Dalit Studies: Key Terms and Concepts

Dalit Studies: Key Terms and Concepts undertakes a critical engagement with nearly fifty foundational terms and concepts that have shaped―and continue to shape―the field of Dalit Studies.

The entries in the volume:

• Are lucid, accessible, and interdisciplinary―detailed in information, comprehensive in perspective, and critical in argumentation.

• Integrate quantitative and qualitative research methods by interfacing facts, data, and information with critical, textual, historical, and discourse analysis.

• Discuss the genealogy of each term or concept; provide relevant literary, cultural, and socio-political examples and references; and examine its contemporary significance.

A key text for an evolving field, this book foregrounds the fundamentals―the critical nuances and far-reaching implications of concepts central to Dalit Studies that are frequently invoked but rarely examined in depth. This volume will be essential reading for students and researchers of literary and critical theory, social and cultural theory, discrimination and ethnic studies, and South Asian studies.

Mahitosh Mandal is an Assistant Professor of English at Presidency University, Kolkata, India. He earned his BA (Hons), MA, MPhil, and PhD from the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His research interests include literature and psychoanalysis, Holocaust and popular culture, and Dalit and marginality studies. He is the author of Jacques Lacan: From Clinic to Culture (2018) and co-editor of Holocaust vs. Popular Culture: Interrogating Incompatibility and Universalization (Routledge, 2023). His research has been published in leading academic journals, including Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, Lacunae: APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, and Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.

Sanjiv Kondekar is an Assistant Professor of English at Nutan Adarsh Arts, Commerce & Smt. M. H. Wegad Science College, Umred, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. He earned PhD on Saint Tukaram from the Department of English, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Maharashtra. He is the recipient of Junior Research Fellowship (University Grants Commission, India). His research interests include Bhakti Movement, Tukaram Studies, Dalit Studies, and Indian Knowledge Systems. He is the author of History of Tukaram Studies: A Critical Survey (2022) and co-editor of Indian Knowledge Systems: Values and Philosophies (2024). He also co-edited Mithak: Sahitya va Sanskruti (2024). His latest Marathi-language book, titled Jivanvadi Nittitatve (2025), studies the Tamil poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar.