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Abstract

Industries develop in India in a particular form of exploitation of human, natural and social structures, where nature is industrialised and caste is naturalised. The division of labour in a factory interacts with caste hierarchy in society, where a dalit working body, physicality and social positions play an important role within the production process, under the control of capital. The environmental politics against pollution can create an industrial and social environment within which polluting industries and ‘impurity’ of dalit labourers’ bodies become synonymous with each other. Based on the analytic frameworks of Marx and B.R. Ambedkar and an extensive field study of an industrial area in Delhi, the article narrates how dalit labourers in stainless steel utensil factories move in and out of the industrial ecosystem and how they contest the repressive nature of their work and environment.

Keywords

Dalit labour caste industry environment steel Delhi

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Caste of Labour: Dalits,the Industrial Ecosystem and Environmental Politics in Delhi

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