The Brahmanical Panopticon: History of Reproduction of Caste and Sanitation Labour in India

This study draws on oral histories from those engaged in caste-based sanitation work in Mumbai for many generations. We conceptualise and argue that Dalits are “trapped” in the basement of a—‘Brahmanical Panopticon’—with entrapment mediated through dharma, karma, and rebirth. This study brings Michel Foucault in critical conversation with Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and makes four key theoretical and methodological contributions to Surveillance, Critical Caste and Migration Studies. First, the study contributes to ongoing debates on historical surveillance; we look at one of the earliest models of biometric surveillance (ways in which power and control is exercised on bodies and spaces) that was imposed on Dalits by the privileged castes. Second, centring caste in our analysis, we demonstrate how Dalits were forced into “dirty” and precarious labour through caste slavery and were geographically othered. Third, we show migration induced through caste-based incentives. Finally, we make a unique methodological contribution combining community research approach with autoethnography, drawing on the lead author’s family’s past. Community researchers were also involved to provide an insiders’ understanding. Overall, this paper presents a Brahmanical Panopticon model which can be seen replicated across multiple areas (education, livelihood, access to basic amenities, etc.,) to keep Dalits severed from opportunities to progress and dignity. This panopticon further exemplifies why there is a contemporary rise of surveillance on Dalit sanitation workers across India.