Ghetto and Within

Class, Identity, State and Political Mobilisation

Ravi Kumar

9789350020692

Aakar Books, New Delhi, 2010

Language: English

112 pages

Price INR 225.00
Book Club Price INR 169.00
INR 225.00
In stock
SKU
LWB1245

This work is an effort to understand and explore the linkages between the process of ghettoisation, identity formation and the political economy of capitalism. Through fieldwork in the city of Delhi it looks at how a particular form of identity politics sustains the process of ghettoisation of a community and creates a situation which downplays the need for a class based mobilisation. It argues that identity politics need to be seen in conjunction with the way class formation and class politics within a particular community unfolds itself. This framework allows us to not only understand the larger issues such as that of communal politics but also provides us insights into the way differential perceptions about 'violence' are forged within a community. It seeks to explore how class antagonism becomes a non-issue because the social identity dominates the discourse.

Ravi Kumar

Ravi Kumar teaches sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi. He is Associate Editor of Society and Culture in South Asia.