Margins and Marginalities in India: thinking across regions and communities II

Panel Convenor(s)

• RP

  Roluah Puia

  Indian Institute of Technology, India

Panel Chair(s)

• UK

  Utkarsh Kamal

  Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

Presenter(s)

• MS

  Mayukh Sarkar

  Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
• PL

  P Lalpekhlui

  Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, India
• TW

  Towseef Wani

  Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
• TT

  Tongkhohao Touthang

  Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India

 
In this panel, we proposed to examine the question of margins and marginalities in India. In India, marginalization takes multiple forms and levels and cut across regions, castes, tribes, language, and religion. Often, it is generally assumed that margins and marginalities are socially, economically, and politically ‘given’ realities. This implies that margins and marginalities are assumed to be fixed. While this argument may hold relevance for historically subjugated groups and communities that continue to face and experience marginalization, our interest in this panel exceeds such an understanding. While acknowledging that certain groups and communities such as the Dalits and Adivasis/Tribes in India continue to be at the margins of Indian society, we, however, wish to understand how the communities struggled against their marginalized condition while also paying attention to the new form of inequality and hierarchies within them. While the study of margins and marginalities has remained central to social science research and the academic discourse at large, dialogue and conversations across regions and communities have remained relatively scant. For instance, while the study of caste is at the heart of sociological studies, it rarely includes regions such as the northeast. For this purpose, this panel will bring forth conversations from across communities and regions, putting into focus the multiple forms of marginalities— education, identity, polity, economy, and borders.
 
Papers in the panel cover multiple case studies and regions. In this light, the proposed panel will examine the questions of marginality in the context of marginalised social groups in India while also paying attention to the varying ways in which they have struggled against their marginalized condition. The panel has three broad aims. First, we wish to examine how marginalized groups assert themselves by claiming equality. Second, we aim to enter into a dialogue in terms of engaging with multiple case studies across regions and communities. As such, our panel brings forth case studies from the northeast and mainland India but also engages with the multiple forms of marginality that communities experience. Third, we acknowledge that several sections within Dalits and Tribes have made significant economic gains in the last several years. In this light, we sought to re-examine the question of margins and marginalities in view of the socio-economic transformation within these communities, particularly with the rise of an emergent elite, if not middle class. 

Presentations:

• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  Access politics at the margins of Forest frontiers: Unravelling community forestry in the Jaunsar-Bawar region of Uttarakhand
  

  Presenter: Mayukh Sarkar – Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  Us versus Them: The Politics of Belongingness in Indo-Myanmar Borderland
  

  Presenter: P Lalpekhlui – Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati
• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  Marginality on Edges: A Study of Shina Community of Kargil Borderland
  

  Presenter: Towseef Ahmad Wani – Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  Means of Living: Ethnic border tribes and state institutions relations in Indo-Myanmar borderland
  

  Presenter: Tongkhohao Touthang – Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar