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Icon to Ensure That That Its Female Population Is ´Protected´ Department of Political and Social Sciences How Caste Works: Forging New Identities in a Punjabi Ex- Untouchable Community in Catalonia, Spain Kathryn Lum Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute Florence, October 2011 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of Political and Social Sciences HOW CASTE WORKS: Forging New Identities in a Punjabi Ex- Untouchable Community in Catalonia, Spain Kathryn Lum Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute Examining Board: Dr. Jaap Dronkers, EUI Dr. Steven Smith, EUI Dr. Staffan Lindberg, University of Lund Dr. Eleanor Nesbitt, University of Warwick © 2011, Kathryn Lum No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author I TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………. 7 1.1 Research Questions…………………………………………………… 13 1.2 Who are the Punjabi Ravidassia Chamars?........................................ 13 2 METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………………. 17 2.1 Research Approach and Techniques of Data Collection……………. 17 2.2 Data Collection: Interviews and Participant Observation………….. 18 2.3 Interviewing Philosophy……………………………………………… 22 2.4 Description of the field and Sample Selection: Punjab……………. 26 2.5 Description of the field and Sample Selection: Barcelona…………. 32 2.6 Theoretical perspectives……………………………………………….. 37 3 CASTE AND UNTOUCHABILITY IN INDIA……………………………. 42 3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………... 42 3.2 Varna and Jati……………………………………………………….. 42 3.3 Caste as a Hindu Religious Concept………………………………... 46 3.4 Critiques of Dumont………………………………………………… 49 3.5 The Murky Origins of Untouchability……………………………… 50 3.6 The Practice of Untouchability…………………………………….. 54 3.7 Caste Beyond Hinduism: The Specificies of Caste in the Punjab and in Sikhism……………………………………………………………….. 60 4 CASTE POLITICS AND STIGMA IN THE PUNJAB…………………….. 68 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………… 68 4.2 Stigma: A Framework for Understanding Contemporary Caste Relations.. 69 4.3 Dalit Identity Management Strategies: The Invisible yet Omnipresent Presence of Caste in Daily Life………………………………………. 72 4.4 Dealing with Untouchable Stigma…………………………………… 78 4.5 “Your full name please?”: A Micro Analysis of Caste Politics at Lovely Professional University, Jallandar, Punjab…………………………. 80 4.6 Upper Caste Views on Caste…………………………………………. 84 4.7 Casteism and Marriage………………………………………………. 85 4.8 Anti-Dalit Stereotyping among the Upper Castes………………….. 88 4.9 Upper-caste responses to Dalit Peers and Colleagues……………… 91 4.10 Education: The Solution to Casteism?................................................ 92 4.11 Casteism in Popular Punjabi Songs………………………………… 94 4.12 Conclusion……………………………………………………………. 99 II 5 THE RAVIDASSIA MOVEMENT……………………………………. 101 5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………….. 101 5.2 The Exemplary Figure of Guru Ravidass…………………….. 102 5.3 Ad Dharm: The Quest for an Autonomous Identity………… 105 5.4 The Dera Phenomenon and Caste Politics…………………… 108 5.5 What explains the popularity of Deras and Sants?.................. 111 5.6 Ravidassia Deras as Social Assertion…………………………. 113 5.7 The Limitations of Ravidassia Deras…………………………. 114 5.8 Conclusion……………………………………………………… 115 6 THE RAVIDASSIA COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY(IES) IN CATALONIA.. 117 6.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………… 117 6.2 Indian Immigration to Spain: An Overview……………………………… 118 6.3 Caste Patterns in Barcelona and the Special Case of the Ravidassias…... 121 6.4 The Evolution of the Ravidassia Sangat in Barcelona………………… 124 6.5 Ravidassia Experiences of Casteism in the Spanish Diaspora………… 125 6.6 Greater Casteism in Spain?......................................................................... 130 6.7 The Ravidassia Chamar Sangat: Internal Complexity and Division…… 132 6.8 The Vienna Incident: Rupture with Sikhism…………………………….. 136 6.9 Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 141 7 MANUFACTURING SELF-RESPECT: STIGMA, PRIDE AND CULTURAL JUGGLING AMONG RAVIDASSIA YOUTH IN SPAIN……………………… 143 7.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 143 7.2 Stigma Learning…………………………………………………………….. 144 7.3 Attitudes Towards the Caste System, Intercaste Friendship, Stigma and Intercaste Marriage…………………………………………………………. 149 7.4 “Putt Chamaran De”: The Emergence of a Chamar Pride Movement…... 155 7.5 Situational Biculturalism: Some Case Studies of Ravidassia Youth…….. 158 7.6 Views on Biculturalism……………………………………………………. 163 7.7 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….. 165 8 GENDERED SUBJECTS: GENDER TRAINING, GENDER POLICING AND PUNJABI MASCULINITY IN THE DIASPORA……………………………… 167 8.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….. 167 8.2 Theoretical Considerations: Scholarship on Masculinities……………. 168 8.3 Gender Formation within the Gurudwara: The Gurdwara as Gendered Space and Institution…………………………………………………….. 173 III 8.4 Young Punjabi Masculinities: Gender Roles and Awareness of Gender Inequality……………………………………………………………………. 180 8.5 What makes a man? Economics…………………………………………… 183 8.6 Physical Strength/The Body………………………………………………... 185 8.7 Sport…………………………………………………………………………. 187 8.8 Heterosexuality……………………………………………………………… 188 8.9 Comparative Punjabi/Spanish Masculinities……………………………… 193 8.10 Masculinity Pressures?................................................................................... 198 8.11 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… 198 9 RELIGION IN THE PURSUIT OF DALIT LIBERATION: AN ANALYSIS OF RAVIDASSIA STRATEGIES IN INDIA AND IN THE SPANISH DIASPORA. 201 9.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………….. 201 9.2 Why Religion? Religion as Social Activism in India………………………. 203 9.3 “What has really changed?”: The Aftermath of the Removal of the Sikh Holy Book………………………………………………………………………….. 209 9.4 The Religious Philosophy of Ambedkar…………………………………… 213 9.5 The Contemporary Impact of Ambedkar…………………………………. 216 9.6 The Politics of Naming……………………………………………………… 221 9.7 Activist or Passive Religion?........................................................................... 222 9.8 Caste as Ethnic Group: How Caste Functions in Modern India and the in Spanish Diaspora…………………………………………………………… 226 9.9 Caste in Spain………………………………………………………………. 231 9.10 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………... 234 10 CONCLUSION: NEW AVATARS OF CASTE AND DIRECTIONS FOR EQUALITY: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE RAVIDASSIA EXPERIENCE…………………………………………………………………….. 238 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDES…………………………………………………….. 246 APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY………………………………………………………………… 251 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………. 254 IV ABSTRACT This thesis is an ethnographic study of an ex-untouchable group from the Punjab region of India known as the Ravidassias. Its aim is twofold: on the one hand to elucidate the mechanisms of caste in social life and in particular, to analyse how ex-untouchables negotiate caste stigma, and on the other, to explore the caste, gender, and youth dimensions of the Ravidassia community in Catalonia, Spain. This study is comparative in nature, discussing caste, the management of caste stigma, and the Ravidassia sociocultural/religious movement in the Punjab, India and Catalonia, Spain. The Ravidassia community is an interesting case study for the study of caste, because the Ravidassias are the most important former untouchable group demographically in both the Punjab and in the diaspora. They have also become in the postwar period one of India´s most economically and socially assertive ´Scheduled Caste´ or SC caste groups, an assertion which is articulated symbolically in the field of religion. The Ravidassias are thus an excellent example of a transnational group whose diaspora status is playing a key role in changing the caste status quo in their native Punjab. In focusing on the individual experience of caste stigma, this thesis seeks to highlight an aspect of caste discrimination that is frequently overlooked in debates on ´casteism´, and to reveal how Dalits who are now educated and middle-class still struggle with the legacy of untouchability. During the course of my research, a significant portion of the global Ravidassia community, including the Spanish Ravidassia community, chose to break with Sikhism and form a completely autonomous religious identity. I thus had the privilege to witness a profound identity shift on the part of my interviewees which has seen new forms of caste pride emerge that would have been unthinkable only a generation ago. This ethnographic study reveals that while caste prejudice/stigma has not diminished with migration, caste as institution and social organisation has assumed new forms that can be strategically used by those who were once completely crushed by the caste system. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Jaap Dronkers for his advice and direction throughout the writing of my thesis; my parents for their constant support; Dr. Eleanor Nesbitt for serving as a mentor in the field of India Studies; Dr. Staffan Lindberg for his vital early encouragement and help as I embarked on the path of India studies; Dr. Roger Ballard for his very helpful feedback; Dr. Sucha Singh Gill and Dr. Kanwaljit Gill my wonderful host family in Patiala who guided me on my first fieldwork trip and shared so much knowledge with me; Mrs. Mahal of Malmo, Sweden for so generously giving me her time to teach me Punjabi; Mr. Mahal of Malmo, Sweden for first introducing me to the study of Sikhism; Mr. and Mrs. Saroa, my superb hosts in Jallandher
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