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ID:
193291
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article seeks to make sense of the collective mobilisation of sanitation workers, who mainly belong to the Sheikh caste, in Kashmir’s capital Srinagar. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, I document how two organisations—the sanitation workers’ union and the All Jammu and Kashmir Pasmanda Tabqajat Federation—pursue a politics of dignity to counter the historical and systemic discrimination that the Sheikhs have traditionally faced. I highlight the differences between the two organisations. While the former mainly focuses on work-related issues, the latter seeks to translate the politics of Pasmanda assertion in the Kashmiri context. In this process, it struggles to bring about political solidarity across Pasmanda caste groups. Overall, this article also suggests that the Sheikhs’ endeavour to counter invisibilisation fractures the notion of a homogenous Kashmiri Muslim population protesting only against occupation.
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| 2 |
ID:
193289
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| Summary/Abstract |
The topic of Muslim caste has been getting space in media discourse and national politics recently through the concept of ‘Pasmanda’ – a term which refers to lower-caste Muslims. As the term gets wider purchase, it is important to question the concept and the category. What is the relationship of the category of Pasmanda with Muslim caste? Which struggles of Muslim lower castes is the term Pasmanda able to lend voice to, and what are the tensions encompassing the category. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, I examine a newly established organisation called the Pasmanda Adhikār Manch to explore how different single-caste associations come together under the Pasmanda banner. The caste-associations of the Halalkhor, Shah, and Nanpuz communities have the difficult task of countering the invisibilisation of Muslim caste not only by the state, but by their own caste brethren. They have limited room to demand anything from the state, considering that it hardly acknowledges the existence of their caste groups and is suspicious of their political claims as Muslims. Coming together under the Pasmanda umbrella helps provide a wider platform for assertion of Muslim caste. However, the category comes with limitations that threatens to undo its purpose.
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