ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the relationships between identity and the politics of historical construction. In the last few decades, marginalized caste-communities have been asserting their identities through self-fashioning. These communities have been rewriting their ‘histories’ by drawing on myths, oral epics, memories and colonial documents. Many mythical and historical heroes of these caste-communities have begun to symbolize their caste identities, evoking feelings of pride and glory within their own culture. Identity formation, here, is decisively related to a question of empowerment. The reinterpretation of the past helps these caste-communities to develop new cultural politics that enable them to overcome the stigma they have been suffering. This chapter explores such relationships between the self-fashioning of caste, identity formation and democratic politics in the western UP region.
