Sarvpriya Raj

Title: Protest, Hope, and a Desire For Distinction: Exploring the Ravidassia Subculture in Punjab.

University: School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Abstract: The rise of ‘Adi’ movements in the early nineteenth century in India signalled at a growing Dalit consciousness. These movements proclaimed Dalits as the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent whose ‘rich’ indigenous culture was shunted to the margins by an alien ‘outsider’ culture. What followed was the radical revival and reinvention of a cultural memory that would eventually become the driver of political mobilization and social change. This paper is a sociological exploration into the collective, as well as individual, project of identity reconstruction among an ex-untouchable Dalit community — the Ravidassias of Punjab. It begins with the genealogy of social activism among the group, explains the motivations behind protest, and subsequently moves to the subcultural dimension of distinct signs, memorabilia, texts, rituals, myths, and music. This subcultural symbolism beads together a transnational Ravidassia community into one consciousness, and this paper is an attempt at discerning its subjective meanings.

Go back to Program

Go back to Speakers