Satendra Kumar an associate researcher at CSH Delhi, and a social anthropologist and senior researcher at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich, published an article titled “Challenging the Status Quo: Dalit Assertion and Persistent Inequality in Punjab” published in South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal in the issue no 34 ‘Indian Federalism and its discontents’.

The article is available at: https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/10471

Abstract: Building on anthropological and sociological literature that has critically examined the “silent revolution” thesis, this paper challenges the notion that political and cultural assertion among the Dalit community signals revolutionary transformation. Drawing primarily on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork that explores the Dalit struggle for common land in the Sangrur district of Punjab, it argues instead that Dalit assertion, while symbolically powerful and at times materially significant, continues to unfold within a context of entrenched caste dominance and institutional capture. While focusing on Dalit struggles to access village common land and to influence local governance, the paper reveals how dominant agrarian elites respond to challenges by reconfiguring their strategies, maintaining control over state mechanisms, and exploiting shifting political regimes. The analysis highlights how direct action and protests often result in only limited, reversible gains due to persistent and reconfigured structural and institutional barriers. It further underscores the precariousness of Dalit gains in the face of shifting regimes and policy reversals, exemplified by the recent rollback of pro-Dalit measures under the Aam Aadmi Party. Rather than addressing resistance as a marker of empowerment, the paper identifies the institutionalized dominance of agrarian elites as a key factor that shapes both the necessity and limits of Dalit mobilization. It concludes by arguing that meaningful change will require building countervailing political capacities capable of confronting the systemic roots of inequality.

Satendra KUMAR