Caste and Emancipatory Quest: Ethnography of Dalits in an Urban Neighborhood

Rama Devi’s Caste and Emancipatory Quest: Ethnography of Dalits in an Urban Neighborhood (Springer, 2025) is a deeply engaged ethnographic exploration of how caste, despite predictions of its decline under urban modernity, continues to structure everyday life, aspirations, and politics in India’s metropolitan contexts. Based in Ashanagar, a pseudonymous neighborhood in Delhi, the book presents an ambitious attempt to examine the interplay between caste, neoliberal urban transformations, and Dalit struggles for emancipation. It achieves this through a combination of fine-grained ethnographic detail, critical theoretical engagement, and a reflective commitment to Ambedkarite thought.