Reconfiguring identities through the sacred: Mythic counterstorytelling and caste reality in Varanasi

Abstract

The River Ganga and the city of Varanasi in India are revered across Hindu scriptures for their liberational and redemptive powers. Nevertheless, the city and its riverbanks are home to a few of the most marginalised communities of Hindu society, like the Nishads (boatmen) and the Doms (ritualistic corpse-burners), for whom the river and the city of Varanasi are also a means of subsistence. The article highlights the ways in which these communities use myth-based storytelling to craft counternarratives that subvert the discriminatory representations imposed by the upper castes, as well as to claim resources from the river. It also highlights the inherent paradoxes within the counternarratives that underscore the complexities of lived caste discrimination. As its theoretical praxis, the article expands and incorporates Richard Delgado’s concept of counterstorytelling to underline the cultural, political and paradoxical implications of the Dalit counternarratives.