Exceptional Aryans: State Misrecognition of Himachali Dalits (original) (raw)
2022, Caste, COVID-19, and Inequalities of Care: Lessons from South Asia
This chapter analyses the positionality of Halis—former bonded labourers, ploughers and animal carcass removers—who constitute the most subordinated Scheduled Caste (SC) community within the Gaddi tribal orbit. For many Halis, the struggle for Scheduled Tribe (ST) recognition begins with legally undoing their ancestral conversion to the Ayra Samaj. In the early twentieth century, many Halis officially replaced their caste name with ‘Arya’ or ‘Gaddi Arya’ in the Revenue Record in order to combat tribal casteism. For a time, they adopted the purifying techniques and caste-obliterating ideologies of the Arya Samaj. This strategy of upward caste mobility backfired, however, when Arya was classified as a forward caste and converted Halis were denied SC/ST benefits in the initial constitutional scheduling. Their official status as Aryas continues to deprive thousands of Halis of much-needed reservation protections. Through fieldwork data collected between 2014 and 16, I highlight the psychosocial anguish of many Halis as they waste inordinate amounts of time and resources bribing bureaucrats, negotiating with state administrators, excavating the archive for non-existent property documents, and being exploited by lawyers—all in the pursuit of restoring their Hali caste name to qualify for SC benefits. Many Halis—non-literate village scratch farmers—are defeated by feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy. Their struggle is further complicated by a desire to ascend the escalator of state recognition from forward caste Aryas to SC Halis to ST Gaddi Dalits. Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that state (mis)recognition can drive marginalization and coarsen psychosocial wellbeing.
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