Speaking Truth to Power Religion, Caste and the Subaltern Question in India

by Bhagavan, Manu; Feldhaus, Anne

• ISBN13: 9780198063490
• ISBN10: 0198063490
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Together with its companion, Claiming Power from Below, this volume explores various issues such as hierarchy and reform, the role of religion, the idea of resistance, the functionality of the continued use of the term, 'Dalit', and the scope of current and future Dalit literature. This volumefocuses on the role of religion- encompassing beliefs, ethics, ritual, devotional literature, folk culture, popular narratives, and artistic expression-and its role in the construction and deconstruction of caste and power in India. In this context it also examines the hierarchy of gender.

Author Biography

Manu Bhagavan is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Hunter College and the Graduate Center---The City University of New York, USA.
Anne Feldhaus is Foundation Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University, USA.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Bhakti Radicals and Untouchability	p. 11
Humanism, Religion, and the Nation: Sant Namdev as a Manavatavadin	p. 30
Propagating the Gospel of Animal Kindness: Sacred Cows, Christians, and American Animal Welfare Activism with Reference to India at the Turn of the Twentieth Century	p. 47
Blindness and Sight: Moral Vision in Rajasthani Narratives	p. 62
The Upwardly Mobile Monkey-god: Village and Urban Marutis in Maharashtra	p. 78
Negotiating Hierarchy and Identity: Cultural Performances on the Meaning of the Demon King Bali in Rural Maharashtra	p. 92
'How Can a Wife Screech and Wail?' Respectability and Bengali Women Singers' Lives	p. 107
Other Voices, Other Rooms: The View from the Zenana	p. 121
Dalit Transformation, Narrative, and Verbal Art in the Tamil Novels of Bama	p. 137
Women's Empowerment through Religious Conversion: Voices of Buddhists in Nagpur, India	p. 153
The Buddha and the Barbers: Status, Discipline, and Dissension in Early Buddhism	p. 165
Art and Identity: The Rise of a New Buddhist Imagery	p. 180
Understanding Multiple Images of B.R. Ambedkar	p. 205
Contemplating the Divine	p. 221
Appendix: Published Writings of Eleanor Zelliot	p. 231
Contributors	p. 241
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