The Vulgarity of Caste: A Social and Intellectual History of Dalit Performance of Tamasha

The Vulgarity of Caste offers the first social and intellectual history of Dalit performance of Tamasha — a popular form of public, secular, traveling theater in Maharashtra — and places Dalit Tamasha women who represented the desire and disgust of the patriarchal society at the heart of modernization in twentieth century India. Drawing on ethnographies, films and untapped archival materials, Paik illuminates how Tamasha was produced and shaped through conflicts over caste, gender, sexuality and culture.

Shailaja Paik is Taft Distinguished Professor, Department of History and Affiliate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her first book Dalit Women's Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination (Routledge, 2014) examines the nexus between caste, class, gender, and state pedagogical practices among Dalit ("Untouchable") women in urban India. Her second book The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity (Stanford University Press, 2022) focuses on the politics of caste, class, gender, sexuality, and popular culture in modern Maharashtra. She is working on her third monograph “Becoming ‘Vulgar’: Caste Domination and Normative Sexuality in Modern India” and co-editing a book on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming).

This event is part of the Power, Inequality, Dissent series led by Divya Cherian, assistant professor of history and Philip and Beulah Rollins Bicentennial Preceptor, and Harini Kumar, postdoctoral research associate in the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

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Shailaja Paik will be holding office hours on February 17, 2023 for Princeton students. Please use this form to sign up for an appointment.

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Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Program in South Asian Studies

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