Caste and Emancipatory Quest

The book unravels the entangled and complicated relationship between ascriptive identity (caste) and space (urban) and how this interaction (re)moulds urban stratification. Through descriptive and nuanced accounts of various aspects of Dalit lives in urban, it foregrounds how caste permeates and mediates everyday city life. Urban rather represents a liminal space. The urban conditions offer promising opportunities to aspire and achieve upward mobility, at the same time, it presents structural constraints frustrating the march of Dalits and backward classes to claim desired mobility. Capturing the experiences, encounters and negotiations of Dalits, the book challenges the mirage of casteless public and urban castelessness. Rama Devi is a sociologist whose research work focuses on caste, urban stratification, Dalit politics, and higher education. She is a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre De Sciences and Humaines (CSH), Delhi. Presently, at CSH, her research is oriented to understanding how the intersection of caste and gender shapes the mobility aspirations of urban Dalit women. Previously, she taught social science courses at KREA University. Her research work and opinion pieces have been published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Sociological Bulletin, LSE Blogs and Economic and Political Weekly.