From caste to category: Colonial knowledge practices and the Depressed/Scheduled Castes of Bihar

Abstract

This article seeks to unpack the administrative and knowledge practices through which the community of Depressed Classes/Scheduled Castes was delineated in colonial Bihar. It does so by examining both the distinctions that were posed between Untouchables and the upper castes, and between them and the Criminal Tribes. Four fields are examined with respect to the marking of these boundaries-social/religious, law and order, education, and political representation. This article argues that right through the colonial period, there remained a great deal of ambiguity about how to distinguish lower castes from tribes, unclean castes from Untouchables and these from the Depressed Classes, ambiguities that were consequent upon the particular enumerative exercise being undertaken.