IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v46y2015i5p1106-1132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Litigation against Political Organization? The Politics of Dalit Mobilization in Tamil Nadu, India

Author

Listed:
  • Grace Carswell
  • Geert Neve

Abstract

type="main"> This article examines contemporary Dalit assertion in India through an ethnographic case study of a legal tool being mobilized by Tamil Nadu's lowest-ranking Arunthathiyars in their struggle against caste-based offences. The Arunthathiyars of western Tamil Nadu are increasingly taking recourse to the 1989 Prevention of Atrocities Act (PoA Act) in an attempt to bring members of higher castes to justice. The article explores how Arunthathiyars are employing the law and how their litigation is reshaping the politics of caste in this region. The authors document how a process of litigation by Arunthathiyars is countered by a politicization of caste by the dominant Gounders of the region, who recently entered electoral politics with a new caste-based party. Even though the litigation route further antagonizes caste relations, it is argued that the PoA Act has provided Dalits with an invaluable tool to seek justice, democratize public space, and challenge the power of the dominant caste in the region. Dalit social movements, it is concluded, are more likely to be successful if they are backed by a legal weapon and accompanied by Dalits’ growing economic independence.

Suggested Citation

  • Grace Carswell & Geert Neve, 2015. "Litigation against Political Organization? The Politics of Dalit Mobilization in Tamil Nadu, India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(5), pages 1106-1132, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:46:y:2015:i:5:p:1106-1132
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/dech.12190
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Suryakant Waghmore, 2012. "Beyond Depoliticization? Caste, NGOs and Dalit Land Rights in Maharashtra, India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(6), pages 1313-1336, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Geert De Neve, 2015. "Predatory Property," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 10(3), pages 345-368, December.
    2. Diego Maiorano & Suruchi Thapar‐Björkert & Hans Blomkvist, 2022. "Politics as Negotiation: Changing Caste Norms in Rural India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(1), pages 217-248, January.
    3. David Mosse & Sundara Babu Nagappan, 2021. "NGOs as Social Movements: Policy Narratives, Networks and the Performance of Dalit Rights in South India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(1), pages 134-167, January.
    4. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kraus, Kalle & Kennergren, Cecilia & von Unge, Amelie, 2017. "The interplay between ideological control and formal management control systems – A case study of a non-governmental organisation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 42-59.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:46:y:2015:i:5:p:1106-1132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.