The article deals with the Paraiyans, one of the Dalit sub-caste of the Madras Presidency, and their transformation from a marginalized group to one which was believed to be one of the worthwhile recruits for the colonial army. The narrative delves on their exalted status as a military subaltern within the general set up of the army department and also traces their subsequent socio-political positions in the southern society under the colonial rule after the 1880s. Despite their primary dependence on agriculture for their survival, several of them preferred to be enlisted in the army under the colonial rule in India for better livelihood and social standing. The official/archival documents highlighted that the Madras Presidency army had given much benefit to them and became a source of their social occupational mobility. Thus, It has been given them a new sense of identity and power and their empowerment as a caste.
AhmedZ. H. (1981). The bayonet and the truncheon: Army and police relations in Malaysia. In DeWittC. E. & EnloeC. (Eds.), Ethnicity and the military in Asia (pp. 209–210). Transaction Publishers.
2.
BakerC. (1984). An Indian rural economy 1880–1955: The Tamilnad countryside. Oxford University Press.
3.
BakerC. J., & WashbrookD. (1975). South India: Political institutions and political change, 1880–1940. Macmillan.
4.
BashamA. (2008). Untouchable soldiers: The Mahars and the Mazhbis (DasBhagwan, Ed.). Gautam Books.
5.
BasuR. S. (2011). Nandanar’s children: The Paraiyans’ tryst with destiny, Tamil Nadu 1850–1956. SAGE Publications.
6.
BopegamageA. (1970). Caste, class and the Indian military. In DoornJ. A. A. & DoornJ. v. (Eds.), Military profession and military regimes: Commitments and conflicts (pp. 107–127). Mouton.
7.
ChattyopadhyayaH. P. (1957). The sepoy mutiny, 1857: A social study and analysis. Book Land.
8.
CohenS. P. (1969). The untouchable soldier: Caste, politics, and the Indian army. Journal of Asian Studies, 28(3), 453–468.
9.
CohenS. P. (1971). Indian army: Its contribution to the development of a nation. Oxford University Press.
10.
DeWittC. E., & EnloeC. (1981). Ethnicity and the military in Asia. Transaction Publishers.
11.
DeWittC. E., & PradhanS. D. (Eds.) (1978). Introduction. In India and World War I (pp. 2–18). Manohar.
12.
DirksN. (2001). Castes of minds: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton University Press.
13.
DodwellH. (1922). Sepoy recruitment in the old Madras army. Government Printing.
14.
EnloeC. H. (1981). Ethnicity in the evolution of Asia’s armed bureaucracies. In DeWittC. E. & EnloeC. (Eds.), Ethnicity and the military in Asia (pp. 2–14). Transaction Publishers.
15.
FieldsL. B. (1981). Ethnicity in Tso Tsung-T’ang’s armies: The campaigns in North West China, 1867–80. In DeWittC. E. & EnloeC. (Eds.), Ethnicity and the military in Asia (pp. 55–74). Transaction Publishers.
16.
GeethaV., & RajaduraiS. V. (1998). Towards a non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thoss to Periyar. Samya.
17.
GuptaD. (2000). Interrogating caste: Understanding hierarchy and difference in Indian society. Penguin Books.
18.
GuptaD. (2007). Towards affirmative action. In PandeyI. (Ed.), India 60 (p. 153). Harper Collins.
19.
HeatonW. R. (1981). The Chinese people’s liberation army and minority nationalities. In DeWittC. E. & EnloeC. (Eds.), Ethnicity and the military in Asia (p. 177). Transaction Publishers.
20.
HillsC., & SilvermanD. C. (1993). Nationalism and feminism in late colonial India: The Rani of Jhansi regiment, 1943–45. Modern Asian Studies, 27(4), 742–760.
21.
JohnsonJ. J. (1962). The role of the military in underdeveloped countries. Oxford University Press.
22.
KamalnathanT. P. (1985). K. Veeramani is refuted and the historical facts about the scheduled caste’s struggle for emancipation in India. Ambedkar’s Self Respect Movement.
23.
KumarD. (1965). Land and caste in South India: Agricultural labour in the Madras Presidency during the nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press.
24.
LoveH. D. (1996). Vestiges of old Madras 1640–1800 (Vol. 2, first published in 1913). Mittal Publications.
25.
LuddenD. (1979). An agrarian history of South Asia. Cambridge University Press.
26.
MaclainC. D. (1885). The manual of administration of the Madras Presidency. Government Printing.
27.
MichaelS. M. (1999). Dalits in modern India: Vision and values. Vistaar.
28.
OmissiD. (1991). Martial races: Ethnicity and security in colonial India, 1858–1939. War and Society, 9(1), 2–27.
29.
OmvedtG. (2011). Understanding caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and beyond. Orient Blackswan.
30.
PeersD. M. (1991). Habitual nobility of being: British officers and the social construction of the Bengal army in the early nineteenth century. Modern Asian Studies, 25(3), 551–552.
31.
RaoA. (2009). The caste question: Dalits and the politics of modern India. University of California Press.
32.
RosenS. P. (2006). Societies and military power: India and its armies. Cornell University Press.
33.
RoyK. (1997). Recruitment doctrines of the colonial Indian army, 1859–1913. Indian Economic and Social History Review, 34(3), 345–346.
34.
The Clarendon Press. (1907). The imperial gazetteer of India (Vol. 3).
35.
ThoratS. (2009). Dalits in India: Search for a common destiny. SAGE Publications.
36.
ThurstonE. (1909). Caste and tribes of southern India (Vol. VII, pp. 78–79). Government Press.
37.
ViswanathR. (2014). The pariah problem: Caste, religion, and the social in modern India. Columbia University Press.
38.
WilsonW. J. (1883). History of the Madras army (Vol 3). Government Press.
39.
WilsonC. M. (1989). Burmese-Karen warfare, 1840–50: A Thai view. In DeWittC. E. & EnloeC. (Eds.), Ethnicity and the military in Asia (p. 19). Transaction Publishers.
