300208 Caste, Power and Re/Action in South Asia: From Micro to Global Perspectives (S) (SoSe 2017)

Until the end of the last millennium, caste seemed to be vanishing from the horizon of public and academic attention, in South Asia and everywhere. However, in the recent years, the caste system and its embattled nature have become – once again - a striking feature of South Asian societies. This seminar will consider the ever growing importance of caste as a focus of social positionings and conflicts - while discussing the classical as well as the most recent conceptualisations of caste, caste dynamics as well as the political contestations centring on caste inequality. The phenomenon of caste, based upon the notion of ‘Hindu hierarchy’ will be discussed in its intersection with other salient boundaries such as gender, religion, ethnicity and class. Special attention will be paid to particularly pronounced forms of social exclusion as well as the mobilizations geared at challenging the forceful and intertwined modalities of oppression and discrimination, such as ‘Dalit’ self-assertion, in particular. Those attending the seminar will be able to grasp the dynamics of social orders in contemporary India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal while particularly engaging with perspectives of action / activism in democracies allowing violence, oppression and marginalization to dominate a fair share of public life. Instead of suggesting ‘South Asian’ exceptionalism, the discussed dynamics will be embedded in global processes and ambivalences, and paying attention to the different temporalities of modernity.