ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the theories of social and cultural reproduction in the context of Dalit women in India. It addresses the question of status of Dalit women from the perspective of critical cultural analysis and draws attention to the complex interplay between gender, caste, society and polity. It reflects upon certain structural inconsistencies which are attributed to the reproduction of subdued status of Dalit women even in globalizing India. It critically evaluates the state-sponsored affirmative measures for mitigating social disadvantages the poor and Dalit women, and explains both internal and external (structural/ institutional) factors that have comportment on Dalit women’s lives. It also explores the gendered nature of social exclusion, experienced by Dalit women based on a survey conducted in Lucknow district of U.P. (India). This study is a shift from the conventional paradigm of studying women in the sense that it examines Dalit women’s existence by treating them as autonomous beings, a different epistemic gender category from the category of men as well as by identifying conflicts and contradictions emerging out of Dalit women’s situations in patriarchal and hegemonic society in India.
