SAST2716 - Color, Caste and Global Resistance Movements 1920-2020s

Caste is one of the oldest surviving forms of hierarchy, and it has many avatars and forms. While color is a recent invention that has taken the form of race, ethnicity, and nationality in the West, caste refers to a much older order comprising diverse socio-cultural relations. This course explores these systems of hierarchies through the lens of caste and color tracing how 20th-century political upheavals—from global decolonization to the U.S. Civil Rights movement—to the Reconstruction of modern Europe—reshaped how we understand identity and belonging in a mobile, post-war world. We will examine iconic movements from the 1920s to 2020s, including anti-caste resistance in India and Nepal, as well as the Civil Rights Campaigns and Black Solidarity Movements of the UK and beyond.