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Oratory is an important aspect of Tamil culture, and people delight in the poetic flourishes of podium speakers. It is no surprise, therefore, that the leader of the largest Dalit movement in Tamilnadu is revered for linguistic prowess. The significance of movement utterances, however, extends beyond content and style. In recent decades, Dalit rhetoric has increasingly promised to 'hit back'. Although these perorations have been credited with instilling a sense of pride, courage and assertiveness into previously submissive social groups, such analyses often take movement oratory at face value. A more contextualised reading of such speech-acts reveals that whilst 'hitting back' can restore a sense of pride, it can also undermine Dalit agency by reinforcing their characterisation as victims. In a vicious circle, radical rhetoric stokes the fires of caste conflict, which then inspires further tales of victimisation. Celebrations of Dalit lyricism, therefore, need to be tempered by an appreciation of its context and consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caste is often presented as a stable or fixed form of social stratification that conditions the behaviour of its members. This occludes the micro-structural process by which caste is embodied. This article uses empirical work on caste protest to discuss the fluid nature of embodied activity, and the analytical utility of two social constructionist accounts: the tacitly pre-given structures of Bourdieu's model are compared to the continuous creation model of Foucault. Whereas the internalized structures of Bourdieu's habitus initially appear to make most sense of the embodiment and permanence of caste, we contend that a Foucauldian approach offers better insight into the interactional basis of social structures and identity formation. The article reconsiders both theories in light of these empirical data and concludes that analysing interaction at a local level enables us to better comprehend the emergence of social structural features in a caste context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Movement rhetoric invites us to consider: ‘Which is violence?’ But it is clear that the lines between violent acts are indeterminate. When is ‘self-defence’ ‘retaliation’? When does revenge become an offence to be avenged and when does liberatory violence become oppressive? This paper tries to provide an understanding of the issues and discourses that label the Dalit Panthers as violent. Dalit movements in Tamilnadu operate in a social sphere coloured by acts of violence. Such groups understandably talk about ‘hitting back’ and ‘asserting their rights’, yet violence is never an isolated act. By viewing violence as processual, I draw on various theorists to argue that the ‘will to violence’ is bound up with cultural expectations, meanings and identities. This allows us to grasp the relational character of violence and its centrality to the construction of social identities. Furthermore, shifting the emphasis of analysis from the act of harm to incorporate the wider implications reveals the spatial and social patterns that ensue. The concept of a ‘repertoire of protest’ is useful here in highlighting how violent protest may be complementary to (or feed into) ‘normal’ politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dalit (ex-Untouchable) movements across Tamilnadu are struggling to achieve equality, justice and an end to caste based discrimination. Over the past decades they have succeeded in entering parliamentary politics in the state. Many of the movements that have contributed to the current profile of Dalit politics organized on the basis of a ‘Dalit’ identity. Increasingly, however, Dalit activists in Tamilnadu have come to stress more parochial and ‘primordial’ identities and adopt ever more specific objectives. The premise of identity politics is that social categories can and should represent themselves and assert their own priorities and agendas, but who defines the category and how representative are they? This paper teases out the contradictory aspects of such mobilization and interrogates the strategies of Tamil Dalit movements before considering whether the discourse of human rights can help transcend the impasse of identity politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]