Organization of Segregation: Reproducing Caste Inequalities in Urban India

Event Description: Cities have long been seen as spaces where ex-untouchables could escape discrimination and ostracization. However, their segregation remains endemic in Indian cities. This talk addresses how caste is reproduced in the city. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Ajmer, Rajasthan –including a georeferenced survey of 697 households, cartographic analysis, 11 months of ethnographic observation, and an original dataset on neighbourhood nomenclature and topography – I argue that caste is spatialised in cities. The organisation of spatial boundaries visibilises caste, etching a “pollution line” both socially and spatially in the everyday life. This organisation affects a whole range of social processes – from odours to upward social mobility. Building on these findings, I outline the contours of a spatial theory of caste.

Jusmeet S. Sihra is an urban and political sociologist with a deep interest in understanding caste inequalities rooted in space. He is a British Academy International Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He holds a joint PhD from Sciences Po Paris and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received the Alex Berger Prize for outstanding dissertation at the Hebrew University and was a finalist for GIS Asie’s Thesis Prize. His doctoral research explored the mechanisms of caste segregation in urban India through an innovative mixed-methods approach using disaggregated caste categories. He co-convenes Caste as Practice research network at CRASSH, University of Cambridge.