Sociology of South Asia : Postcolonial Legacies, Global Imaginaries

This edited volume moves the study of South Asia to the center of sociological analysis, bringing together recent scholarship across sites in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan, as well as in Ethiopia and the USA. This book situates the project of decolonizing the discipline within a rich transnational intellectual legacy and reveals how South Asia offers a uniquely generative site from which to rethink sociological practice. Recognizing local and global influences at their specific sites, the contributing authors highlight the historical ravages of colonialism and imperialism, modernization projects of the postcolonial era, and the kaleidoscopic ways in which gender, caste, class, and sexuality structure everyday life under neoliberalism today. The sociology of South Asia centers the voices and experiences of those marginalized by local and global systems of power in order to produce knowledge that advances interconnected projects of liberation. Smitha Radhakrishnan is Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College, USA. She is the author of Appropriately Indian: Gender and Culture in a New Transnational Class (2011) and Making Women Pay: Microfinance in Urban India (2022), both from Duke University Press. Gowri Vijayakumar is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, USA. She is author of At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global AIDS Crisis (Stanford University Press, 2021) Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: Sociology of South Asia: In Waiting for the Revolution What Do We Mean by South Asia? Where Are We Now? Constraints and Challenges in Sociological Work on South Asia Hegemonic and Counterhegemonic Positions: The Study of South Asia in the U.S. Independent Nations, Dependent Social Science? Doing Social Science in the Subcontinent Inequalities and Conflicts in South Asian Sociologies The Diasporic Researcher Toward a Sociology of South Asia: Charting the Path Overview of Chapters Conclusion References Part I: State-Led Modernization Projects Chapter 2: Between Women and the State: Rights Brokers and Capital Accumulation in West Bengal Rights as a Site of Capital Accumulation Research Context Data and Method The Opportunity to Intervene Networks and Expertise Reputation and Money Conclusion References Chapter 3: Degrees of Freedom: Strategic (Non)engagement in Land Markets Methods “Triple Movements” and Degrees of Freedom Through Strategic (Non)engagement in Land Context The Many Prices of Ancestral Land Landing the “Good Life” The “Good Life,” Uninherited Conclusion References Chapter 4: “(Hindu) Workers of India, Unite!”: How Class Politics Shape the Consolidation of Right-Wing Hegemony in India Hindu Nationalism as a Right-Wing Hegemonic Project Universalizing but Not Hegemonic: The Partial Plane of Hindu Nationalism (1925–1948) The Labor of Building Hegemony: The BMS’s “Progressive” Orientation to Organizing Labor (1948–1977) The Chaos of Hegemonic Transition: The BMS in Between the “Rock” of the Economy and the “Hard Place” of Culture (1978–1998) The Challenge of Maintaining Hegemony: The BMS’s Regressive, but Conflicted, Relationship to Power (1999 to the Present) Toward a Sociology of South Asia—Lessons from the Hindu Right-Wing in India References Chapter 5: Traditional Genders, Modern Sexualities: Struggles over Sexual and Gender Nonconformity in Postcolonial India Modernity and Tradition as Discursive Constructs Complex Entanglement of Colonial and Nationalist Projects in India Section 377 Struggles and the NALSA Judgment Claiming “Traditions of Tolerance”: The Anti-sodomy Law Debates Countering Section 377 Reform Through “Tradition”: The Anti-sexuality Position Complicating “Traditional Tolerance”: The Transgender Rights Debate Conclusion References Part II: Diasporic Mediations Chapter 6: Veiled Sociology: The Epistemologies of Purdah and Two-Boat Ethnography Modality 1: Interdependence Modality 2: Enduring Privation Modality 3: Veiling as Self-defense Failures Conclusion References Chapter 7: Interweaving Afro-Asian Solidarity: A Global Textile Factory Floor in Ethiopia Afro-Asian Solidarity or Neocolonialism? Research in Ethiopia Textile and Garment Making for the Global Market The New Delineations of Developmental Help Molding Industriousness on the Shop Floor Conclusion References Chapter 8: “Give In, Cut Your Hair ... Or It Makes You a Very Strong Person”: Diasporic Sikhs, Transnational Racialization, and Embodied Identity Same Symbols, Evolving Meanings Transnational Racialization of Religion Migration, Exclusion, and Transnational Solidarity 1984 and Embodied Identity 9/11 and Embodied Identity Conclusion References Part III: Place-Making/Identity-Making Chapter 9: Of Tigers and Temples: The Jaffna Caste System in Transition During the Sri Lankan Civil War (Re)Classifying Caste in Jaffna Of Tigers: The Construction of a Cohesive Tamil Nationalism Amidst Caste Difference Of Temples: Caste Assertions in Contemporary Hindu Places of Worship Conclusion References Chapter 10: Experiencing the City as Workers: The Spatial Practices of Women Beauty and Retail Workers in Karachi, Pakistan The Thwarted Promise of Public Space Moving Beyond the Public-Private Binary The Workplace as an In-Between Space Methods Findings The Workplace as a Rare Space Outside the Home The Workplace as a Space of Self-transformation The Workplace as a Space of Fun and Sociality Exploiting the Gap Between Work-Discipline and Home-Discipline The Workplace as an Exceptional Space The Workplace as a Launching Pad The Workplace as a Public and Private Space Conclusion References Chapter 11: Caste-ing Space: Mapping the Dynamics of Untouchability in Rural Bihar, India Research Context and Methodology: Mapping Village Spaces in Bodh Gaya, Bihar The Spatiality of Untouchability Before and After the BGLM Untouchability as Social and Spatial Housing Segregation in Kaari Untouchability and Water Access Discrimination in Kaari Reinscribing Untouchability in Modern Infrastructure Community Facilities as Failed Challenges to Untouchability Discussion: The Shifting Nature of Untouchability in Rural Bihar Untouchability Challenged and Reinscribed Threat of Collective Violence Undergirds Untouchability Appropriation by Non-Dalits of Critical Resources Allocated to Dalits Perpetuates Untouchability Conclusion References Chapter 12: Following the Prophet’s Sunnah: Class, Piety, and Power in a Pakistani Bazaar The Bazaar and Islam in Urban Pakistan and Beyond Fieldwork in Mustafa Market, Shah Alam Bazaar Divine Privilege: Traders and Islam in Mustafa Market Din and Dunya: The Business of Religion in the Marketplace Practicing Piety, Consecrating Status: Shared Religious Experience Status, Authority, and Religious Ceremony Conclusion References Chapter 13: “Bodybuilding Does Not Need American Certifications”: Cultural Entrepreneurship in Times of Globalization in Contemporary Bengal Embodied Precariousness, Neoliberal Body Projects, and Ethics of Self-making Intimate Economies, Cultural Entrepreneurship, and Ethics of Self-Making Methods Findings Two Fields of Fitness Self-Making in Fitness Consumer Markets Building Communities in Fitness Consumer Markets Conclusion References Index