The Religious Life of India: The Chamars (Classic Reprint)

Explore the everyday life and beliefs of India’s Chamars, the leather workers whose craft shapes a long-held social world.

This scholarly study presents an accurate, fairly complete account grounded in field observations, census data, and many interviews with Chamars from the United Provinces and beyond. It traces how craft, caste, and culture intersect in family life, work, rituals, and belief systems, including magic, spirits, and higher religious practice.

Structured to illuminate both the common paths and regional differences, the book offers a broad view of the Chamars’ social and economic life, domestic customs from birth to death, and the way spirituality and superstition weave through daily existence. It draws on anthropological and ethnological methods to reveal the Chamar point of view with care and respect.

• Details of caste structure, sub-castes, and occupational roles within leather work and village labor
• Birth, marriage, and death customs, including protective rites and family practices
• Beliefs about spirits, demons, and the spirit world, plus their influence on health and ritual life
• Crafts, tools, and the social value of leather production across regions

Ideal for readers of social history, Indian studies, and anthropology seeking a grounded portrait of a long-standing Indian caste and its ties to craft, religion, and daily life.