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Racism in India? Colour, race and caste in context

Colour and race are among the most frequently used keywords in studies of the phenomenon of racism in the Western world. When the topic is discrimination in India, the term caste is often attributed the highest explanatory power. The analysis of two specific cases - the dalits and the sid(d)is (descendants of African slaves living in the State of Karnataka) - reveals several interrelations and interweavings in the construction, delimitation and transformation of the concepts of race and caste, which also extend beyond the Indian subcontinent. The different forms of discrimination, as well as the strategies developed by the dalits and the sid(d)is to fight them, elucidate the insufficiency and inadequacy of ahistorical usages of these concepts as a means of understanding the multiple levels and the different aspects of the processes of inclusion and exclusion experienced by both groups.

race; caste; racism and anti-racism; difference and inequality; dalits; siddis


Universidade de Brasília. Instituto de Ciência Política Instituto de Ciência Política, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro - Gleba A Asa Norte, 70904-970 Brasília - DF Brasil, Tel.: (55 61) 3107-0777 , Cel.: (55 61) 3107 0780 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
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