Dalit Boredom and the Promises of Modern Time: Caste, Pedagogy, Institution

Boredom is generally considered a bourgeois concern, and pairing it with the political category of Dalit appears awkward. This paper retains that awkwardness. It reads Elizabeth S. Goodstein’s genealogy of boredom as a modern rhetoric of reflection and extends the inquiry to postcolonial India, where her account stops. The paper does not ask whether Dalits are bored, but how their reflection is authorised and timed under caste. Dalit boredom is developed as an analytical category of a subject exposed to varied temporal realities, rather than as a shared Dalit mood. The modern institutions promise inclusion that will arrive, but that arrival is timed by caste, and any disaffection of Dalit subjects in their inability to deal with a promise of inclusion that is timed to be delayed is seen as a prior incapacity or incompetence to deal with a structure that stands for merit. The paper develops this argument through four connected discussions. It discusses the differentiated histories of labour and leisure in India, from courtly and artisanal time to industrial rhythms and educated timepass. The Guru-Sarukkai debate is reread to assess the debate on experience that is timed, and in which reflection may be seen as an incapacity. It examines caste as a modern formation, ranging from colonial school verandah to contemporary labour markets. And finally, the trials and tribulations of inhabiting the Indian Public University, where residential segregation and unequal assessment form a breeding ground for this feeling of Dalit Boredom.