ABSTRACT
This chapter examines who constitute Dalits in India. It engages with the mainstream subaltern perspective that treats Dalits as a political and economic category – a class phenomenon – and subsumes homogeneity of entire Dalit population. It argues that the socio-cultural deprivations of Dalits are their primary deprivations. The heterogeneity of their social experiences is well pronounced. It emphasizes multiple deprivations of Dalits and reproduction of their subalternity, notwithstanding noticeable change in their socio-economic conditions. It analyses Dalits’ assertion under three phases which are these: reformative, transformative and confrontational. It explains the processes of social change among Dalits by dividing them in the above three phases.
