Outcaste Bombay


Book Description

Over the course of the twentieth century, Bombay’s population grew twentyfold as the city became increasingly industrialized and cosmopolitan. Yet beneath a veneer of modernity, old prejudices endured, including the treatment of the Dalits. Even as Indians engaged with aspects of modern life, including the Marxist discourse of class, caste distinctions played a pivotal role in determining who was excluded from the city’s economic transformations. Labor historian Juned Shaikh documents the symbiosis between industrial capitalism and the caste system, mapping the transformation of the city as urban planners marked Dalit neighborhoods as slums that needed to be demolished in order to build a modern Bombay. Drawing from rare sources written by the urban poor and Dalits in the Marathi language—including novels, poems, and manifestos—Outcaste Bombay examines how language and literature became a battleground for cultural politics. Through careful scrutiny of one city’s complex social fabric, this study illuminates issues that remain vital for labor activists and urban planners around the world.




Outcaste, a Memoir


Book Description

Outcaste: A Memoir Is A Multilayered Personalized Saga Of The Social Metamorphosis Of Dalits In India. At One Level, It Is A Loving Tribute From A Son To His Father. At Another, It Gives An Intelligent Appraisal Of The Caste System In India And Traces The Story Of The Awakening Of Dalits Traversing Three Generations. At Still Another Level, It Is Reflective Of The Aspirations Of Millions Of Dalits In India. Written In The First Person, At Times From The Perspective Of Narendra Jadhav S Parents, Damu And Sonu, And At Other Times From His Own, The Book Traces The Remarkable Journey Of Damu From A Small Village At Ozar In Maharashtra To The City Of Mumbai To Escape Persecution. In The City, Although Illiterate And Despite The Disadvantages Of His Mahar Caste, Damu Earns Respect In The Various Jobs He Undertakes. Even More Heartening, His Children And Their Offspring Go On To Fulfil All His Aspirations, Rising To High Positions In Their Chosen Careers, And Overcoming, Finally, The Barrier That Had So Bedevilled His Own Life. Damu S Refusal To Cave In To Any Type Of Injustice And His Iron Determination Form The Heart Of The Book. But Outcaste Is Much More Than A Personal Recounting Of The Downside Of The Caste Divide In India. It Also Examines Dalit Issues In The Context Of The Dalits Awakening Spearheaded By The Champion Of Human Rights, Babasaheb Ambedkar, The Independence Movement, The Civil Disobedience Movement, Gandhiji S Relation With Ambedkar, The Mass Conversion Of Dalits To Buddhism In 1956, And Caste In Its Contemporary Reality. A Crucial Landmark Is Damu S Own Transformation Under The Spell Of Ambedkar. The Radical Change In Damu And His Family, Their Sloughing Off Of Servility, And Their Self-Esteem Are Seamlessly Woven Into The Narrative. The Book Ends With A Note Of Self-Realization: That In Modern India Dignity Rests In The Minds And Hearts Of People, And That Obsolete Prejudices Do Not Really Matter. Enlivening The Text Are Personal Anecdotes, Some Funny, Some Sad And Some Heart-Warming. And Running Like A Refrain Throughout Is The Clarion Call Of Ambedkar, Educate, Unite And Agitate . Poignant And Simple, Outcaste Makes For Fascinating Reading.




Outcaste (RLE Iran D)


Book Description

This volume is a unique investigation of contemporary Jewish life in a Muslim country and the first ethnography of the Persian-Jewish diaspora, giving the reader a deep appreciation of this relatively unknown culture. The author describes in detail traditional Jewish life in the provincial city of Shiraz and the challenges of coexistence with a Muslim majority.




Japan's Outcaste Abolition


Book Description

The Tokugawa Shogunate, which governed Japan for two and a half centuries until the mid-1860s, classed people into hierarchically ranked status groups, known in Japanese as mibun. This book begins by examining the origins and evolution of the outcast groups within the Tokugawa status order.




Outcaste


Book Description

Available in English translation, this book is one of a collection of leading Indian post-independence novels. Each text is supported with an introduction and either detailed footnotes or a glossary as appropriate. Publication coincides with the 50th anniversary of Indian independence.




Caste and Outcast


Book Description

Mukerji (1890-1936) holds the distinction of being the first South Asian immigrant to have a successful career in the United States as a man of letters. This reissue of his classic autobiography, with a new Introduction and Afterword, seeks to revitalize interest in Mukerji and his work and to contribute to the exploration of the South Asian experience in America.




Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes


Book Description

This compelling social history uses diaries, memoirs, fiction, trial testimony, personal recollections, and eyewitness accounts to weave a fascinating tale of what ordinary Japanese endured throughout their country’s era of economic growth. Through vivid, often wrenching accounts of peasants, miners, textile workers, rebels, and prostitutes, Mikiso Hane forces us to see Japan’s “modern century” (from the beginnings of contact with the West to World War II) through fresh eyes. In doing so, he mounts a formidable challenge to the success story of Japan’s “economic miracle.” Starting with the Meiji restoration of 1868, Hane vividly illustrates how modernization actually widened the gulf, economically and socially, between rich and poor, between the mo-bo and mo-ga (“modern boy” and “modern girl”) of the cities and their rural counterparts. He interlaces his scholarly narrative with sharply etched individual stories that allow us see Japan from the bottom up. We feel the back-breaking labor of a typical farm family; the anguish of poverty-stricken parents forced to send their daughters to Japan’s new mills, factories, and brothels; the hopelessness in rural areas scourged by famine; the proud defiance of women battling against patriarchy; and the desperation of being on strike in a company town, in revolt in the countryside, or conscripted into the army. This updated edition is enhanced by a substantive new introduction by Samuel H. Yamashita. By allowing the underprivileged to speak for themselves, Hane and Yamashita present us with a unique people’s history of an often-hidden world.




Of Women, Outcastes, Peasants, and Rebels


Book Description

"A powerful portrait of the oppressed and the forms of oppression that occur in India."—Theodore Riccardi, Jr., Columbia University




A Warrior's Path


Book Description

Two millennia ago She thundered into the skies of Arisa: Suwraith, a demon bent on Humanity's extinction. Into this world is born Rukh Shektan, a peerless young warrior from a Caste of warriors, devoted to the sanctity of his home and his way of life. He is well-versed in the keen language of swords but all his courage and skills may not save him. A challenge comes, one that threatens all he once thought true and puts at risk all he holds dear. And it will enter his life in the form of one of Humanity's greatest enemies - and perhaps its greatest allies. Worse, he will learn of Suwraith's plans. The Sorrow Bringer has dread intentions for his home. The city of Ashoka is to be razed and her people slaughtered.




Caste in Early Modern Japan


Book Description

"Caste", a word normally used in relation to the Indian subcontinent, is rarely associated with Japan in contemporary scholarship. This has not always been the case, and the term was often used among earlier generations of scholars, who introduced the Buraku problem to Western audiences. Amos argues that time for reappraisal is well overdue and that a combination of ideas, beliefs, and practices rooted in Confucian, Buddhist, Shinto, and military traditions were brought together from the late 16th century in ways that influenced the development of institutions and social structures on the Japanese archipelago. These influences brought the social structures closer in form and substance to certain caste formations found in the Indian subcontinent during the same period. Specifically, Amos analyses the evolution of the so-called Danzaemon outcaste order. This order was a 17th century caste configuration produced as a consequence of early modern Tokugawa rulers’ decisions to engage in a state-building project rooted in military logic and built on the back of existing manorial and tribal-class arrangements. He further examines the history behind the primary duties expected of outcastes within the Danzaemon order: notably execution and policing, as well as leather procurement. Reinterpreting Japan as a caste society, this book propels us to engage in fuller comparisons of how outcaste communities’ histories and challenges have diverged and converged over time and space, and to consider how better to eradicate discrimination based on caste logic. This book will appeal to anyone interested in Japanese History, Culture and Society.




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