Paper short abstract:

In this introductory paper, we lay out the theoretical and methodological concerns of this panel, signalling to examples from the panel's papers as well as drawing on our own research.

Paper long abstract:

In this introductory paper, we lay out the theoretical and methodological concerns of this panel. One of our aims is to explore ways of discussing inequality in South Asia without getting caught in the antinomies of what category or combination thereof - class, caste, gender, ethnicity, region - is to be privileged in the analysis. The aim is hence to dig deeper into the relational processes actually producing categories of inequality and subalternity. Rather than taking the fixity of certain identities for granted, we look into how this fixity is (re)produced in processes of global, state-mediated capitalist development as they unfold in South Asia. In a related move, we would like to question whether subaltern typologies in use today, which have historically emerged to capture certain forms of inequality, are still useful in capturing contemporary relational dynamics or are, perhaps, in urgent need of rethinking. Such questions encourage us, moreover, to sharpen our understanding of the particular unfolding of local histories and global forces in the kind of capitalist development taking place in South Asia today. As we discuss these concerns, we will signal examples from the panel's papers. We will moreover draw from our own work on, respectively, subaltern resistance and local state-society relations in Madhya Pradesh, and wider struggles against dispossession (Alf Nilsen) and adivasi political identification in Kerala, and wider networks of Dalit mobilization (Luisa Steur).