ABSTRACT

This volume develops a historically informed phenomenology of caste and untouchability. It explores the idea of ‘Brahmin’ and the practice of untouchability by offering a scholarly reading of ancient and medieval texts. By going beyond the notions of purity and pollution, it presents a new framework of understanding relationships between social groups and social categories.

An important intervention in the study of caste and untouchability, this book will be an essential read for the scholars and researchers of political studies, political philosophy, cultural studies, Dalit studies, Indology, sociology, social anthropology and Ambedkar studies.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Notional Brahmin and the idea of original

chapter 1|28 pages

The ‘ideal’ Brahmin and the dead being

chapter 2|19 pages

Physical body and social body

chapter 3|23 pages

Brahmin householder as renouncer

chapter 4|22 pages

Touch-un-ability and ‘ideal’ Brahmin

chapter 5|50 pages

Translating touch-un-ability

chapter |9 pages

Conclusion

The dead being is still alive