Caste studies today: Imaginary victims and perpetrators
Keywords:
Caste system, jati, caste studies, caste discrimination, Brahmins, SN Balagangadhara, Ghent school, grievance studies, India, United Kingdom, United States, corruption, sistema de castas, estudio de castas, brahmanes, escuela de Gante, estudio de agravios, Reino Unido, Estados Unidos, corrupción, discriminación por castaAbstract
Starting with an individual report in a leading British periodical of higher education, this article fans outwards to show how the contemporary field of caste studies reflects the degeneracy of its methods and claims. Rather than producing knowledge about India and the so-called caste system, caste studies has worked itself into a corner by creating a set of imagined victims and perpetrators of caste oppression, atrocities, violence and discrimination, and by making unsustainable claims on legal systems and other institutions. The manifold and insurmountable problems of contemporary caste studies include its basis in the European framework for the study of India founded upon Christian theological claims, the carry-over of this account into the secularised humanities and social sciences, and its engagement in corrupted academic practices of the kind that typify grievance studies today. That an alternative account exists in the form of the research programme of SN Balagangadhara, which inspires the articles in this special issue, is good reason for rethinking and revision of the field.
Comenzando con un informe individual en un importante periódico británico de educación superior, este artículo se abre para mostrar cómo el campo contemporáneo de los estudios de castas refleja la degeneración de sus métodos y afirmaciones. En lugar de producir conocimiento sobre la India y el llamado sistema de castas, los estudios de castas se han arrinconado al crear un conjunto de víctimas y victimarios imaginarios de la opresión, las atrocidades, la violencia y la discriminación de las castas, y al hacer reclamaciones insostenibles sobre los sistemas jurídicos y otras instituciones. Los múltiples e insuperables problemas de los estudios de castas contemporáneos incluyen su base en el marco europeo para el estudio de la India basado en afirmaciones teológicas cristianas, la transferencia de este relato a las humanidades secularizadas y las ciencias sociales, y su participación en prácticas académicas corruptas que tipifican los estudios de agravios en la actualidad. Que exista un relato alternativo en la forma del programa de investigación de SN Balagangadhara, que inspira los artículos de este número especial, es una buena razón para repensar y revisar el campo.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1372
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