CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology cordially invites you to the Public PhD Defense of
Vinod Sartape
on
“ Re-institutionalising Caste in the United Kingdom:
Principles of Purity, Temples, and Caste Identities among Indian Migrants in Britain“
Monday, February 21 at 1:30 pm CET (online event)
Defense Committee
Chair: Tijana Krstic, Department of Medieval Studies, CEU
Supervisor: Jean-Louis Fabiani, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, CEU
Internal examiner: Vlad Naumescu, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, CEU
External examiner: Dag Erik Berg, Faculty of Business Administration and Social Sciences, Molde University College
This dissertation examines how caste is practised, articulated and re-institutionalised among Indian migrants in the United Kingdom. It discusses the processes of reconstruction of social relations and identities and poses the question: does caste change with migration or is it re-institutionalised in a different context? The thesis answers this question by analysing the growth of social and religious institutions and their practices among migrants. It argues that on the one hand, caste changes as a result of practical tasks and difficulties that migrants encounter in the host society. On the other hand, caste reproduces distinctions and hierarchies through religious practices. Tracing the post-Independence history of Indian migration to the UK, this study examines how caste is practised as a “belief” in scriptures that represent caste hierarchy. Based on ethnographic field work, this dissertation demonstrates how the principle of ritual “purity” and the grading of castes are not only taken seriously among Indian migrants in the UK, but that the ontological drive of caste produces a “gaze” that represents an embodied perspective whereby migrants organise their everyday life and social relations. It represents a system that is reproduced and protected, which is why any attempt to make it relevant to public scrutiny results in the politics of denial. Analysing the reproduction of castes in the diaspora, this study makes a critical contribution to the literature and the scholarship on caste and migration.
Please register for this event here