title: The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India (Cultures of History)
author:  Rupa Viswanath 
description: Rupa Viswanath has carried out an extraordinary feat of historical scholarship in the new field of Dalit studies. Skillfully negotiating two different archivesthe official and the missionaryshe grounds the cultural struggles of the untouchable castes of Tamil Nadu in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the political economy of land and labor. Viswanath powerfully argues that there was a governmentmissionary nexus that sought to turn the pariah from traditional forms of slavery to modern forms of dispossessed labor. Most remarkably, she shows that the initiative for conversion to Christianity came not from missionaries but from Dalits who were motivated not by abstract ideas of emancipation but by strategic considerations of material advantage in their daily struggles. <i>The Pariah Problem</i> is a breakthrough in modern South Asian studies. (Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta)<br /><br />The combination of historical depth and theoretical nuance makes <i>The Pariah Problem</i> both a brilliant scholarly achievement and a major political intervention. Taking the agrarian unfreedom that marked rural life in Madras Presidency as her starting point, Viswanath reconstructs with meticulous precision the problem of the 'Pariah'hereditarily unfree Dalit laborersthat by the late nineteenth century compelled the reluctant attention of the colonial state and the elite indigenous public sphere. <i>The Pariah Problem</i> is most far-reaching in its implications, and at its devastating best, in documenting the 'castestate nexus' that developed to containrather than to solvethis problem and continue to thwart genuine solutions today. This book will take its place justifiably among the best on the Dalit struggle for equality in India. (Mrinalini Sinha, University of Michigan)<br /><br />Essential... The volume is meticulous in its scholarship and written with great care and precision. A must read for South Asian specialists and general educated readers. (<i>CHOICE</i>)<br /><br />A remarkable feat in historical scholarship and a nuanced theoretical intervention in the new field of Dalit Studies. (<i>American Historical Review</i>)<br /><br />In this brilliant study, Viswanath traces the origins of the many myths that the social elite continue to spread...This book would be a valuable reference to those engaged in the study of colonial India as well as those interested in the study of modern missions. (James Taneti <i>Mission Studies</i>)<br /><br />Rupa Viswanath's <i>The Pariah Problem </i>is an important, insightful, and very likely lasting contribution to the burgeoning field of Dalit studies, and more broadly the study of Indian religion, caste, and the colonial state... Ground-breaking. (<i>Journal of Hindu Studies</i>)<br /><br />An outstanding work of historical scholarship. (<i>Pacific Affairs Journal</i>)<br /><br />An absorbing combination of scholarly erudition, analytical force, and lucid exposition. (Arvind Sharma <i>International Journal of Dharma Studies</i>)
zlib_text: - Nadeern Ha.snaiu 
  India l1as always been known a.s pluralistic society. It is clrnractori·,,1.,.J 
  hy every conceivable pluralism and heterogeneity-social-cultur,,I, 
  racial/etlmic, religious and linguistic. But the tribal people have bo.:un 11 
  les~er l~nown segmen-t of Indian population. For sorne, they are 'colourrul 
  1ieople' characterized by. 'exotic' customs and practices wl1il.e for others, ti icy 
  are the most oppressed, exploited and m.arginalizecl sectioi1 of J' nJ i,111 
  Society. 
  Tl1is book has.been, and still is, ·tlie most poJ?ulm: a.ml the largest st.?ll i 11i,l 
  boo!~ on tbe tribal people of India. A complete hook on the tribal citir.ens c,f 
  India, it is l il~e an encyclopaedia on this subject. Stai:tii.ig from the concept 
  and definitions of 'tribe' and their dassihcatio11S on different bases, it tnl.:<1H 
  the reatler through their social institutions, problems being .faced by tk,111, 
  State's efforts to solve those problems and a variety ()f other issues. 
  An i1nme