Cosmopolitanism from the Margins: Religion and Mobility Among Young Punjabi Dalit Women

Nagpal, Sugandha (2025) Cosmopolitanism from the Margins: Religion and Mobility Among Young Punjabi Dalit Women. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 48 (5). pp. 1228-1247. ISSN 0085-6401 (In Press)

[thumbnail of Cosmopolitanism from the Margins-Religion and Mobility Among Young Punjabi Dalit Women.pdf] Text
Cosmopolitanism from the Margins-Religion and Mobility Among Young Punjabi Dalit Women.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

This paper explores the role of religion in the class mobility projects of young Dalit women. It traces the journey of Nina, an upwardly mobile Dalit woman from Chaheru village in the Doaba region of Punjab, to the site of Ravidass Jayanti celebrations in Varanasi. In Chaheru, Nina utilises her fluency in urban cultures and religious knowledge to assert a cosmopolitanism oriented toward modern spaces abroad. During the Ravidass Jayanti celebrations, she draws on her regional and caste identity to claim proximity to the transnational Ravidassia movement and its mobility ethos. Nina’s shifting discourses of cosmopolitanism across the two sites highlight that class mobility among Dalit communities is tenuous and is accompanied by fragile claims to cosmopolitanism and middle-class status. Young Dalit women resolve their compromised access to economic resources and cultural capital by claiming a selective cosmopolitanism that is exclusionary, hierarchical and tied up with parochial identities.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Caste mobility | cosmopolitanism | Dalit middle-class | Dalit migration | Punjabi women | religion
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Arts and Humanities > Philosophy
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Social Sciences (General)
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Cultural Studies
JGU School/Centre: Jindal School of International Affairs
Depositing User: Mr. Luckey Pathan
Date Deposited: 18 Jan 2026 08:41
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2026 08:41
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2025.2562605
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/10685

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item