Radical Futures or Pristine Pasts? : The Afterlives of Anti-Casteism in Western India
Lower caste assertion in colonial India has been a topic of critical interest for several researchers in the recent past. The Satyashodhak Movement (Truth-Seeking movement) spearheaded by Jotirao Phule in 1873 is one such important movement. However, this movement has largely been studied in a teleological manner, from its birth as a social movement in 1873, to its culmination into a political party in 1920. In this presentation, I will argue that the ideological currents of the Satyashodhak variant of non-Brahmanism underwent seismic shifts after 1890. After exploring Jotirao Phule’s capacious philosophical moorings on different facets of everyday life, my attempt will be to show how the Satyashodhak ideology post Phule shifted from espousing a radical ‘anti-casteist’ polemic to a sophisticated ‘anti-Brahmin’ critique of Hinduism. I will introduce Krishnarao Bhalekar, one of Phule’s close colleagues, to juxtapose his musings on dharma and identity with Phule’s philosophical enquiries. In the process, I will explore the shifting paradigms of ‘non-Brahmin Hinduism’ of Satyashodhak thought in the post-Phule era. I will argue that with the advent of print modernity, the hitherto overwhelming focus on caste got subsumed into an anti-Brahminism couched in distinctly Hindu idioms and concepts. By exploring the nascent alternative religiosity of the post-Phule and pre-Ambedkar period, I will show how this ideological turn of non-Brahminism in Western India concretely reformulated the lower-caste discourse around caste, dharma, and identity.

Dr Surajkumar Thube has recently completed his DPhil from the Faculty of History, University of Oxford. The title of his thesis was ‘Towards a Non-Brahmin Hinduism: Caste, Dharma, and the Marathi Public Sphere, circa 1890 – 1930’. His thesis focused on the non-Brahmin print and performative spheres by analyzing the content of their texts and writing styles. It sought to critically explore both the radical and conservative streaks within non-Brahmin writers amidst their contestation of the hegemonic Brahmin writerly discourse. He has contributed articles and book reviews to journals and online forums which include Revolutionary Papers, Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies (Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing), Chakra: A Nordic Journal of South Asia Studies, Scroll, Fifty-Two, The Book Review Magazine, South Asia: History and Culture, Pacific Affairs and Soccer & Society.
Date: 12 November 2024, 14:00
Venue: St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details: Pavilion Room
Speaker: Surajkumar Thube (University of Oxford)
Organising department: Asian Studies Centre
Organisers: Nayanika Mathur (Oxford), Ankita Pandey (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: asian@sant.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Modern South Asian Studies Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editors: Clare Salter, Thomasina Eustace