Caste, Neoliberalism and Entrepreneurship in India: A Sociological Mapping

The article presents a comprehensive mapping of the recent sociological literature on neoliberalism in the Indian context. It contends that the conceptualisation of neoliberalism demands a serious acknowledgement of the resilience and persistence of the social and its intertwining with the neoliberal economy. In this direction, the article critically reviews the scholarly works on caste, gender and neoliberalism in contemporary India to explicate the mutually constitutive nature of the social and neoliberal economy. The article also maps the recent studies on entrepreneurship and illustrates how caste and gender relations continue to be significant factors in facilitating entrepreneurship among different communities and social groups. The article calls for more sociologically informed conceptual frameworks to understand the unravelling of the neoliberal economy in the diverse socio-economic context of Indian society.