I am glad to share the recent release of my
book worldwide: ‘UNCASTE’ subtitled as ‘Understanding Unmarriageability: The Way
Forward To Annihilate Caste’. The book dissects the stigma called Unmarriageability
that would prickle even the most progressive minds.
Let us cease our Reactions and cultivate the habit of Actions. It is time to confront the crux of caste instead of reacting to the tantrums it makes.
This is my sincere
invitation seeking your time and thoughts in moulding the popular opinion against
Unmarriageability.
...
Where can You Buy?
For the Indian Readers,
the Paperback version is available in Amazon.in, Notion Press
while the Ebook Version is available Amazon.in
For the Readers outside India,
the Amazon Paperback version is available in the following domains:
.com, .uk, .de, .fr, .es, .it, .jp, .ca, and
the Amazon Ebook version is available in the following domains:
the Amazon Ebook version is available in the following domains:
United States & Canada
United Kingdom & Europe
Australia & New Zealand
'Uncaste'
is the stellar outcome of my 8 years of patient and persistent
research on India's Caste System and the mystery of how it survives. The book
is stellar not only in the sense of decoding the sustaining mechanism of Caste
but also in constructing a clear pathway to annihilate it. Hence, what begins
as a scholarly exposition passionately progresses in issuing a manifesto to
perish the Caste System.
By
completely tilting the perspective of the readers and compelling them to look
at the caste system through the institution of marriage and family, 'Uncaste'
succeeds in prickling the most progressive minds that deceive to be Casteless.
The
stigma of Unmarriageability expounded in the book glaringly challenges the
intellectual acumen of the Sociologists and Scholars in rightly studying the
system of Caste. Academicians are forced to enter into the bloated vacuum that
they have so far bypassed in their study. And, Law-makers are cornered to bring
in Abolition of Caste into the Constitution.
For
the Young generation that yearns for an ideal society but casually overlooks
the stains of discrimination that it makes, this book means a spearhead into
their conscience.
Close
to 80,000 words in total, two chapters of this book have already found its
place in International Journals.
...
Initial Reviews
To gather your attention, the following is some of the initial reviews about my book 'UNCASTE' in which I have expounded the stigma of Unmarriageability:
V. Geetha (Author and Feminist Scholar): This is a very intriguing manuscript, with a great deal of potential for being developed into an original treatise on caste and untouchability.
The marking of untouchables as 'Unmarriageables' is an important departure - in that it shifts the argument about separation, abjection and suffering, from civil and social spheres, to that of family and kinship. While sociologists, anthropologists and anti-caste political thought are all agreed that endogamy sustains the caste system, very little work has been done on utilising this as a theoretical principle, to build arguments or movements. Each time a so-called 'honour' killing happens, or a khap panchayat delivers a horrific verdict, we pay attention to the crossing of sexual conjugal boundaries. But seldom do we treat these deaths as emerging out of the 'unmarriageable' status that the caste order has accorded to untouchables.
What might we achieve by re-christening dalits as 'Unmarriageables' - as the author suggests, we would point to the essential poignancy of the Dalit situation. And the hope is that society will take note of this poignancy, and rethink its options. In terms of social action, legal reform, state policy making, what might this name change achieve, beyond what has been achieved by existing movements that have taken on board the problem of endogamy? How might we distinguish flexible endogamous practices today, which allow for both hypogamous and hypergamous marriages amongst castes, but not between any of these castes and those marked as 'untouchable"? The manuscript I am sure will address these important questions...
Double-Blind Peer Review of Chapter 3 in JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES:
The paper puts forth a rather novel argument: that the word untouchable or indeed its other semantic cognates do not convey the horror of what it means to be a victim of untouchability. This is because these words are descriptive rather than analytical, and while they have served important purposes, they yet need to be replaced by a term that captures the essence of an untouchable existence and by that token the caste order. The author considers unmarriageability, as he calls, it to be this essence – and he uses the notion of caste endogamy to explain why this is so.
This is an interesting approach to the question of names and whether they encourage or impede social critique and action. The author invokes Babasaheb Ambedkar’s important observations in this context, and draws on them to argue his case for a new name for an old practice.
Secondly, the author refines the given understanding of endogamy by pointing to two sorts of inter-caste marriages: between members of different castes, which, even if not liked, is not considered entirely inadmissible; and between an untouchable and anyone else. This latter, he asserts, is the key to understanding the caste system, in its psychological, religious and social aspects, for this is where the entire psyche of caste comes into play. This is an argument that is not always made when inter-caste marriages are discussed.
Double-Blind Peer Review of Chapter 3 in the JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES:
I enjoyed reading the article. It is a powerful argument that combines Dr. Ambedkar's "Annihilation of Caste" and "Castes in India". The focus on 'naming' seems to have properly identified Dr. Ambedkar's challenge to the clichéd remark "what is there in a name?". The writer of the article developed his argument "everything is in the name" into a methodology of studying caste. It is very much relevant in the present context of the increasing honor killing across the country. The argument is placed within the wider context of the scholarships on Caste and Dalit Studies. In the future, the argument could be developed accommodating the studies on Indian Feminism. The article added a socio-psychological dimension to the existing sociological discussion of caste.
Bhatkal & Sen (Publisher): Certainly, this is an original way to understand the very real situation of untouchability as it comes to inter-caste marriage. Not much has been done on these issues focusing on kinship and family.
Cambridge (Publisher): The area of your work appears to be quite interesting.
SAGE Publications (Publisher): This is an interesting subject area.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat(Author and Columnist): This work looks enormous and highly impressive as well as essential.
Suraj Yengde (Author, 'Caste Matters'): It is an exciting concept and needs serious attention. I enjoyed the Author's style.
Kalpana Kannabiran (Director, Council for Social Development): The book looks very interesting.
