Paper short abstract:

The paper attempts to unravel how the question of landlessness in the Indian state of Punjab is woven with the caste, the exploitative debt trap, and the socio-economic and political marginalization of disenfranchised Dalits.

Paper long abstract:

The phenomenon of social inequality in land ownership in the Indian state of Punjab is closely woven with the thread of caste where the majority of the farming landscape is monopolized by the dominant castes, mostly Jat Sikhs. Dalits - a historically marginalized community- constitute 32% of the total population of Punjab, however, despite their highest population in the agrarian state, they possess merely 3.6% of the agricultural land leading to their social and economic disenfranchisement (Agriculture Census, 2015-16). Due to the denial of land rights and the historic caste-based social exclusion, the majority of the Dalits in Punjab are forced to work as agricultural laborers in the fields of dominant landowners. The state of landlessness among Dalits makes their vulnerabilities even more fragile as they face the worst form of exploitation i.e., caste atrocities, sexual exploitation of Dalit women agricultural workers, indebtedness, and so on. Moreover, the ongoing land wars (Levien, 2013) and the deep feudal and casteist nexus operating between dominant Jatt landlords, political class, and the bureaucratic machinery, Dalits are not allowed to claim their right even over the 1/3rd of the village common land granted to them through Punjab village common lands act, 1961. Thus, drawing on the field narratives, I attempt to answer how the state of landlessness among Dalits led to their multi-layered marginalization in rural Punjab. Second, to problematize the vicious trap of indebtedness and caste apartheid and how they both further perpetuated the exploitation and indignity inflicted on Dalits in rural Punjab.