From cheri to ur
The historical geography of a Dalit village in the Tamil countryside
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8961017 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karthik Rao-Cavale (0000-0002-3553-7268, Krea University, Andhra Pradesh, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 33-66 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00194646241307514 |
| OpenAlex | W4406601458 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
Spatial segregation in rural Tamil Nadu often takes the form of the division of the village into the ur settlement (for non-Dalits) and the cheri (for Dalits). This continuing segregation of village communities along caste lines has given rise to the view that outmigration, either in the form of circular migration or permanent exit, is central to any prospect of social mobility for rural Dalits. Consequently, the dissolution of the village community as a locus of class relations is often considered necessary for sustained social mobility for Dalit communities in the countryside. This article counters this commonly held view and offers mobilisation-in-place as an alternative path that can better explain instances of Dalit social mobility. These arguments are developed in the context of a detailed analysis of a single village in southern Tamil Nadu—Kilakottai, near Tirunelveli—that witnessed upward mobility for Dalits, from a historical and comparative perspective. I find that a theory that valorises the migrant as the agent of change cannot explain the time- and place-specific character of Dalit assertion in this region. By contrast, this article highlights the role of systematic shifts within agriculture during the 1940s and 1950s, enabled by localised struggles for land and water. These struggles were enabled by democratisation and favourable political coalitions in southern Tamil Nadu and had the effect of reconstituting the Dalit cheri as a space of caste autonomy
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Geography · Political science · Rural area · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tamil · History · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
The Changing Village in India
Footloose Labour
Caste, Class, and Power
Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law
Networks and Misallocation
Rural Urbanism in Tamil Nadu Notes on a “Slater Village”
South Indian Migration, c. 1800–1950
Women as agents of change
Rural Change in Southeast India, 1950s to 1980s
Migration
Some South Indian Villages
Dalits and local labour markets in rural India
Constructing a plantation labour force
The labor of social change
Birds of Passage
Circular Migration and the Spaces of Cultural Assertion
The Modernity of Tradition
Reconstructing the 'Plural Society
Idioms of Subordination and Styles of Protest among Christian and Hindu Harijan Castes in Tamil Nadu
Images of the village community
An Indian Rural Economy, 1880-1955
Peasant Resistance and Revolt in South India
The Caste System Upside Down, or The Not-So-Mysterious East
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |