Title Deceptive majority : Dalits, Hinduism, and underground religion / Joel Lee

Published Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021 ©2021

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Description 1 online resource (xviii, 335 pages) Series South Asia in the social sciences Contents Introduction: Signs, the census, and the sanitation labor castes -- The ummat of Lal Beg : Dalit religion before enumerative politics -- Missionary majoritarianism : the Arya Samaj and the struggle with disgust -- Trustee majoritarianism : Gandhi and the Harijan Sevak Sangh -- Hinduization and its discontents : Valmiki comes to Lucknow -- Victory to Valmiki : declamatory religion and the wages of inclusion -- Lal Beg underground : Taqiyya, ethical secrecy, and the pleasure of dissimulation Summary "In this compelling account of Hindu majoritarianism and its sly subversion by one of India's most oppressed minorities, the author calls into question foundational assumptions about caste, religion, and the politics of inclusion. Asking how it came to be common sense that one-fifth of India's population known as Dalit or 'untouchable' are and have always been Hindu, this book unearths evidence that tells a different story. The sanitation labor castes-those Dalit communities that provide nearly all of South Asia's sanitation workers-understood themselves in the colonial period to constitute an autonomous religious community separate from both Hindus and Muslims and centered on an antinomian prophet named Lal Beg. Weaving together history, ethnography, and linguistics, it charts the trajectory of this tradition: its apparent decline under pressure from mid-twentieth century nationalists and Hindu reformers, including Gandhi, as well as its clandestine continuation in the present. A chronicle of Dalit lives in the north Indian city of Lucknow and a meditation on the ethics and semiotics of secrecy, this book studies the history of the architects of the majoritarian project and of those who quietly undermine it"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on February 24, 2021) Subject Hinduism and politics -- India -- Lucknow Dalits -- India -- Lucknow -- Religion Dalits -- Political activity -- India -- Lucknow Caste -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism. Caste -- Political aspects -- India -- Lucknow Social integration -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism. Political sociology -- India -- Lucknow Caste -- Political aspects Caste -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism Dalits -- Political activity Dalits -- Religion Hinduism and politics Political sociology Politics and government Religion Social integration -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism SUBJECT Lucknow (India) -- Politics and government Lucknow (India) -- Religion Subject India -- Lucknow Form Electronic book LC no. 2020049865 ISBN 9781108920193 1108920195

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