Table of Contents

Introduction
Untouchability Undone?
Mapping the Movement
Introducing the Liberation Panthers
Democracy, Demonstrations and Disorder
Social Mobilization and Socio-Political Change
Victimization, Violence and Valour
The Context of Dalit Activism in Tamil Nadu
Costs, Coercion and Caste
The Material Context of Dalit Protext
Identity, Space and Power
The Spatial Bases and Practice of DPI
Dalit Women and Dalit Movements
Agency, Autonomy and Activism
Leaders and Leadership
Movement Organization and Membership Debates
The Move to Politics
The Institutional Self-Transformation of the Liberation Panthers
`Voting for Ourselves′
Dalit Politics and the 1999 Elections in Tamil Nadu
Conclusion
Critical Citizens - The Liberation Panthers and Democratization in India

About the Author

Hugo Gorringe is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Edinburgh. His research in India focuses on the sociopolitical mobilisation of Dalits and their struggle to achieve equality and deepen Indian democracy. He is the author of Untouchable Citizens (SAGE 2005) and multiple articles on caste, Dalit politics and violence.

Reviews

This book should help to revise the large (and sometimes repetitive) literature on non-Brahmin politics in the state and contribute to the current debate on the ‘democratization of democracy’ in India…. An original and valuable study that tells us a lot about growing Dalit activism, undoubtedly one of the most significant developments in India today.
*Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute*

Gorringe has written an important book which impressively documents the hardship and discrimination Scheduled Castes contiue to encounter in India…. The book attempts to document the suffering of the Dalits, and their ill-treatment at the hands of higher castes…. While providing a sympathetic account of the movement, it is to the author’s credit that he also notes the failure of the movement to address gender inequalities in Dalit society at large and in the movement itself and also on the cult of leadership practised within the movement…. [This] is a useful addition for the understanding of how democratic politics works in India at a regional level.
*Ethnic and Racial Studies*

This case study addresses the implications of extra-parliamentary movements for democratic institutions and offers a finegrained study of the ways in which movement leaders within a stigmatized community appropriate constitutional, social, and symbolic resources in the interest of their community’s greater inclusion within both political and civil institutions. Scholars interested in social movements, in processes of change in hierarchical relations, or in South Asian studies will find the book of particular value.
*Contemporary Sociology*

This remarkably useful book on dalit political movements combines detailed interviews with front line dalit activist, with a perceptive facing dalit political mobilisation. The battery references is impressive….This book is urgently needed because very little research exists on dalit movements in Tamil Nadu.
*Economic and Political Weekly*