Margins Within Margins: The Realities of Social Exclusion in India

This chapter, Margins within Margins: The Realities of Social Exclusion in India, investigates the persistence and complexity of caste-based exclusion, emphasising the often-overlooked inequalities within the Scheduled Caste category. The chapter traces historical roots as well as contemporary disparities of caste-based exclusion, showing how colonial and postcolonial institutions have both reinforced and reconfigured caste hierarchies. It examines multiple dimensions of exclusion, such as economic, socio-cultural, and political, and their interplay with present-day development processes. Drawing from Amarya Sen’s conceptualisation of partial and complete exclusion and inclusion, and juxtaposing it with concepts of hierarchy and differences, it attempts to illustrate the caste and subcaste-level experience of exclusion by Dalits. The chapter provides a foundation for rethinking caste-based exclusion as a multidimensional process that differentially affects the most marginalised sections of Indian society.