[Anthropgrad] Wednesday seminar, October 10, by Assa Doron

[Alan Rumsey]

The details of the Wednesday seminar for October 10 are below. Please 
note the change from the previously announced seminar. As most of you 
probably know by now, Assa Doran is a new member of staff at RSPAS, and 
does exciting  work in India. Please come and welcome him for his 
inaugural seminar.


Assa Doron, Anthropology, RSPAS

Stepsons of the State: Myth, Power and the Modern Indian Nation-State

The recent election victory of the so-called untouchable caste party 
(BSP) in India’s largest state (Uttar Pradesh) has been hailed as a 
spectacular display of subaltern power by a leading Indian newspaper. 
Several questions remain, however, unanswered: Who are these subalterns? 
To what extent do they form a coherent block, with similar fears, hopes 
and aspirations, and how are the subalterns’ visions of the state, 
social justice and equality articulated? In this paper I explore some of 
these questions, examining the case study of a boatmen community in 
Banaras, belonging to the low Mallah (Nishad) caste, and the strategies 
they employ to be heard as legitimate citizens of the state. Such 
strategies, I suggest, draw on specific world views, symbols, myths and 
practices which are central to their understanding of the Indian state 
and society. Moreover, these strategies and techniques reveal a 
sophisticated and organized apparatus of caste and community 
associations that call into question some recent theoretical 
formulations of the Indian state as one dominated and manipulated by 
powerful elites, while subalterns remain passive or at best compliant.

Coombs Seminar Room A

9:30-11:15am

Inquiries to Alan Rumsey
alan.rumsey at anu.edu.au
6125-2365