Identity and mobilisation among the scheduled castes in the global era: A study of Uttar Pradesh Pradhan Parijat1, Tiwary Jaikant2 1Assistant Professor, Centre for Sociological Studies, Central University of South Bihar 2Professor, Department of Sociology, Banaras Hindu University Online published on 11 July, 2018. Abstract In a country like India which has a rich historical tradition of movements and mobilization by various sections of the society, Dalit assertion and mobilisation has a rich and traversed path of different modes and patterns. For instance, during the early colonial phase the untouchables usually fought for their dignified identity and status claims ranging from respectable position in the census enumerations to imitation of lifestyles of their dominant counterparts through various modes like reformative campaigns, organized caste associations, imitation models, etc. and in late colonial phase they fought more directly with government on issues of independent religious identity like Adi-Hindu movement, denial of performing traditional menial jobs like Nar-Maveshi movement in U.P. to anti-begari agitation under the leadership of All India KisanMahasabha and UPSCF. With coming of Ambedkar in the landscape, their issues and modes changed into reactionary or radical model with hard hitting on dominant religious symbols (burning of Manusmriti), conversion to Buddhism, reactionary agenda formations ranging from petitions, manifestoes, raising voices on government economic policies, demanding equal and proportionate sharing in educational and political fields, etc. In the post-independence phase and especially with the advent of globalisation in 90s, the coming of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati era, the modes of mobilisation and issues took an institutional form with desire for being the power holders. While Kanshi Ram stressed more on ideological and organizational roots ranging from Jagarans, People's Parliament, PracharYatras, issue based programmes such as anti-liquor agitations, Bahujan identity formation, etc, Mayawati seems to be more powerful, practical and assertive in which she changes the modes of mobilisation according to needs ranging from culture and history rewriting, glorifying the historical Dalit leaders, statue formations for symbolic meanings, encouraging Dalit literatures, NukkarNatak, etc. to more economic reforms and social justice programmes like Ambedkar Village Scheme to social engineering measures in politics in the form of Sarvajan identity, jatitodosammelans, etc. This study with the help of literature review will try to locate all the modes of mobilisation among the SCs in a historical manner. It will also attempts to provide the contemporary parameters of mobilisation and identity formation because of the impact of globalisation, among the selected SCs villages of Varanasi district with the help of primary data. Top Keywords Globalisation, Mobilisation, Assertion, Identity, Imitation, Empowerment, etc. Top |