Economic Reforms and Social Exclusion is an analytical study that focuses on the socially marginalized and excluded groups in India since the onset of liberalization. It examines how the liberal economic reforms have impacted socio-economic categories—caste, tribe and religious minorities—subjecting them to further deprivation. Case studies of handloom weavers, VRS workers and the temperance movement have awarded this study empirical reality. The book also offers a refreshing approach to the study of economic reforms through philosophical and theoretical arguments on issues like civil society, religion, caste and alienation. Since most of the scholarly works on social exclusion are based on Western notions of 'deprivation' and 'exclusion', this work's unique focus on India lends the reader a context-specific understanding of the subject.

India's over 200 million Dalits, once called "untouchables," have been mobilized by social movements and political parties, but the outcomes of this mobilization are puzzling. Dalits' ethnic parties have performed poorly in elections in states where movements demanding social equality have been strong while they have succeeded in states where such movements have been entirely absent or weak. In Mobilizing the Marginalized, Amit Ahuja demonstrates that the collective action of marginalized groups--those that are historically stigmatized and disproportionately poor — is distinct. Drawing on extensive original research conducted across four of India's largest states, he shows, for the marginalized, social mobilization undermines the bloc voting their ethnic parties' rely on for electoral triumph and increases multi-ethnic political parties' competition for marginalized votes. He presents evidence showing that a marginalized group gains more from participating in a social movement and dividing support among parties than from voting as a bloc for an ethnic party.

This book intersects marginality, politics, and policies by focusing on the narratives of selective marginalised groups within India. Encouraging inclusive government policies that consider the diverse identities of individuals and groups within India, this book is a systematic documentation of the lived experiences of various marginalised collectives, such as the Naths of Bengal, the De‐notified Tribes of Maharashtra, the Kukis of Manipur, and the beggars. The chapters use historiography as a method to understand narratives of marginality in India, illuminating how power imbalances in Indian society lead to the marginalisation of specific groups, depriving them of fundamental rights and opportunities, while others enjoy privileges. The political analysis of this edited volume introspects the political dynamics that perpetuate marginalisation. It details the aspirations of various marginal groups in evolving and changing socio‐political circumstances. This book offers a deeper understanding of the intricate issues faced by marginalised groups. It will be of interest to students, academicians, and researchers in South Asian Studies, Subaltern Studies, Political Science, Sociology, Social History, and Migration/Refugee Studies.

Drawing on examples from nine countries across five continents, this book offers anyone interested in the future of higher education the opportunity to understand how communities become marginalised and how this impacts on their access to learning and their ability to thrive as students. Focusing on groups that suffer directly through discriminatory practices or indirectly through distinct forms of sociocultural disadvantage, this book brings to light communities about which little has been written and where research efforts are in their relative infancy. Each chapter documents the experiences of a group and provides insights that have a wider reach and gives voice to those that are often unheard. The book concludes with a new conceptualisation of the social forces that lead to marginalisation in higher education. This cutting-edge book is a must read for higher education researchers, policy makers, and students interested in access to education, sociology of education, development studies, and cultural studies.

This book examines the causes and consequences of marginalization of social groups and democratic decentralization in India in the unfolding context of globalization and changing development models and institutions since economic liberalization (1991) and the establishment of Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Winner of the 2020 Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Book Prize Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize Shortlisted for the New India Foundation Book Prize Anthropologist Alpa Shah found herself in an active platoon of Naxalites—one of the longest-running guerrilla insurgencies in the world. The only woman, and the only person without a weapon, she walked alongside the militants for seven nights across 150 miles of dense, hilly forests in eastern India. Nightmarch is the riveting story of Shah's journey, grounded in her years of living with India’s tribal people, an eye-opening exploration of the movement’s history and future and a powerful contemplation of how disadvantaged people fight back against unjust systems in today’s world. The Naxalites have fought for a communist society for the past fifty years, caught in a conflict that has so far claimed at least forty thousand lives. Yet surprisingly little is known about these fighters in the West. Framed by the Indian state as a deadly terrorist group, the movement is actually made up of Marxist ideologues and lower-caste and tribal combatants, all of whom seek to overthrow a system that has abused them for decades. In Nightmarch, Shah shares some of their gritty untold stories: here we meet a high-caste leader who spent almost thirty years underground, a young Adivasi foot soldier, and an Adivasi youth who defected. Speaking with them and living for years with villagers in guerrilla strongholds, Shah has sought to understand why some of India’s poor have shunned the world’s largest democracy and taken up arms to fight for a fairer society—and asks whether they might be undermining their own aims. By shining a light on this largely ignored corner of the world, Shah raises important questions about the uncaring advance of capitalism and offers a compelling reflection on dispossession and conflict at the heart of contemporary India.

This book provides an overview of marginality or marginalization, as a concept, characterizing a situation of impediments – social, political, economic, physical, and environmental – that impact the abilities of many people and societies to improve their human condition. It examines a wide range of examples and viewpoints of societies struggling with poverty, social inequality and marginalization. Though the book will be especially interesting for those looking for insights into the situation and position of ethnic groups living in harsh mountainous conditions in the Himalayan region, examples from other parts of the world such as Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Switzerland and Finland provide an opportunity for comparison of marginality and marginalization from around the world. Also addressed are issues such as livelihood, outmigration and environmental threats, taking into account the conditions, scale and perspective of observation. Throughout the text, particular attention is given to the context and concept of ‘marginalization’, which sadly remains a persistent reality of human life. It is in this context that this book seeks to advance our global understanding of what marginalization is, how it is manifested and what causes it, while also proposing remedial strategies.