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.