Degrees of Smell

Examining two short stories centred on the relationship between odours and caste in contemporary India, this chapter will discuss how the discourse of caste and the resistance to it are mediated through a politics which is deeply sensorial in nature. Odours are a bio-social phenomenon, often laden with meanings, values, and hierarchies. This is especially true in deeply stratified and violent discourses like caste, where the sensory management of bodies, objects, and spaces is often the predominant method through which caste is experienced and invoked. The smells of caste are thus indicative of how caste manifests and also how it is often resisted. This chapter deals with two such narratives of reproduction of and resistance to caste in order to open up the idea of subaltern politics against caste to a sensorial discourse

Anthropological Studies and Insights · Psychology · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Diaspora