Ramnarayan Rawat

Biography

I am a historian of South Asia with particular interests in colonial and postcolonial India, racism and social exclusion, subaltern histories, and histories of democracy. My research focuses on Dalits (‘untouchables’) of India and their engagement with colonialism, nationalism, spatial and social exclusionary regimes, and democratic thought and practice in modern India. I have recently finished a co-edited book, Dalit Studies, with my colleague K. Satyanarayana based in Hyderabad (India),  Duke University Press, 2016. I am currently writing a second book, ‘The Dalit Public Sphere: A Subaltern history Liberalism and Democratic Practices’ which explores the role of Dalit groups in introducing innovative ideas and practices in the history of liberal thought. The second book project has received generous support from the Smuts Visiting Fellowship, University of Cambridge, the American Council of Learned Societies’ Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship, and the Senior Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies.

My first book, Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2012 & Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), is the recipient of Joseph Elder book prize awarded by American Institute of Indian Studies (2009) and received ‘Honorable Mention’ in 2013 Association of Asian Studies Bernard S. Cohn book prize. Building on extensive archival and ethnographic fieldwork, Reconsidering Untouchability questioned the association of untouchability with impure occupations by effectively demonstrating that Dalits were historically cultivators who were primarily engaged in agricultural production in north India. It examined the social and cultural politics and Hindi-language writings of Dalit activists and organizations from the early part of the twentieth century to demonstrate that their struggles over identity marked the beginning of a new politics.

Education

I received my B.A from the University of Delhi, where I also completed M.A. and M.Phil (1996). I received my doctorate under a joint doctoral program from the University of Delhi and the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (2006). My doctoral research was supported by a Harry Frank Guggenheim dissertation fellowship (2003), and the four-year SEPHIS fellowship (1999-2002) awarded by The Netherlands.

Publications

Books:

South Asian edition of Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalits in North India (Ranikhet (India): Permanent Black, 2012)

Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2012 & Bloomington; Indiana University Press, 2011)

Edited Volumes

Ramnarayan S Rawat and K. Satyanarayana, editors, Dalit Studies (Durham: Duke University Press, Spring 2016)

Articles and Book Chapters

Ramnarayan Rawat and K. Satyanarayana, “Introduction,” in Rawat and Satyanarayana, (ed.), Dalit Studies. Duke University Press, Spring 2016.

Ramnarayan Rawat, “Colonial Archive versus Colonial Sociology: Writing North Indian Dalit History,” in Rawat and Satyanarayana, (ed.), Dalit Studies. Duke University Press, Spring 2016.

“Struggle for Identities: Chamar Histories and Politics,” in Sumit Sarkar & Tanika Sarkar (ed.), Caste Reader(Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2013)