Sociology

http://soc.sagepub.com The Embodiment of Caste: Oppression, Protest and Change

Hugo Gorringe and Irene Rafanell Sociology 2007; 41; 97 DOI: 10.1177/0038038507074721 The online version of this article can be found at: http://soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/1/97

Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

British Sociological Association

Additional services and information for Sociology can be found at: Email Alerts: http://soc.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://soc.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/41/1/97

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

Sociology
Copyright 2007 BSA Publications Ltd Volume 41(1): 97114 DOI: 10.1177/0038038507074721 SAGE Publications London,Thousand Oaks, New Delhi

The Embodiment of Caste: Oppression, Protest and Change

Hugo Gorringe
University of Edinburgh

Irene Rafanell
University of Paisley

ABSTRACT

Caste is often presented as a stable or fixed form of social stratification that conditions the behaviour of its members. This occludes the micro-structural process by which caste is embodied. This article uses empirical work on caste protest to discuss the fluid nature of embodied activity, and the analytical utility of two social constructionist accounts: the tacitly pre-given structures of Bourdieus model are compared to the continuous creation model of Foucault.Whereas the internalized structures of Bourdieus habitus initially appear to make most sense of the embodiment and permanence of caste, we contend that a Foucauldian approach offers better insight into the interactional basis of social structures and identity formation.The article reconsiders both theories in light of these empirical data and concludes that analysing interaction at a local level enables us to better comprehend the emergence of social structural features in a caste context.
KEY WORDS

bourdieu / caste / embodiment / foucault / social change / social movements

Introduction

t would not be difficult for an Indian to identify an Untouchable,1 according to Jeyaharan, academic and social activist: The very way of dressing, the use of vocabulary, and the gestures adopted would reveal who she/he is (1992:

97
Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

98

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

4). Although this statement is increasingly questionable in urban India, a pivotal factor underlying the contemporary salience of caste as a mode of mobilization is its continuing importance as a material social category. It manifests itself in the segregation of housing, the differential access to resources and the persistent correlation between low caste status and poverty, but also in the micro fields of comportment and bodily expression. In a situation where relations of power are etched into bodily mannerisms, not only are there stringent (often violent) sanctions against those who flout caste boundaries, but altering ones caste position also requires new ways of conceptualizing and presenting ones self. In seeking to make sense of the embodiment of caste and social change in India we draw on, and compare, Bourdieus model of class habitus and Foucaults notion of the micro-physics of power because we have found these to be the most illuminating accounts of the embodiment of social phenomena. From a Bourdieusean perspective, ones social position within a particular caste informs ones caste habitus. This habitus results in the internalization of specific embodied characteristics, which constitute hierarchical boundaries and, consequently, structure relationships with other castes. Recent accounts of the body in the social sciences, however, have taken a constructionist turn that downplays the structural determinants of individual action and seeks to analyse the relational and performative (permanently constitutive) aspects of identity formation, specifically at the corporeal level (e.g. Butler, 1993). The elusive and performed identities portrayed by social constructionists, appear worlds removed from the rigid categorizations around which people cohere in a caste context. Here, embodied identities seem to convey the durability of habitus rather than the contingent and shifting panoply of identity positions evinced in constructionist accounts. In light of Foucaults invocation to conduct a history of the body, this article seeks an understanding of caste change and identity as it has been inscribed on the bodies of Untouchables in Tamilnadu, south India. The focus is on social movement activists who are engaged in protracted struggles for equality. Such activists emphasize the contested nature of caste categories and require us to provide an account of caste structures that encompasses the history of low-caste protests, and continuing Dalit (ex-Untouchables) activism. We begin by outlining the contributions of Bourdieu and Foucault, respectively, to our understanding of embodiment. While there are continuities between the two theories notably the stress on the corporeal basis of collective and individual identity we argue that viewing caste-based identities as the stable product of early socialization, occludes the creative capacity of protest (cf. Crossley, 2003) and the constitutive nature of power relations. Following Foucault, we submit that an understanding of caste dynamics must start from the specificities of contextualized caste interaction. It is our contention that Bourdieu prioritizes the social structural elements that configure individual embodied practices (habitus), whereas Foucault emphasizes how interaction between agents underlies the embodiment of individual and collective subjectivities. In other words, a Foucauldian approach complements Bourdieus model by foregrounding the

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

99

processes by which structures are constituted and challenged. Having outlined the theoretical positions we chart the lived experiences of caste in Tamilnadu to integrate theory with research. In conclusion we draw critically on the insights of both theorists to suggest the analytical utility of a performative2 understanding of caste. First, however, a brief consideration of the empirical basis of our argument is required.

Methodological Considerations
Empirical data were collected during fieldwork in Tamilnadu between 19989. The research comprised a multi-sited ethnography of Dalit social movement activists (carried out by Gorringe), in which particular attention was paid to movement motivations, modes of operation, and ideological aspirations. The data consist of 30 group discussions and 60 interviews (32 formal and taperecorded, and 30 informal interviews) with activists, leaders, academics and nonparticipating Dalits. Interviews were complemented by participant observation and analysis of speeches.3 The position of the researcher was that of an observer-as-participant and research aims were explained from the outset. Prior contacts and fluent conversational Tamil facilitated exchanges that probed beyond the surface details. Getting to know movement members enabled access and observing their interaction with comrades (thozhar) revealed that movement activity is not sequestered from everyday life. Unlike other socially-conscious individuals, movement members act as part of groups who share similar worldviews. This raises important issues: movement leaders or activists, for example, often regurgitated established movement stories. To counteract this, the researcher engaged with respondents on a daily basis, to win their trust and ask searching questions that disrupted the pre-rehearsed narratives. Much of the research was conducted through informal conversations. The exchange of views resulted in mutual confidence, and often led to instructive critiques of putative analysis. Dalit movements are embedded in, and emerge out of, a specific political culture, however, which should caution against an uncritical acceptance of movement claims. Participant observation was significant here and cast light on the relational patterns between participants, and between members and others, rather than privileging speeches. Issues of class, sub-caste and gender within the leadership or group structure, or the micro aspects of bodily comportment and interaction could be observed by the researcher, whereas the members often played down (or disregarded) their significance. The research, significantly, did not intend to chart the embodied nature of caste structures. Rather, data culled from observation and the repeated (often implicit) references to the bodily manifestations of caste led to more detailed analysis. The theoretical framework adopted here arose out of collaboration between the two authors and recognition that the data elucidate the complexity of caste as a relational system and an embodied practice.

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

100

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

Bourdieu: Hierarchical Habitus

Bourdieu has been most influential in mapping this terrain and elaborating the embodied nature of social positions. One of his tenets, which contests the psychological focus of much social science, is that the social effects of macro-phenomena are primarily located in bodies, and thus naturalized. His principal analytical category is that of habitus. Habitus dispositions can be defined as: social in origin, acquired in infancy, embodied, durable, transposable, hierarchical and reproductive of the social context within which they originated.4 Dispositions frame subsequent activity and homogenize individuals exposed to the same local social circumstances (Bourdieu, 1994, 1995). They underpin the patterned nature of collective activity and thus constitute group boundaries and group consciousness (Bourdieu, 1995). Most importantly, they are embedded in the non-reflexive realm of individuals activity and, thus, acquire a durable nature that perpetuates the re-production of the social system (Bourdieu, 1994). Physical features like postures, accents, ways of walking, even bodily shapes, preferred foods, sports activities and so on, can be seen as the result of specific social conditioning (Bourdieu, 1994). Embodied dispositions, moreover, constitute cognitive features, which develop a specific manner of perceiving and symbolically evaluating the world. Individual agency is, thus, the by-product of this structural internalization: it is the un-reflexive activity of a player who has internalized at the profound level of the corporeal and thus hidden from consciousness the rules of the game (Bourdieu, 1995: 62, 269). For Bourdieu, strategic agency remains once the rules have been internalized (Bourdieu, 1995). Automatic un-reflexive practices are only transformed to reflexive activity in times of structural crisis when radical changes produce a discrepancy between the internalized worldview and the external world. Agency, thus, is a slip, not a permanent state (cf. Bourdieu, 2000; Crossley, 2003). Whereas many authors argue that Bourdieu allows room for reflexive agency, they invariably modify his work in order to validate their claims.5 Without such amendments, this notion of practices not only presents a static view of internalized rules, but also conceives of individuals as interacting with each other on the basis of these principles.6 Practices are not presented as the result of a reflexive adjustment to the requirements of a given situation but as pre-reflexively internalized and unconsciously guiding individuals (cf. Crossley, 2003). Bourdieus model clearly envisages these individuals as independent beings. For, though the subjective internalization of the objective suggests a relationship between the individual and the systemic properties of the social environment, there is no acknowledgement of the constitutive nature of individuals micro-interaction with others (Bourdieu, 1995). Not only do macro- and micro-phenomena stand in a position of externality, in which the dynamics of interaction is between two already constituted objects, but the model also grants priority and determinative power to macro-structures over individual practice.7 Bourdieu attempts a synthesis between the macro-structural world and individual activity by locating systemic requirements within rather than outside

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

101

individuals (as he says structural objectivism does). The problem with this view is that rules still exist in a reified form (cf. Barnes, 2000) insofar as they remain independent of, and act as guiding systems to, the reflexive activity of interactive individuals. When applied to our data, this suggests that caste practices, once internalized, would structure the psychological and bodily practices of individuals. Initially, this does seem to shed light on caste as a lived reality, and explain the continuing significance of caste discrimination. In explicating the durability of caste, however, caste bodies are rendered the (more or less) passive receptacles of social structure; incapable of protest and resistance. Such a position is an anathema to activists engaged in challenging caste. In what follows, therefore, we explore an alternative (Foucauldian) model that, we believe, better accounts for social change and individual agency.

Foucault: Political Anatomy

Whereas Bourdieu conceives of the body as the site within which power relations are obscured from the consciousness of individuals (particularly the downtrodden), Foucault rejects the notion that oppressed bodies are social dopes. Rather than blindly following internalized dispositional bodily modes of behaviour, Foucault conceives of bodies that are conscious of being manipulated, trained, tortured and so on. He emphasizes that, in studying the effects of power, we need to identify the mechanisms by which bodies are disciplined (1979). Domination is not internalized at an early age, but is an ongoing process of power relationships that operate through bodies and, thus, minds. One of Foucaults key insights is the fact that power produces new social phenomena. This is markedly different from Bourdieus conception of power as a zero sum game. Kusch (1991: 1308) elucidates the productive nature of power, describing it as an internal essential relationship. Power for Foucault, he notes, is not a relationship between already existing objects. Rather, power holders and subjects emerge in and through interaction. This relationship is essential (rather than secondary) in that it constitutes attributes that are primary to the identity of the objects. For Foucault, every society has its specific political anatomy (Foucault, 1979:138) in which bodies are classified, sexed, classed, aged, raced and so on, by particular mechanisms of power that are local and historical (cf. Foucault, 1998). A problem for the Foucauldian approach arises at this juncture: while Bourdieus model might be represented as presenting social actors as structural dopes, the concept of habitus offers a credible account of how the social order is naturalized. Accounts that seek to transcend this analysis must confront the fact that structures of inequality are often stable and the oppressed appear to accept their position.9 This is particularly pertinent here because of Moffatts (1979) contested assertion that Dalits live in consensus with the caste system. The key to this question, and what we see as the crucial difference between Bourdieu and Foucault, is that peoples consciousness and self-reflexive capacity

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

102

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

emerges in interaction. Agency, for Foucault, is not a by-product of structural internalization but arises from processes of individual formation (e.g. 1998: 94). This not only helps us to understand the emergence of the objects implicated in power relationships, but also to understand how these objects emerge with particular consciousness, agency and the capacity for resistance. Power is real, but it emerges from the realm of the interactive collective. Obviously were all oppressed agents to rise in revolt, the existing edifice of power would crumble, but the interaction which constitutes individual consciousness also creates regimes of truth (knowledge) which establish the social positioning of each individual agent. Rulers continuously constitute their status with the threat (or use) of sanctions, particularly embodied sanctions. Coercive power, Foucault (1979) emphasizes, relies on the immediacy of the suffering of the body. The methodological implications of this approach are that macro-level phenomena cannot be explicated outside the multiplicity of relationships at the micro-level. In sum, individuals are ultimately the sustaining force of macro-phenomena and so we must attempt an ascending analysis of power, starting from its infinitesimal mechanisms (Foucault, 1983: 308). In the remaining sections of this article we turn to the ethnographic data and attempt precisely this sort of analysis to determine the analytical efficacy of the two models reviewed above.

Untouchable Habitus?
Definitions of caste are contentious and interpretations are often swayed by political position (cf. Berreman, 1991). In this article, however, we define caste as a birth status group operating according to three basic principles: hierarchy (in which status is usually privileged over power or wealth), endogamous separation (ensured by rules governing marriage and interaction between castes), and an interdependent division of labour. These characteristics operate at the level of collectives rather than individuals. According to Dumont, they are reducible to a single true principle, namely the opposition of the pure and the impure (1980: 43). Whereas this interpretation has been contested, it is clear that caste is a relational system in which the impurity of the Untouchable is conceptually inseparable from the purity of the Brahman (1980: 54). There is intense disagreement about the extent to which the caste system rests upon consensus (people buy into caste values) or conflict (cf. Berreman, 1991; Moffatt, 1979), but it is clear that caste varies across time and space. Critiques extend back several hundred years (discussed below) and an element of fluidity was present in the system. Of concern here, however, are not the ideological underpinnings of caste as a system so much as how such values are embodied. Our intent is to study the effects of power on the body in order to comprehend the durability of caste structures. We argue that embodied processes simultaneously constitute both social and personal identity and macro-structural phenomena.

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

103

Ambedkars10 assertion that caste is a notional entity provides a good starting point because it underscores the fact that no essential differences between individuals determine caste-based stratification. Certainly, claims to be able to tell a persons caste from their outward appearance rarely translate into practice. Of the five activists challenged to display their self-professed capacity for caste identification, four backtracked and averred that city dwellers were largely anonymous, and the fifth made educated (and often erroneous) guesses based on skin colour and clothing. Most visible markers of caste identity, it transpired, are a product of the village system of interdependent labour and patronage. The embodied aspects of caste are relational products of early socialization and it makes sense, therefore, to conceive of a caste habitus. Historically, caste identities were inscribed upon individual bodies through processes of socialization that still inform village life, especially among the older inhabitants. This process of embodiment is most noticeable among the lowest castes. Urban Dalits can now laugh at the stereotypical postures of subservience that their rural counterparts adopt/ed. These Dalits, however, are often dependent upon their patrons for their livelihoods, and would jeopardize their security and their employment through non-compliance. Caste is etched into the social fabric by codes of conduct governing modes of address, attire and physical positioning that carry most force in isolated villages. The discrimination faced by Dalits is manifold: they cannot wear shoes in higher caste streets, they must drink from separate receptacles, they are not allowed to wear clothes below the knee or above the waist (Untouchable women were historically barred from wearing blouses). They often still cannot cycle through high caste areas, spit in the streets, use the drinking water wells frequented by higher castes or sit on benches in the common areas of the village (pothu manthai). In villages around Madurai, Dalits commonly steer clear of the oor (main village) unless summoned to accomplish some task. Social interactions between Dalits and caste Hindus emphasize the inferiority of the former. On the approach of a locally dominant caste member, village Dalits assume a hunched posture, take their towel off their shoulders and tie it round their waist (or tuck it under their arm), lean forward and raise one or both hands in greeting. When conversing with higher castes their hands are held behind their backs or to their sides and their heads remain inclined. In sum, they pay exaggerated forms of respect, which are expressed non-verbally through bodily positioning. They usually stand apart from the higher castes, and will not enter their houses but call out to the householder from the backdoor using idioms and dialects that accentuate their social status. These postures and attitudes characterize dependent Dalits, and their social reflexes communicate their subordination. Such submissiveness seems to occur automatically, almost without the conscious intervention of the Dalit individuals. A Bourdieusean caste habitus appears to prevail. The dramaturgy of the occasion (Goffman, 1969) is often complemented by the physical contrast between dominant and Dalit castes. This is most apparent in terms of male facial hair where a martial moustache connotes pride and dignity but it extends beyond

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

104

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

grooming. Pointing towards two portly ladies, a Dalit activist whispered: Such fat ladies could never be from a Dalit caste (Mathivanan 28/09/1999). Mathivanans assertion is rhetorical, but it bears a grain of truth. Since most Dalits work as labourers (especially agricultural) and subsist on pitiful wages (Gorringe, 2005), the hardened, sun scorched, weathered and muscular labouring body is a caste indicator. Whereas substantial numbers of impoverished Backward castes also work the fields, such bodies at least signify low caste identity. Higher castes have historically eschewed, or been forbidden, manual labour as degrading and place a greater premium upon pale skin. Although these differences have been taken to support racial and employment based theories of caste, they cannot explain the numbers of dark skinned Brahmins or impecunious higher castes. It is clear, therefore, that external appearance is less significant than bodily praxis. The ways in which people walk, work, act, dress, talk and even the things that they eat help to constitute the everyday reality of caste. The Untouchable body is deemed to be so due to its contact with pollution in the form of animal carcasses and products, human waste and corpses. Non-vegetarian castes are placed lower down the caste hierarchy because they ingest pollutants and there are complex rules governing the type of food one can accept from other castes. Sankar, an ex-communist and Dalit activist, recalled an incident encapsulating these processes:
One day, the cleaner brought her daughters. She left the elder child to feed the little one with rice while she cleaned the toilets. The youngster soon asked for water and, told there was none, started crying. I told the girl to ask for water at the first house whereupon she looked scared and asked how that was possible. If you dont ask, how will you get anything?, I said. So the girl knocked, and requested some water. I noticed the occupant searching the girl for signs that she had a vessel. Observing that there was going to be trouble, I kept [back and looked on]. She duly brought the water and asked for the scavengers cup. Child: Ive forgotten it amma [mother respectful form of address], but this child wont eat any rice without a drink.

Woman: How can I give you the water then? Sankar: How? In that jug itself! You go to the temple every Friday and say each child is a deity and now you are defying your own statements! The child is thirsty.

Woman: So easy to say that! How can I give her water in our vessel? Id have to get a new one. So saying, she withdrew. I then instructed the girl to go to [my house], but I kept back to see how my own family would react. So the girl went and tapped at my door and my sister came out and she too looked round for a vessel! Then I signalled to her and she handed over the water . At this point, the mother returned. You think that she will be happy that someone has given water for her child to eat with, but no! The first thing she asks is: Eh child (pillai) where did you get the water? Because, you see, she is frightened. The girl indicates me: It was only after sir said that I got it ma. Then you think that she was happy here at least is

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

105

a good person (nalla manithan) but no she was still scared, apologized and scolded the girl for not bringing a cup. (Interview 05/12/1998)

The durability of caste habitus is revealed in the above quote. Despite the presence of a radical activist the women act according to internalized dispositions. We have quoted this example at length because it highlights the centrality of bodies in the reproduction of hierarchy. The body, thus, is not merely a symbol of caste difference, but the means by which such differences are constituted, perceived and subjectively experienced.

Castes in Flux: Continuity and Change

The above quote, however, also exposes dissonant voices and alternate modes of being, thus suggesting the inherent instability of caste markers. Statements about caste appearances should consequently be read within an historical perspective that accounts for changes over time. This is vital because the mannerisms and embodied markers of untouchability noted above are increasingly subject to negotiation and challenge. Events in Muduvarpatti, 22km south west of Madurai, offer an insight into the variability of contemporary caste relations. Muduvarpatti Dalits have been able to secure land due to government initiatives and concerted political action. The Dalit Panther Movement (DPI an anti-caste, Dalit movement) has a visible presence here and Dalits constitute nearly 50 percent of the population. The confidence derived from this was most simply illustrated when the researcher was taken through the fields and mango groves around Muduvarpatti by two Dalits, treated to a swim in the lake and interacted with landholders. These casual encounters were cast into relief on visiting the surrounding hamlets where Dalits were penned into separate living quarters and scared to venture into common spaces for fear of abuse:
Bhaskaran: If we go to get our hair cut they say Dont show your face around here, if we go to get our clothes ironed, they threaten to burn us with irons! You can ask anyone, there is no chance to be respected as humans here In tea-shops they serve us in different glasses.

Celladurai [Interjects]: Were not allowed to sit down! Bhaskaran: If we wear shoes or slippers they say: Whats this? Whats he doing wearing shoes, boy look at how that Pallan/Paraiyan is wearing shoes!. (Interview 20/03/1999)

Caste hierarchy is reflected at the micro level of embodied practices: where Dalits in Muduvarpatti walk erect, demand goods from shops, swim in common ponds and occupy space, those elsewhere are fearful and more circumspect. Alterations in caste practices are cast into sharper relief when urban and rural worlds collide. Nesamani, for example, is a Paraiyar (Dalit) from the more permissive urban environment of Madurai where she has acquired friends from other castes. She described a visit to one friends village:

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

106

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

We were sitting inside her house when somebody came outside with a dish and called out Amma, saapadu kudunga Ma. [Madam, give me some food.] And then they took idli and sambar and stuff out to them she was standing there with her kids to receive this begged offering. When my friend came back in I asked: Who is that? And the reply came back: Oh, thats payarchi [a demeaning term for someone of the Paraiyar caste]. Just like that! Here I am sitting up on the bed being served food on a plate I didnt know whether to laugh or cry and Nirmala looked at me and put her finger to her lips. Thats how it is in the village. They will come and beg for food and wont be given respect. I do not know how they do it pa [addressed to researcher], I couldnt take offerings like that. (Informal interview 21/03/1999)

The quote is instructive on two counts: first as evincing the magnitude of social changes such that common forms of behaviour seem incomprehensible to the respondent. Second for the implicit assertion that caste is a mode of being, a lived practice within contextualized spaces rather than an external structure, which permeates the social landscape. The existence of both durable (Bourdieusean) structural caste dynamics and the reflexive emergence of new forms of caste consciousness are apparent here. These were further illustrated when DPI activists threatened to destroy the reels of a feature film about a cross caste love affair (Bharati Kanamma) because it depicted the lower caste hero begging for food. The otherwise upright and fearless protagonist was forced to contort his body into a supplicants pose and enact his subordination to receive alms. When his acts are counter-posed to the stately condescension of higher castes, the film reveals how untouchability, as an oppressive dynamic, operates at the level of the body. The DPI contended that such submission no longer occurs, and that the film portrayal was an attempt to keep the downtrodden degraded. It does happen, Nesamani retorted, I saw it with my own eyes. Research in villages around Madurai corroborates this, but the example highlights the fact of socio-political change and raises the question of how best to understand such alterations in social structure. Social transformation, as Bourdieu notes, often occurs at times of structural crisis. Certainly, in the urban public sphere it is impossible to avoid interaction with people from diverse backgrounds, and Government legislation has divested education of its primary association with particular caste categories. Consequently, friendships arise between those who have interests, subjects and contexts in common despite their differing caste backgrounds. This is not, however, to say that caste practices are easily modified. Rather, given the impracticability of maintaining caste boundaries in the public sphere, the home is reconceived as an arena of intimate interaction from which undesirable elements may be excluded. There were numerous tales of friendships that could not be extended to the private realm, suggesting the fluidity of caste identities and peoples scope for improvisation. While Bourdieu might argue that such agents, in differentiating between private and public spheres, are merely improvising within the

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

107

internalized rules of the game, the calculating nature of such interactions indicates the capacity for reflexive agency. Consequently, we require an understanding of the daily processes by which caste is continuously reconstituted rather than internalized at an early age.

Sanctions and Structures

We have argued that the materiality of the body is the medium through which caste is manifested. Far from being guided by pre-reflexive habituses, however, it is clear that caste bodies are constantly monitored and disciplined. The embodiment of caste is rooted in complex, continuous processes of social conditioning. Thus, whereas inter-caste matches occur with increasing frequency in contemporary India, they are met with disapproval, which increases proportionately to the gap in status between the couple concerned. This condemnation is, in large part, due to the emphasis on blood and semen as (embodied) carriers of caste. As a result, mixed unions undermine the very basis of caste distinctions and the culprits are treated accordingly:
A higher caste lady, if she loves a downtrodden boy, cannot remain a higher caste. They will not accept her into their caste. This is what has happened and will happen in the future after a marrying a low caste boy this lady will recognize the difficulties that the depressed classes face. (Balasubramaniam interview: 20/03/1999)

In Pudhukottai District, south Tamilnadu, in November 1998, three Dalit men who had married higher caste women were not so fortunate. The locally dominant castes were not content to renounce the women involved. They tied the men to a tree, beat them, shaved their hair off and made them roll three times around the temple to set an example to others (Nakkeeran 08/12/1998). Shaving peoples hair is a common form of punishment. It marks out the miscreant and also implies impurity those whose close relatives have died also shave their scalps, as do penitents. Transgression, thus, is embodied too, as Palanivelu Swami, the SC (Scheduled Castes) state secretary of a national party, recalled:
If you ask how I know about untouchability, then when I was eleven years old all of us lads would play at horses. While playing horses we used to throw stones at a target. If one lost in this game then the loser had to bend over and the winner would sit on top A well-off boy from the village lost to me and I was sitting on his back When he was carrying me his uncle saw us, and immediately ran up and gave me a slap. He hit me, pushed me off and escorted the boy away. He really hit me, but I could not understand why. (Interview 10/04/1999)

Palanivelu related how his family were reminded of their position in society. When his father went to the other boys parents he was threatened with violence and verbally abused. Similarly instructive beatings were meted out when Palanivelu used the village water-tap or the common glass for drinking water at school. His puzzlement at such treatment continued until an old man explained:

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

108

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

You are very low in caste terms, which is why they hit you kid. It was wrong for you to sit on their child, they alone can sit astride you my child. That is what they think little brother. That is why we are excluded people, dont go near them, dont make friends with them. (Interview 10/04/1999)

The physicality of caste distinctions is unmistakable here. In sitting atop his friends back, Palinivelu was not merely flouting caste codes but challenging the very logic of a system that segregates castes. What this highlights is that, while caste structures may be initiated through early socialization (cf. Bourdieu), they are maintained by monitoring individuals activity and punishing transgressions (a more Foucauldian take). The contested, rather than internalized, nature of subordination is revealed in the ubiquitous presence of social sanctions. Such sanctions explain both the unstable nature of caste identity and its durability. Caste-based patterns of behaviour become the norm because they are lived and performed on a daily basis. Caste practices not only influence actions, they also shape cognitive templates. Isaac, for example, is a Christian priest. Although he is a Dalit and denounces inequality he struggles to disengage from the phenomenology of caste identity:
Caste is a state of mind; it is not a structure to be torn down Even I find it difficult to work alongside scavengers. This feeling is embedded deep in my psyche because that is what I have been brought up to understand and believe. (Conversation 22/02/1999)

The psychological underpinnings of social inequality have been widely recognized. In this context, the SC/ST (Schedules Castes / Scheduled Tribes) commissioner argues that Dalits have inculcated a psychological state of accepting deprivation and destitution as justified and proper (Scharma in Gorringe, 2005: 118). The reason for our stress on embodiment is that the psychological cannot be divorced from the corporeal. Caste based emotions are embodied, and inspire feelings of revulsion or unworthiness that hinder social change and constitute hierarchical social identities. Such awareness is particularly important for Dalit activists because failure to address the corporeal expressions of untouchability undermines their struggle. Demands for respect are contradicted by mannerisms that signal inferiority. When the clasped hands and stooped backs of Dalit villagers are replaced by clenched fists and raised chests, then untouchability is transparently shown to be an ideological rather than natural condition. The rationale for our theoretical comparison is apparent here as both Bourdieu and Foucault prioritize the corporeal over the psychological. In contending that the embodied nature of power relations constitutes subjects, however, we point to important divergences. Whereas Bourdieu regards the body as the surface upon which power operates, Foucault regards the body as the effect of power mechanisms. Kannan a Dalit driver, emphasized the infinitesimal processes whereby caste is (re)constituted, and highlighted the significance of inter-relationships to caste standing:

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

109

Another obstacle to schooling is the higher castes who try and stop Dalit kids from joining school ... . This obstructive attitude is fostered by several factors: first they are scared that you will do better than them; second they are scared that you will be better educated than them; and third then they are scared that they will lose their social standing and may have to give you respect. That is three, then forth, they are scared that when they sit down you will be in a position to sit down alongside them. Fifth and finally they are terrified that they may have to work under you. (Informal interview 18/02/1999)

Similar assertions recurred throughout interviews in Tamilnadu. For our purposes the above quote is most instructive for its testimony to the performative nature of caste hierarchies and how they are negotiated. Kannan indicates the mechanisms by which Dalit identities are constituted. This is how we interpret Foucaults notion of docile bodies: not that these bodies lack agency but that they are constituted in and through power relations. Continuous power mechanisms dictate where Dalits can sit, what they can and cant do, and thus, repeatedly condition them to accept their status. From this perspective castes are neither set in stone nor non-negotiable, but emerge in and through interaction.

Identity Formation and Resistance

Utilizing this conceptualization of caste dynamics, we can comprehend the upsurge in Dalit movement activity and the disparities between the actions of activists and dependent villagers. People are inducted into a pre-existing network of relationships, norms and value systems, but it is their actions that animate these values. The above examples of corporeal sanctioning reveal how caste is experienced, negotiated and re-framed in conscious interaction between different individuals and groups. Such interaction has led to a reformulation of what it means to do caste. Perumal, a DPI activist, emphasized the rapidity with which political protest can profoundly alter the subjective experience of social structures:
Where we used to suffer from inferiority complexes and a slave mentality, now we answer back and return blows with blows. Ten years ago I was frequently arrested, questioned and abused by the police. I was scared of them. Now they give me respect. (Informal interview 08/03/1999)

The interplay between the subjective and the corporeal is palpable here and is enforced in the fact many backward caste groups do not recognize Dalits as equal beings. In asserting their common humanity, Dalits resort to a bodily idiom that rejects the hierarchical stratifications of caste: Do we not bleed when we are cut? is a frequent question, and Is our blood not as red as theirs?. As the story of Sankar and the cleaning woman illustrates, though, assertions of equality are insufficient on their own. Sankar admonished the woman: Whats this fuss? Baby was thirsty so I gave water. We also feel thirsty; we too are human. You need to overcome your inferiority complex (Interview 05/12/1998). It was clear, however, that the woman was terrified of possible

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

110

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

repercussions. The gradual process of caste change clearly has to be embodied and materially manifest for it to have real meaning. This was epitomized when the Dalits of Kodankipatti (central Tamilnadu) were hounded from their village in June 1999 (Gorringe, 2005). Kamaraj, a DPI activist from neighbouring Muduvarpatti, takes up the story:
The refugees from Kodankipatti came to our village and were staying in the marriage hall, but the high caste fanatics (jadi veriaalkal) would not let them be and came after them. But we all got together, women and men and we picked up aruvals [machetes], chappals and stones and chased them off! (Interview 10/07/1999)

Kamaraj was scathing about the men from Kodankipatti and reproved them for fleeing without a fight. You should have stood and determined to kill some of them! Hierarchical distinctions, caste subjectivities and individual behaviour are re-cast through such processes of interaction. It would be easy to see these as isolated occurrences but, on the basis of the above and related examples, we contend that such exchanges are not exceptions. Rather, they are the very stuff of caste as it is lived and experienced.

The Past of Caste

The data suggest that Dalits are not in consensus with caste values and that many refuse to perform, or challenge, the roles assigned to them. The question is: is resistance a recent phenomenon? Bourdieu would doubtless point to the revolutionary impact of the nationalist struggle and the Indian Constitution, which raised the prospect equal citizenship and instituted affirmative action programmes to this end. The fact that the de jure abolition of untouchability has not been realized in practice also supports the view that habitus, once formed, is difficult to transform. The problem with such an understanding of caste is that it reifies contemporary changes and endows the past with a fixity it never possessed. Zelliots (1996) historical study of Dalit protest, for example, highlights the 13th century Bhakti cults (sects within Hinduism) within which several Untouchable saints questioned the opposition between the pure and impure and challenged the very bases of caste. Similarly the Buddhist and Sikh religions, which emerged out of Hinduism, have confronted caste and sought more egalitarian ways of living. Furthermore, numerous studies charting the impact of British rule suggest that colonialism crystallized caste divisions in its search for neat categories (Bayly, 1999; Dirks, 1989). Caste, in other words, is not a timeless social structure. At ground level, Rao (1987) observed, caste was always permeable to political influence or military might. The caste system, thus, was relatively open. Most accounts of social change lack a detailed picture of the processes by which such transformations were effected. Barnetts (1977) is one exception to this, and his study of a Backward caste in Tamilnadu highlights how caste was re-imagined in the late 19th century. The centralization of colonial rule rendered it expedient for castes

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

111

to organize at a state rather than local level. Yet this undermined the power of the caste headman and contravened countless caste stipulations. An understanding of caste as a locally enforced code of conduct, therefore, was replaced by a stress on blood purity. These varied accounts underscore the centrality of social interaction and power relations and support our contention that caste is performed rather than given and constituted through interaction rather than determining it.

Conclusions
Bourdieu and Foucault present complementary theories of power, which help to make sense of the everyday experiences of caste. Unlike other attempts to transcend the structure/agency debate notably Giddens both theorists stress the centrality of the corporeal. While Giddens model emphasizes interaction it neglects the primacy of embodiment and pays inadequate attention to the constitutive power of social interactions (cf. Barnes, 2001; Shilling, 1996). Our focus on Bourdieu and Foucault reflects their rejection of psychological causalism and recognition that the technologies of the body precede the emergence of self/identity. For both, power mechanisms operate in and through the body, but our data elucidates crucial differences between them. Whereas Bourdieu regards habitus as the internalization of already existing structures, we suggest that Foucault conceives of power as an internal essential relationship in which individual identities are constituted by power relationships. We argue that this approach transcends surfactant accounts of embodiment in seeing power relations as pivotal to the materiality of caste bodies, which in turn shape individual and collective consciousness and the practices that these engender. A Bourdieusean approach would present Dalit activism as resulting from the disjunction between dispositions based on caste and on citizenship. This perspective, as we have seen, ultimately conceives of agents as shaped by their early socialization and responding to alterations in objective structures rather than effecting such alterations. A more Foucauldian account begins by recognizing the history of Dalit protests for social, political and economic equality. Were caste structures fully internalized and pre-reflexive the ubiquitous social sanctions charted above would be redundant. Given the prevalence of resistance over time, we endorse a performative approach that acknowledges the centrality of the corporeal and the existence of structural constraints, while providing a non-essentializing understanding of caste categories. An understanding of caste dynamics must start from the specificities of contextualized, local caste interaction. We contend that the data support a continuous creation (and thus inherently unstable) model of embodied caste practices. Refusing to take structures for granted or view them as pre-reflexive aspects of human behaviour allows us to question the micro processes by which they are constituted, enforced and embodied. This article has shown that caste identity is not relatively irreversible

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

112

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

(Bourdieu, 1992: 133), but is constantly evolving through everyday life experiences. Rather than being a memory jogger (Bourdieu, 1994: 468), the body is a vehicle for the human making and remaking of the world, always shifting sites, empowered with the potential for opening up new possibilities of being in this world (Thapan, 1997: 26). The data amply illustrate the capacity for reflexive and meaningful action on the part of even the most subordinate groups and individuals (Dalits) is part and parcel of the dynamics of domination. Our data corroborate Foucaults assertion that resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relation to power (1998: 95). Bringing research into dialogue with theory suggests that where habitus fatalizes, a Foucauldian analysis reveals the contextually specific mechanisms through which power relationships are established. Universalizing notions like patriarchal structures and caste systems are theoretically, epistemologically and methodologically unsound, and ultimately overlook the exact mechanisms through which power is exercised. Consequently they preclude the possibility, and understanding, of political action.

Acknowledgements
This was first presented at the 2004 BSA conference where we received useful feedback. Thanks also to Ross Bond, Donald MacKenzie, Nick Prior and the Sociology reviewers.

Notes
1 Untouchability is the stigma attached to those at the foot of the caste hierarchy. In 1950, the constitution of independent India criminalized untouchability and referred to Untouchables as Scheduled Castes (SCs) with reference to the list of castes entitled to positive discrimination. Since the 1970s, however, active SCs have called themselves Dalit (downtrodden) in a spirit of pride and militancy (Zelliot, 1996). 2 The notion of performativity is contested. Here we take it to mean the constitution of the world as an effect of mutually susceptible interacting individuals (cf. Barnes, 1983). 3 Where appropriate we have used pseudonyms and altered locations. 4 Taken from Bourdieu (especially 1994, 1995), but this reconstruction of Bourdieus habitus dispositions can be found in Rafanell (2004). 5 Crossleys (2003: 50) radical habitus is typical. Most recently see Savage and Bennett (2005: 10) and articles in that volume. 6 The objective homogenizing of group or class habitus that results from homogeneity of conditions of existence is what enables practices to be objectively harmonized without any calculation or conscious reference to a norm and mutually adjusted in the absence of any direct interaction (Bourdieu, 1990: 58, italics added).

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

The embodiment of caste

Gorringe & Rafanell

113

7 Bourdieu, Crossley (2003: 49) notes, neglects protest and processes of movement formation. 8 Bourdieu uses the example of an orchestra. Individual performers internalize the melody so that their practices can be collectively orchestrated without being the product of a conductor (Bourdieu, 1995: 53). 9 See McNays (1992) critique of Foucault in this regard. 10 Ambedkar was the pre-eminent Dalit leader of the 20th Century and the first Law Minister of India.

References
Barnes, B. (1983) Social Life as Bootstrapped Induction, Sociology 17(4): 52445.
Barnes, B. (2000) Understanding Agency. Social Theory and Responsible Action. London: Sage. Barnes, B. (2001) The MacroMicro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency, in G. Ritzer and B. Smart (eds) Handbook of Social Theory, pp. 33952. London: Sage. Barnett, S. (1977) Identity Choice and Caste Ideology in Contemporary South India, in K. David (ed.) The New Wind, pp. 393415. The Hague: Mouton Publishers. Bayly, S. (1999) Caste, Society and Politics in India from the 18th Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Berreman, G. (1991) The Brahminical View of Caste, in D. Gupta (ed.) Social Stratification, pp. 8492. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990) In Other Words, translated by Loic J.D. Wacquant. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (1994) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. Bourdieu, P. (1995) The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity. Bourdieu, P. (2000) Pascalian Meditations. Cambridge: Polity. Bourdieu, P. and J. Wacquant (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity. Butler, J. (1993) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. London: Routledge. Crossley, N. (2003) From Reproduction to Transformation, Theory, Culture & Society 20(6): 4368. Dirks, N. (1989) The Invention of Caste, Social Analysis 25: 4552. Dumont, L. (1980) Homo Hierarchicus (2nd Edition). Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and Punish. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Foucault, M. (1983) Why Study Power: The Question of the Subject, in H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (eds) Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, pp. 20816. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Foucault, M. (1998) The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality, Volume One (2nd Edition). Harmondsworth: Penguin. Goffman, E. (1969) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Allen Lane. Gorringe, H. (2005) Untouchable Citizens. New Delhi: Sage.

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009

114

Sociology Volume 41

Number 1

February 2007

Jeyaharan, J. (1992) The Concepts and Practices of Purity-Pollution Related to the Situation of the Dalits and Women in South Tamil Nadu. Madurai: T.T.S., unpublished MSc thesis. Kusch, M. (1991) Foucaults Strata and Fields: An Investigation into Archaeological and Genealogical Science Studies. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Nakkeeran (Tamil Magazine) (1998) Caste Marriage Violence, 8 December. McNay, L. (1992) Foucault and Feminism. Cambridge: Polity. Moffatt, M. (1979) An Untouchable Community in South India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Rafanell, I. (2004) The Sexed and Gendered Body as a Social Institution: A Critical Reconstruction of Two Social Constructionist Models, University of Edinburgh, unpublished PhD thesis. Rao, M. (1987) Social Movements & Social Transformation. Delhi: Ramesh Jain. Savage, M. and T. Bennett (2005) Editors Introduction: Cultural Capital and Social Inequality, The British Journal of Sociology 56(1): 112. Shillling, C. (1996) Embodiment, Structuration Theory and Modernity: Mind/ Body Dualism and the Repression of Sensuality, Body & Society 2(4): 117. Thapan, M. (1997) Gender and Embodiment in Everyday life, in M. Thapan (ed.) Embodiment: Essays on Gender and Identity, pp. 134. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Zelliot, E. (1996) From Untouchable to Dalit. New Delhi: Manohar.

Hugo Gorringe
Is a Sociology lecturer. He is author of Untouchable Citizens (Sage, 2005) and articles on identity and violence. Address: Sociology, Adam Ferguson Building, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, UK. E-mail: H.Gorringe@ed.ac.uk

Irene Rafanell
Is a Sociology Lecturer. She completed her PhD in 2004 and is currently working on several articles arising from this. Address: Politics & Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Paisley, Paisley PAI 2BE, UK. E-mail: rafa-as0@wpmail.paisley.ac.uk

Downloaded from http://soc.sagepub.com by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 17, 2009