Books by Assa Doron

Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey argue that in India the removal and reuse of waste lays waste to human lives. People at the bottom are injured and stigmatized as they work with sewage, toxic chemicals, and rotting garbage. If India is to emerge as a model for the world, its policies will have to reach beyond the environment, to encompass empathy.

This intriguing anthropological study investigates how the boatmen of Banaras have repositioned themselves within the traditional social organization and used their privileged position on the river to contest upper-caste and state domination. Assa Doron examines the evolution of the boatmen community, drawing on a variety of sources to illuminate the cultural politics of social and economic inequality in contemporary India. Caste, Occupation and Politics on the Ganges offers insight into recent debates about the cultural and historical forms of social practice and resistance at the juncture between tradition and the global economy, and will therefore appeal not only to anthropologists, but to anyone working in the field of development studies, globalization, religion, politics and cultural studies.

A study of power and resistance in everyday life which investigates how the boatmen of Banaras have repositioned themselves within the traditional social organisation and used their privileged position on the river to contest upper-caste and state domination.