National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)
Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bengaluru – 560012. INDIA.
Invites you to a Panel Discussion on
“Dalit Journeys for Dignity: Religion, Freedom, and Caste”
edited by
Ramnarayan S. Rawat, K. Satyanarayana, and
P. Sanal Mohan (State University of New York Press and Permanent Black, 2025)
By
Speakers:
K. Satyanarayana (Professor, English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad)
Ramnarayan S. Rawat (Associate Professor, University of Delaware, USA)
Discussants:
Satish Deshpande (Retired Professor of Sociology, Delhi University)
Vijeta Kumar (St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru)
Chairperson:
Prof. Carol Upadhya (Honorary Visiting Professor, NIAS)
On
Date: Thursday, 21st August 2025 | Venue: Lecture Hall, NIAS
Tea/Coffee : 3:30 PM | Session Time: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Brief: The past decade has seen a surge in Dalit studies, offering key theoretical insights into the study of marginalized groups. This collection of essays focuses on Dalit struggles for dignity in India, highlighting the search for religious alternatives and the rejection of caste-Hinduism as the first step towards self-respect. These explorations for self-worth covered everyday secular life as well. The introduction argues that these struggles played a seminal role in informing B. R. Ambedkar’s ideas, including his insistence on the inclusion of ‘dignity’ in the Indian Constitution. It looks at his concepts of ‘moral stamina’, emphasizing ethical commitment to democratic practices, and of the ‘social’, offering innovative approaches to studying the connected histories of caste and the making of modern India. The essays collected in the volume examine the challenges and opportunities faced by Dalits in modern India. Several explore the distinct trajectories of Dalit groups in their search for religious dignity. They reveal that conversion to Christianity, as well as reinterpretations of indigenous religious traditions—such as Buddhism and the Sant-mat religion associated with Raidas and Kabir—have helped to reconstitute untouchable selfhood. Other essays probe the struggle against caste by analyzing changes in sartorial choices, secular work, historical interpretation, and views of domestic space. Drawing from literary and archival sources as well as ethnographical fieldwork, this collection illustrates the connected histories of religion, politics, literature and history.
About the speakers: Ramnarayan S Rawat is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware. He is currently finishing another book, ‘The Language of Liberalism: Dalit Activism, Empire, and Nation’. He is the author of Reconsidering Untouchability and co-editor of Dalit Studies.
K. Satyanarayana is Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at EFL University, Hyderabad. He has coedited No Alphabet in Sight, Steel Nibs Are Sprouting, Dalit Studies, Dalit Text, and Concealing Caste.
After retiring as professor of Sociology at Delhi University, Satish Deshpande now lives in Bengaluru as an unaffiliated scholar. Caste in contemporary India is one of his research interests.
Vijeta Kumar teaches communicative English at St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru and writes at rumlolarum.com.