Rethinking Social Exclusion in India In recent years, exclusionary policies of the Indian state have raised questions concerning social harmony and economic progress. During the last few decades, the emergence of identity politics has given new lease of life to exclusionary practices in the country. Castes, communities and ethnic groups have re-emerged in almost every sphere of social life. This book analyses different aspects of social exclusion in contemporary India. Divided into three sections – (1) New Forms of Inclusion and Exclusion in Con- temporary India, (2) Religious Identities and Dalits and (3) Ethnicity and Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion in the North-Eastern Frontier – the book shows that a shift has taken place in the discourse on inclusion and exclusion. Chapters by experts in their fields explore issues of inclusion and exclusion that merit special attention such as Dalit identity, ethnicity, territoriality and minorities. Authors raise questions about developmental programmes of the state aimed at making India more inclusive and discuss development projects initiated to alleviate socio- economic conditions of the urban poor in the cities. As far as the north-east region is concerned, the authors argue that there is a tendency to highlight the homog- enizing nature of the Indian culture by stressing one history, one language, one social ethos. Diversity is hardly accepted as a social reality, which has adversely affected the inclusive nature of the state. Against this development, the final part of the book looks at questions regarding ethnic minorities in the north-east. Offering new insights into the debate surrounding social exclusion in contem- porary India, this book will be of interest to academics studying anthropology, sociology, politics and South Asian studies. Minoru Mio is associate professor at the Department of Globalization and Humanity and director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. Abhijit Dasgupta is a professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. Routledge New Horizons in South Asian Studies Series Editors: Crispin Bates, Edinburgh University; Akio Tanabe, University of Tokyo; Minoru Mio, National Museum of Ethnology, Japan Democratic Transformation and the Vernacular Public Arena in India Edited by Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Akio Tanabe and Shinya Ishizaka Cities in South Asia Edited by Crispin Bates and Minoru Mio Human and International Security in India Edited by Crispin Bates, Akio Tanabe and Minoru Mio Rethinking Social Exclusion in India Castes, Communities and the State Edited by Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta Rethinking Social Exclusion in India Castes, Communities and the State Edited by Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial material, Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta; individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mio, Minoru, editor. | Dasgupta, Abhijit, editor. Title: Rethinking social exclusion in India : castes, communities and the state / [edited by] Minoru Mio and Abhijit Dasgupta. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge new horizons in South Asian studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017015779 | ISBN 9781138282179 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315270821 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Marginality, Social—India. | Social integration—India. | Caste—India. | India—Social policy. Classification: LCC HN690.Z9 M2665755 2018 | DDC 306.0954—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015779 ISBN: 978-1-138-28217-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-27082-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Notes on contributors x Introduction 1 MINORU MIO AND ABHIJIT DASGUPTA PART I New forms of inclusion and exclusion in contemporary India 9 1 Conditions of ‘developmental democracy’: new logic of inclusion and exclusion in globalizing India 11 AKIO TANABE 2 Streets as spaces of social inclusion and exclusion: the case of street vendors in Ahmedabad 30 AYAKO IWATANI 3 The nation-states and exclusion of minorities in India: the case of Gujarati Muslims 53 KAZUYA NAKAMIZO PART II Religious identities and Dalits 71 4 Belonging and being: unpacking Dalit Christian identity 73 ANDERSON H. M. JEREMIAH 5 Excluding themselves? Dalits converting to Buddhism 88 KENTA FUNAHASHI vi Contents  6  Affirmative action and exclusion of the Muslim outcastes  in West Bengal 102 ABHIJIT DASGUPTA 7 Marginalization and subversive religious rites: worship of Dharmathakur in West Bengal 111 RITA BANERJEE PART III Ethnicity and politics of inclusion and exclusion in the north-eastern frontier 123  8  The forest as a site of conflict: struggles over Indigenous  territory in the Bodo areas of Assam 125 MAKIKO KIMURA 9 Insurgency, citizenship, and entitlements amongst Indian migrant labourers in Nagaland 136 MICHAEL HENEISE 10 Moral geographies: the problem of sovereignty and indigeneity amongst the Nagas 147 ARKOTONG LONGKUMER Index 169 Illustrations Figures 1.1 Voter turn out in Indian parliamentary elections 16 1.2 Increasing representation of people from different castes 16 1.3 Increasing number of political parties: Lok Sabha elections 1952–2009 17 1.4 Vote share of national and regional parties: Lok Sabha elections 1984–2009 17 1.5 Gini index (%) in Brazil, China and India 22 3.1 Hindu-Muslim riots in India (1950–95) 58 5.1 The population composition of Village V by ‘caste’ 92 5.2 The genealogy of Aman’s family 95 Photographs 2.1 Three Gates 36 2.2 Street vendors in Manek Chowk 40 2.3 A shop resembling a street stall 41 2.4 Vendors on the Sabarmati riverbank 43 2.5 Collecting scraps from a gated community 45 5.1 A statue of Ravidas in Ravidas Mandir in Colony A 93 5.2 The rituals during Aman’s second daughter’s wedding ceremony 96 5.3 Karvā Chauth day 97 5.4 The funeral of a Buddhist in Village V 98 Tables 2.1 Sales items of stalls at the Bhadra Market (10:00~16: 00, 19 April, 2011) GR: Gandhi Road 39 2.2 Street vendors and their sales items 40 2.3 Customers at the Bhadra Market (30 December 2012) 42 2.4 Customers at the Gujari Bazar (December 2012) 46 3.1 Poverty incidence across socio-religious categories in 2004–05 61 viii Illustrations 3.2 Achievement of Garib Kalyan Mela (2009–11) 61 3.3 Shares of Muslim employees in selected state governments 63 3.4 Share of Muslim employees in selected state government departments 63 Maps 5.1 Village V 91 5.2 A rough map of Village V 94 8.1 Proposed union territory of Udayachal 128 8.2 Bodoland territorial autonomous district 130 Acknowledgements The chapters in this volume examine some aspects of inclusion and exclusion in contemporary India. Scholars from Japan, UK and India contributed in various ways towards publication of this book. Most of these chapters were presented in an international conference held at Japfu Christian College, Kohima, Nagaland, on 21 and 22 of December 2012. The conference was funded by the Young Researcher Overseas Visits Program for Accelerating Brain Circulation Scheme by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka and the Northeast Centre of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. We express our gratitude to these funding organizations. We thank Prof. Visakhonuo Hibo, principal of the Nagaland Christian College, for hospitality and for ensuring all possible logistical support to the participants of the conference. It was just the right location for the conference: an excluded space in the true sense of the term. A large number of scholars from the north-east universities joined the conference and took an active part in the discussions. We are grateful to the rappoteurs Dr. Dulali Nag (Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management), Dr. Suryakant Waghmore (Tata Institute of Social Science) and commentators Dr. Hia Sen (Presidency Uni- versity, Kolkata), Dr. Riho Isaka (University of Tokyo), Dr. Toshie Awaya (Tokyo University for Foreign Studies) and Dr. Shinya Ishizaka (Kyoto University) of this conference. For additional assistance, we owe a great deal to Ms. Sohini Ghosh, and to Ms. Prama Mukhopadhyay for preparing the index. Minoru Mio Abhijit Dasgupta