Understanding Race and Caste: Convergences and Divergences

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

Understanding Race and Caste: Convergences and Divergences

About the Book

Historically, changing socio-economic  and geo-political conditions have led to increased interactions between so-called Western nations and the majority world,[1] thereby expanding opportunities to step into unchartered territories, exploit resources, and advance unequal politico-legal relationships. As there is only one human race, hierarchical superiority of whiteness is a social construct.[2] Even though the term “racism” fuelled Nazi antisemitic ideology and policy against Jews, the “one drop” rule became a tool of white supremacy to sustained segregation and entrenched discrimination against Black people in the United States.[3]  The philosophical basis of Karma and other subjugating superstitious reasoning which validates segregation by a small dominant group reflects an integral part of the caste system in India. The caste is an engrained hierarchical social stratification fortified by patriarchal endogamy for thousands of years. Segregation in the caste system assigns ritual status and occupation, where untouchablity is fundamental to the persistence of differential treatment of certain citizens under the law in India.[4] In Spite of Constitutional intervention in creating an egalitarian society, caste still plays a dominant role is accessing and accumulating resources in India. Across the continent of Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, and all other places the act of slavery festered, a second class of discrimination exudes from white supremacy: colourism (skin tone discrimination).[5] Although the collective identity of being Black is complex, CLR James laments the “rotten and corrupt slave society of San Domingo during the Haitian revolution, “[h]ad the monarchists been white, the bourgeoisie brown, and the masses of France black, the French Revolution would have gone down in history as a race war.”[6] In essence, “blackness is a reflection of a mental attitude and not the pigmentation of one’s skin”[7]

Topics to Consider

Focusing on research on racism and the casteism, the book aims to understand the similarities and divergences constituting horizontal and vertical spectra of discrimination, exclusion, and segregation. The editors are particularly interested in empirical studies, case studies, theoretical exploration, comparative discourse (and more) on racism and casteism at it relates to:

• Patriarchy
• Gender
• Education
• Health
• Employment
• Inequality
• Migration
• Politics
• Science
• psychology/mental health and more.

Authors are encouraged to explore innovative approaches to unraveling the complexities of racism and casteism.

Publication

The book proposal is currently under review by a major publishing house.

Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

• The chapter should be an original unpublished work and the title and content must focus on racism and casteism.
• The chapter should be no more than 8,000 words including footnotes.
• Each chapter should contain a title, name(s) of authors with affiliation(s) and email address(es), a 250-word abstract, and a 150-word biography.
• The citation format is Chicago Style of Manual, 17^th edition (full-note)
• Font is in Times New Roman with a font size of 12, 1.5 line spacing, 2.54 cm page margins, justified. Footnotes should be in Times New Roman with font size of 10, single spacing, with both sides of the margins justified.
• Please do not use a cover page, header, footer, page numbering, border, or any formatting.
• The chapter should be written in British English.
• All submissions shall be in Microsoft Word.

NB: The publisher shall own the copyright of the book while authors retain copyright of their chapters.

Editors

Dr. Venkatanarayanan Sethuraman, Christ University, India

Dr. Veronica Fynn Bruey, Athabasca University, Canada

Timeline

• 250-word abstract:                  31 March 2023
• Acceptance of abstract:          30 April 2023
• Full chapter:                            31 July 2023
• Peer review feedback             30 September 2023
• Revised chapter:                     15 October 2023
• Final chapter submission:       15 December 2023
• Proposed book publication:    March 2024.

Submission

Submit 250-word abstract to pagia@tuki-tumarankeh.org by 31 March 2023.

All enquiries should be made to: pagia@tuki-tumarankeh.org 
 

***This is a Law and Society International Research Collaborative -10 Book Project***

[1] Shahidul Alam, “Majority World: Challenging the West’s Rhetoric of Democracy,” Amerasia Journal 34, no. 1 (January 2008): 88–98, https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.34.1.l3176027k4q614v5.

[2] Teresa J. Guess, “The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by Intent, Racism by Consequence,” Critical Sociology 32, no. 4 (July 2006): 649–73, https://doi.org/10.1163/156916306779155199.

[3] Yaba Blay, One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race (Philadelphia, PA: Beacon Press, 2021).

[4] Surinder S. Jodhka, Caste, 1st ed., Oxford India Short Introductions (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012).

[5] Margaret Hunter, “The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality: The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality,” Sociology Compass 1, no. 1 (September 2007): 237–54, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00006.x; Trina Jones, “Shades of Brown: The Law of Skin Color,” Duke Law Journal 49, no. 6 (2000): 1487–1557, https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/72/.

[6] C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, 2nd revised (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1989), 128.

[7] From Steve Biko’s evidence given at the SASO/BPC Trial, 3 May 1976, available at: < https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/quotes-steve-biko>.