By examining practices of naming, especially the recent adoption of a ‘Buddhist’ identity by middle-class Dalits in contemporary Maharashtra, this article analyses the multiple, shifting, and contested meanings of being Dalit. Examining the politics of this plurality shows the varied concerns at work in applying and contesting different names, especially the social and psychological challenges inherent in such acts of self-identification. By in-vestigating the ambiguities and ambivalences of being Dalit and Buddhist, the article demonstrates that the strategies of naming struggle against the burdens of a stigmatised past as well as the challenge of exclusion and inclusion vis-à-vis different Dalit castes.
Ambedkar, B. R.1946. Who were the Shudras: How they came to be the Fourth Varna in the Indo-Aryan Society. Bombay: Thacker and Co. Ltd.
2.
Ambedkar, B. R.1977. What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables. Lahore: Classic.
3.
Ambedkar, B. R.1989. Writings and Speeches of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Volume 5. Bombay: Government of Maharashtra.
4.
Bayly, Susan. 1999. Caste, Society, and Politics in India: From Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Beltz, Johannes. 2004. Contesting Caste, Hierarchy, and Hinduism: Buddhist Discursive Practices in Maharashtra. In Johannes Beltz and Surendra Jondhale (eds) Recon-structing the World: Dr. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India, pp. 245–66. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
6.
Beltz, Johannes. 2005. Mahar, Buddhist, and Dalit: Religious Conversion and Socio-Political Emancipation. New Delhi: Manohar.
7.
Chakravarti, Uma. 1998. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai. New Delhi: Zubaan.
8.
Charsley, Simon. 1996. Untouchable: What is in a Name?Journal of the Royal Anthro-pological Institute. 2 (1): 1–23.
9.
Dangle, Arjun (ed.). 1992. Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature. Bombay: Orient Longman.
10.
Deshpande, A. N.1970. Aadhunik Marathi Vangmayacha Itihas (The History of Modern Marathi Literature), Part 2. Pune: Venus Prakashan.
11.
Dhere, R. C.1978. Lajjagauri (The Iconic Female Goddess: Mother Goddess/Yogini). Pune: Srividya Prakashan.
12.
Dirks, Nicholas B.2001. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
13.
Doniger, Wendy (ed.). 1992. The Laws of Manu. New Delhi: Penguin Books.
14.
Du Bois, W.E.B.1994. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover Publications.
15.
Enthoven, Reginald Edward. 1975 [1920]. The Tribes and Castes of Bombay. Three Volumes. Delhi: Cosmo Publications.
16.
Fanon, Frantz. 2004 [1963]. Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.
17.
Foucault, Michel. 1988. Technologies of the Self. In Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman and Patrick H. Hutton (eds) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, p. 18. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.
18.
Galanter, Marc. 1984. Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
19.
Gokhale-Turner, Jayashree. 1980. Bhakti or Vidroha: Continuity and Change in Dalit Sahitya. Journal of Asian and African Studies. 15 (1–2): 29–42.
20.
Gokhale-Turner, Jayashree. 1986. The Socio-political Effects of Ideological Change: The Buddhist Conversion of Maharashtrian Untouchables. Journal of Asian Studies. 45(2): 269–92.
21.
Gokhale-Turner, Jayashree. 1993. From Concessions to Confrontations: The Politics of an Indian Untouchable Community. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.
22.
Government of India. 1991. Census of India 1991. Series 14, Maharashtra, Part VIII (1), SC-1: Distribution of SC Population by Sex for each Caste. New Delhi: Government of India.
23.
Guha, Sumit. 1999. Environment and Ethnicity in India 1200–1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24.
Guru, Gopal. 2001. The Language of Dalit–Bahujan Political Discourse. In Ghanshyam Shah (ed.) Dalit Identity and Politics, pp. 97–107. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
25.
Jaffrelot, Christophe. 2004. Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Analysing and Fighting Caste. London: C. Hurst and Co.
Kardak, Bhimrao and Dadasaheb Pagare. 1978. Congress Bhakta ani Asprushya Samvad (Dialogue Between a Congress Devotee and an Untouchable). In Bhimrao Kardak and Dadasaheb Pagare (eds) Ambedkari Jalse: Swarup va Karya (Ambedkarite Theatre: Ideology and Activities), pp. 184–87. Mumbai: Abhinav Prakashan.
28.
Kaviraj, Sudipta. 1997. Politics in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
29.
Kharat, Shankarrao. 2003. Maharashtratil Maharancha Itihaas (A History of Mahars in Maharashtra). Pune: Sugava.
30.
Kondvilkar, Madhav. 1985. Inde, Journal d’un Intouchable (1969–1977) (India, Journal of Untouchables [1969–1977]). Paris: L’Harmattan.
31.
Kotani, Hiroyuki (ed.). 1997. Caste System, Untouchability and the Depressed. Delhi: Manohar.
32.
Limbale, Sharankumar. 2004. Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Contro-versies and Considerations (trans. by Alok Mukherjee). New Delhi: Orient Longman.
33.
Mangudkar, M. P.1963. Shinde Lekhsangraha (Collected Writings of Shinde). Pune: Thokal Prakashan.
34.
Massey, James. 1995. History and Dalit Identity. In Bhagwan Das and James Massey (eds) Dalit Solidarity, pp. 1–33. New Delhi: Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (ISPCK).
35.
Mate, Shripad Mahadev. 1933. Asprusthancha Prashna (Question of the Untouchables). Pune: Lokasangraha Chapakhana.
36.
Metcalf, Barbara and Thomas Metcalf. 2006. A Concise History of Modern India. New York: Cambridge University Press.
37.
Mill, James. 1968 [1818]. The History of British India, Volume One. London: J. Madden.
38.
Molesworth, James Thomas. 1975. English and Marathi Dictionary. Poona: Published for Shubhada–Saraswat by S. Gogate and A. Ogale.
39.
Moon, Vasant. 2001. Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
40.
Nanda, Meera. 2007. Breaking the Spell of Dharma and Other Essays. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective.
41.
Omvedt, Gail. 1976. Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society. Bombay: Scientific Socialist Education Trust.
42.
Omvedt, Gail. 1994. Dalits and the Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit Move-ment in Colonial India. Delhi: Sage Publications.
43.
Omvedt, Gail. 1995. Dalit Visions: The Anti-Caste Movement and the Construction of an India Identity. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
44.
Omvedt, Gail. 2008. Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anti-Caste Intellectuals. New Delhi: Navayana.
45.
Pantawane, Gangadhar. 1986. Evolving a New Identity: The Development of a Dalit Culture. In Barbara Joshi (ed.) Untouchable! Voices of the Dalit Liberation, pp. 79–87. London: Zed Books.
46.
Pawar, Urmila. 2003. Aayadaan (The Basket Weave of Life). Mumbai: Granthali.
47.
Perkins, Margo. 2000. Autobiography as Activism: Three Black Women of the Sixties. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
48.
Phule, Jotirao. 1991. Gulamgiri (Slavery). In Y.D. Phadke (ed.) Mahatma Phule, Samagra Vangamay (Collected Works of Mahatma Phule), pp. 109–92. Mumbai: Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya ani Saunskruti Mandal (Maharashtra State Literature and Cultural Committee).
49.
Pillai-Vetschera, Traude. 1994. The Mahars: A Study of their Culture, Religion, and Socio-Economic Life. Delhi: Intercultural Publications.
50.
Poitevin, Guy. 2002. The Voice and the Will: Subaltern Agency, Forms and Motives. New Delhi: Manohar.
Robertson, Alexander. 1938. The Mahar Folk: A Study of Untouchables in Maharashtra. Calcutta: Y. M.C.A. Publishing House.
53.
Somvanshi, B. C.1989. Bharatiya Jati Sansthet Matangache Sthan ani Mahar–Matang Sambandh (The Place of Matangs and Mahar–Matang Relations in the Indian Caste System). Aurangabad: Anand Prakashan.
54.
Webster, John C.B.1999. Who is a Dalit? In S.M. Michael (ed.) Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values. pp 76–88. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
55.
Zelliot, Eleanor. 1978. Dalit—New Cultural Context of an Old Marathi Word. In Clarence Maloney (ed.) Language and Civilization Change in South Asia, pp. 77–97. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
56.
Zelliot, Eleanor. 1992. From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement. Delhi: Manohar.
57.
Zelliot, Eleanor. 2004. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Untouchable Movement. New Delhi: Blumoon Books.
