Livelihood as Anti-Caste Praxis in the Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha Movement

Caste is a system rooted in unequal material relations, legitimised by the Brahmanical ideology of inherent difference. Recognising the material embeddedness of caste underscores the importance of intervening in caste-based land–labour relations to advance anti-caste politics. This article analyses the cultural texts of Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (PRDS), a Dalit movement that emerged in early twentieth-century Kerala, to foreground livelihood as a critical mode of anti-caste resistance. PRDS’s strategies towards the reclamation of Dalit labour as well as the creation of autonomous colonies for formerly enslaved Dalits possess anti-caste potential, because they not only challenge caste-based exploitative relations but also act against the Brahmanical paradigm that dismisses questions of Dalit community sustenance. By examining these livelihood practices, the article centres materiality as a crucial terrain of anti-caste politics and liberation.