What is it that Dalits seek in religion? How do Dalits perceive themselves in relation to something Divine and , against this background, to other humans? How do they deal with the denial of access to certain religious practices and sites? How do they understand religion? How do the problems of conceptualizing “religion” reflect in the ways the relations and problems of Dalits with religion are being understood? What are the Dalits’ understandings of suffering and umiliation on the one hand, of social recognition and human dignity on the other?
Dalits and other
disadvantaged people had
to negotiate modes
of religiosity and
religious power structures
continuously, as they
had to negotiate
livelihood issues , political
structures and the
relationships with dominant
others. Dalits had
to face humiliation
and the denial
of acceptance as
fellow human beings,
but also encountered
problems when trying
to establish spaces for themselves. At the same time,
Dalits invented ideas, practices and agendas of their own. Throughout
Indian history the
socio-religious hierarchy and
the dominant, even
hegemonic religious strands
and traditions have
been accompanied by
counter-imaginaries, which represent
universalistic concepts of their own,
but which, obviously,
have never become dominant.
The conference wants to view the field of
religion in India from an angle that differs from the perspectives enshrined
in the dominant
religious discourses that control the
important religious institutions. At
the same time,
the category Dalit
covers a wide
range of discriminated, but differently positioned
groups of people.
The relationship
between Dalits and
religiosity has so
far not been
systematically discussed. Starting
to address this
question is of
core relevance for
an understanding of
how people experiencing systematic discrimination engage
with the world, as it is for an understanding of modern India.
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