Dhobis of Delhi

Subhadra Mitra Channa retired as Professor of Anthropology from the University of Delhi in 2016 and has been honoured with the University's Distinguished Teacher Award. The recipient of many international fellowships, she has been a Charles Wallace Fellow, Queen's University, Belfast, UK (2000); Visiting Professor, Maison de Sciences l'Homme, Paris, France (2002); Fulbright Visiting Lecturer, Auburn University, USA (2003); and Visiting Professor, University of South Carolina, USA (2008-09). She has published more than eighty scholarly papers and ten books, specializing in gender, religion, environment, and identity studies. Channa is the recipient of the S.C. Roy Gold Medal from the Asiatic Society for Lifetime Achievement and has been on the executive committees of several international organizations. Presently the editor of Reviews in Anthropology (Taylor & Francis), she has also served as the editor of Indian Anthropologist and on the editorial boards of international journals.

• Introduction: Doing Urban Ethnography in the Present 1: The Dhobis of Old Delhi: Narratives from the Margin about a Community, a River, and a City 2: The Social World of the Dhobis 3: Livelihood, Resources, and Strategies for Survival 4: Living Life as a Dhobi (Man and Woman) 5: Negotiating Power in the Realm of the Sacred 6: The Political Realm 7: Conclusion: Surviving in a Discriminatory World and the Future of the City

An illuminating contribution to the study of cities and margins worldwide, the anthropology of South Asia, caste, or class, this book is an eye-opening exploration of choices people make to identify themselves with particular social movements, advocacy groups, and political ideologies. The product of many years of ethnographic engagement, this work is both about Delhi and a small community in the city--a group of 'untouchables' who have chosen not to join the Dalit movement or identify as Dalit. How the modern city affects the Dhobi becomes clear in Channa's work, something both engrossing and humanistic. I can think of no one as knowledgeable and insightful as she is in this book.