“Is caste race?” Discourses of Racial Indianization

Abstract

This paper investigates how the official discourse of race and caste are constructed in response to the Dalits’ claims that casteism is racism and caste should be included in the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Xenophobia (WCAR held in Durban in 2001). The research question driving this project probes into discursive strategies and logics, which deny any association of caste with race in the Indian context and the significance of race denial. The paper also questions whether the denial of association of race and caste is indicative of racial Indianization. I argue that in India, race lives through the category of caste as a form of racial Indianization.

Keywords:

• Caste
• Race
• Dalit
• Racial Indianization
• Discourse
• India

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Purba Das

Purba Das is an assistant professor of Communication Studies, Ohio University, Southern Campus, USA.