Who is the trueHalalkhor? Genealogy and ethics in dalit Muslim oral traditions

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3865618
AutoresJoel Lee (0000-0003-0855-9856, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume52
Fascículo1
Páginas1-27
Data de publicação2018-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoContributions to Indian Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0069-9659 • E-ISSN: 0069-9667
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0069966717742223
OpenAlexW2780571048
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas12

The social worlds that dalit Muslims in North India daily negotiate are pervaded by contradictions between caste practices and Islamic ethics. Dalit Muslims engaged in manual scavenging and related forms of sanitation labour experience these contradictions acutely in the distinctive spatial and affective conditions of this labour, which I characterise as 'intimate untouchability'. Grounded in historical and ethnographic research in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, this article demonstrates how dalit Muslims use narratives mobilising the genealogical and ethical concept of the Halalkhor-a caste label that also denotes 'one who earns an honest living'-to critique their higher status co-religionists and to engender a more egalitarian Islamic community. The category of the Halalkhor is tracked in the historical record and in its deployment in dalit Muslim oral traditions about the origin of the community and its association with sanitation work

Caste · Ethnography · Geography · Hinduism · Islam · Muslim community · Negotiation · Political science · Sanitation · Social science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Uttar pradesh · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Religious studies