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Dalit Revolution? New Politicians in Uttar Pradesh, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2008

Craig Jeffrey ,
Patricia Jeffery  and
Roger Jeffery
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Abstract

This paper uses recent field research to challenge the widely held view that a “Dalit revolution” is occurring in North India. Drawing on two years' ethnographic research in a village in western Uttar Pradesh, the authors uncover the growing importance of a generation of local political activists among Dalits (former untouchables) while also showing that these young men have not been able to effect a broad structural transformation at the local level. The authors use this case to identify a need for further research on South Asian political change that links party political transformation to questions of local level social practice and subaltern consciousness.

Type
Research Article
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 1365 - 1396
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2008

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