Recasting Caste

Hira Singh teaches Sociology at York University, Toronto. He taught Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He also taught Sociology at various other universities in Canada like Wilfrid Laurier, Victoria and University of New Brunswick. A participant of the debate on ‘Feudalism in Pre-colonial, Non-European Societies’, sponsored by the Journal of Peasant Studies, his previous publications include Colonial Hegemony and Popular Resistance: Princes, Peasants, and Paramount Power and essays in prominent journals.

• Preface: Growing up in Caste, Studying Caste—A Personal and Professional StoryIntroductionStudying Caste: Ideas, Material Conditions and HistoryPriest and Prince: Status–Power MuddleVarna to Caste: Religious and Economic-PoliticalCaste and Subaltern Studies: Elite Ideology, Revisionist HistoriographyInequalities between and within Castes: Kin, Caste and LandChanging Land Relations and Caste: View from a VillageIndenture, Religion and Caste: The Twin Myths about Hinduism and CasteAppendicesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

The book will appeal to anyone who is interested in understanding the highly complex phenomenon of caste and is prepared to go beyond the "sacred" and look for its "profane" dimensions.... Its greatest contribution is that it engages with and historicises caste.