional mechanisms and economic processes within which marginalities are located. This work will be an important read for scholars and researchers of history, anthropology, subaltern studies, exclusion studies, South Asian history, post-colonial studies, political studies, Indian history, cultural studies and history, in general.
