Oxford Handbook of Caste

Beginning with the 1990s, the subject of caste has seen a profound increase in interest among scholars.

What was until then approached as a fossilized tradition of the ritual-obsessed Hindus refusing to see the progressive spirits of the emerging world and studied as a branch of anthropology, suddenly began to be seen as a complex reality deeply embedded in a range of institutions and social practices, attracting scholars from a wide range of disciplines--sociology, political science, history, literature, and even economics.

Underlying this opening of the subject of caste were many factors: epistemic, empirical, and political.

Caste is no longer approached through the classical binaries of traditional and modern; the East and the West; or the closed and open systems of stratification.

With the growing consolidation of caste-based identities among those ranked lower down in the hierarchy since the 1990s, raising questions of citizenship and dignity, the subject has acquired a new salience.

As the emerging research shows, the realities of caste on the ground have always been diverse across regions, often contested and ever changing.

This Handbook presents a wide range of essays written by authors representing diverse academic disciplines and perspectives, bringing together the emerging trends in the research, imaginations, and lived realities of caste.