The caste system is supposed to be inescapable-you cannot change the caste into which you are born. But are there ways to elude the system? Concealing Caste tells the stories of women and men in India who, though born into communities stigmatized as 'untouchable,' are perceived by others as 'high caste.' Like the literature on racial passing in the American context, the short stories and autobiographical essays in this volume reveal the inner workings of a vicious social order, illuminating the contradictions of caste hierarchy through the experience of those who clandestinely transgress its boundaries. Concealing Caste is the first collection of Dalit writings focused on this public secret. Bringing together Dalit literature from Marathi, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, English and Malayalam-including stories and essays never before translated-this landmark anthology illustrates the agonizing choices and at times devastating consequences faced by Dalits who experiment with 
identity in a society shot through with the principle of birth-based inequality.

Concealing Caste: Narratives of Passing and Personhood in Dalit Literature

Literature & Fiction

Lee, Joel

Satyanarayanan, Kusuma

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

The idea that India is a Hindu majority nation rests on the assumption that the vast swath of its population stigmatized as 'untouchable' is, and always has been, in some meaningful sense, Hindu. But is that how such communities understood themselves in the past, or how they understand themselves now? When and under what conditions did this assumption take shape, and what truths does it conceal? In this book, Joel Lee challenges presuppositions at the foundation of the study of caste and religion in South Asia. Drawing on detailed archival and ethnographic research, Lee tracks the career of a Dalit religion and the effort by twentieth-century nationalists to encompass it within a newly imagined Hindu body politic. A chronicle of religious life in north India and an examination of the ethics and semiotics of secrecy, Deceptive Majority throws light on the manoeuvres by which majoritarian projects are both advanced and undermined.

Deceptive Majority (South Asia in the Social Sciences, Series Number 14)

Religion & Spirituality

Cambridge University Press

Deceptive Majority: Dalits, Hinduism, and Underground Religion (South Asia in the Social Sciences, Series Number 14)

The year is 1989, and the Cedar Mountain Six have just pulled off the impossible--a mass Death Row prison escape. Now they are on the run, and Officer Jack Spencer is the first responder. Stuck in a dead-end life and contemplating suicide, the Six's escape is exactly what Jack needs--a real chance to finally be the hero he always thought he would become.Ray Parker is the brains behind the daring escape. A good man who made a terrible choice that put him on Death Row, Ray now finds himself on the run with slow-talking country boy Delroy Swann. Facing the threat of capture at every turn, the duo embarks on a run for the border, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of The Law.Haunted by his past crime and the family he had to leave behind, Ray must constantly choose between what is right and what he must do to survive as he makes his way through rural America. Meanwhile, Jack Spencer's obsession with capturing the fugitives makes him a wanted man in his own right as he strays far beyond his jurisdiction and continues the chase from state to state.Will Ray make it to the border and begin a new life? Can Jack catch him before it's too late and earn the recognition and redemption he craves? The chase is on, and only one man can win.

Dead Men Running

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

White Bird Publications

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