Caste-ing Citizenship: Understanding Indian Democracy through the Racialization of Citizenship

This lecture is part of the A.T. Steele Faculty Grant Lecture Series.

Hindu nationalists point to hallowed out democratic institutions and a glorified mythical past to argue that India is the mother of democracy and Dalits are full citizens. I point to another set of data to demonstrate that Indian democracy is at risk because of the caste-ing of Dalit citizenship. I argue that hallowed out institutions and Hindu mythical pasts tell a very limited story, because they often render Dalits and caste invisible. I analyze interview and participant observation data with members of the minority Sikh community in Punjab, India to demonstrate how research participants construct the racialized category of Dalit as inferior and suspect, and how they naturalize exclusionary inclusion through the following unwritten and informal rules: (1) Scheduled Castes (SCs) engage in ‘bad’ behavior and ‘bad’ work; (2) SCs consider themselves inferior to others; (3) SCs fail to adopt middle class Sikh values; (4) SCs fail to fully adopt Sikhism; and (5) state policies create caste difference. I find a situation of exclusionary inclusion, where Dalits are an essential part of formal institutional democracy, but are unable to acquire full, substantive citizenship because they are always at risk of violence and humiliation. These results suggest that through the caste-ing of citizenship Dalits experience democracy unevenly; Dalits do not have the actual power to be active as citizens and command democratic participation.

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Note that this is an Online only lecture. However, the Zoom meeting will be projected on a larger screen in the Durham 240 conference room, and anyone is welcome to attend from there.