Pambalas
Subtitle: The Vanishing Dalit Priests
By: Book about the South Indian Untouchable Priests
Publisher: Aneka Books
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Hyderabad India
Number of pages: 182
Subjects: Sociology/Anthropology
Genres: Social and Cultural History
Description: Ghanta Chakrapani’s study, “Pambalas: The Vanishing Dalit Priests” belongs to the new genre of social history. It is truly a history from below and a comprehensive account of non-elites/non-hegemonic classes and communities. It is a part of the recent upsurge in Dalit studies at the regional level. In fact, the writing of social history of Andhra Pradesh from a dalit/subaltern perspective had begun just a decade ago or so. Chakrapani’s work is a clear departure from conventional sociological writing, in the sense that he adopts a Longue Duree approach and a historical perspective in analysing the socio-cultural history of a Dalit community. In writing ethno-history of an important Dalit sub-caste he not only depends on the tools of his own discipline (Sociology) but also makes use of the historical data. Hence, it is a study based on interdisciplinary framework. Moreover, it is a welcome departure from traditional sociological studies which deal with field-based village studies from a short-term, narrow perspective. The merit of this study lies in the fact that it makes Caste System and Dalit identity as the central analytical problematic.
Table of contents: title: Dalit Priesthood: a Historical Context
pagenum: 1
class: section
label: 1; pagenum: 10
class: part
title: Telangana: The Socio-Cultural Setting; label: 2
pagenum: 35
class: part
title: Pambalas: The Community; label: 3
pagenum: 83
class: part
title: The Culture in Transition; title: The declining Dalit Priesthood
pagenum: 155
class: part
label: 4; pagenum: 170
class: part
title: Bibliography