Caste: A Global Story [Hardcover]

A unique exploration of caste oppression and caste resistance around the world, from one of India's leading public intellectuals.Caste, and caste-based discrimination, are not just Indian issues. They are experienced throughout the world, from Britain to Bahrain, Canada to South Africa. This is a global phenomenon, demanding global solutions.Leading scholar Suraj Milind Yengde shines a light on the Dalit experience internationally, from indentured laborers in the nineteenth-century Caribbean to present-day migrant workers in the Middle East. Combining history, ethnography and archival research, he offers a compelling, comparative approach to caste and race from ancient times to today. What have been the impacts of colonialism, religion and nationalism on caste-based hierarchies worldwide? What can we learn from caste-related movements in India and internationally? Why hasn't the South Asian diaspora embraced the anti-caste struggles of the homeland? And what are the limits of Dalit-Black solidarity?Exploring the global footprint of the anti-caste struggle--from its links with Black Lives Matter to the work of international Ambedkarite organizations--this is a powerful analysis of world politics from the perspective of one of the most oppressed communities on Earth. Asking probing questions about the nature of inequality, Yengde issues an energetic call for a cosmopolitan Dalit universalism, as a vital part of today's fight for social justice and equality.Introduction: The Occidental and Oriental Treatment of Caste1. Colonial Dalitality: Census Castes2. Affairs of Letters: Dalit Responses to Black Literature3. Race and Caste in the Age of Dalit-Black Lives Matter4. The Dalit Republic of Diaspora: A Case Study of Trinidad5. Cosmopolitan Dalit Universalism: Dalit Activism and the Promise of an Anti-caste Future Worldwide6. ConclusionAppendix: List of Dalit OrganizationsBibliographyIndexSuraj Milind Yengdeis Assistant Professor of History and Africana Sl“1