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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
Information
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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