The Politics of Caste in West Bengal (Exploring the Political in South Asia) - Hardcover

This important volume imaginatively unravels heterogeneous, subterranean, and formative histories . . . of caste. ― Saurabh Dube, Center for Asian and African Studies, El Colegio de México

This timely, provocative and scholarly book . . . [wi]th its rich ethnography and fine-tuned political sense . . . challenges the comfortable assumptions of Bengal as a society in which class relations have trumped traditional inequities and hierarchies . . . [T]he authors put caste centrally on the agenda of social theory in South Asia. ― Dilip Menon, Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, University of Witwatersrand

This volume offers for the first time a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the making and maintenance of a modern caste society in colonial and postcolonial West Bengal in India. Drawing on cutting-edge multidisciplinary scholarship, it explains why caste continues to be neglected in the politics of and scholarship on West Bengal, and how caste relations have permeated the politics of the region until today. The essays presented here dispel the myth that caste does not matter in Bengali society and politics, and make possible meaningful comparisons and contrasts with other regions in South Asia.

The work will interest scholars and researchers in sociology, social anthropology, politics, modern Indian history and cultural studies.