In this roundtable discussion, five scholars of modern India with diverse methodological training examine aspects of Rupa Viswanath's 2014 book, The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India, and assess its arguments and contributions. This book has made strong challenges to the scholarly consensus on the nature of caste in India, arguing that, in the Madras presidency under the British, caste functioned as a form of labour control of the lowest orders and, in this roundtable, she calls colonial Madras a ‘slave society’. The scholars included here examine that contention and the major subsidiary arguments on which it is based. Uday Chandra identifies The Pariah Problem with a new social history of caste and Dalitness. Brian K. Pennington links the ‘religionization’ of caste that Viswanath identifies to the contemporary Hindu right's concerns for religious sentiment and authenticity. Lucinda Ramberg takes up Viswanath's account of the constitution of a public that excluded the Dalit to inquire further about the gendered nature of that public and the private realm it simultaneously generated. Zoe Sherinian calls attention to Viswanath's characterization of missionary opposition to social equality for Dalits and examines missionary and Dalit discourses that stand apart from those that Viswanath studied. Joel Lee extends some of Viswanath's claims about the Madras presidency by showing strong parallels to social practices in colonial North India. Finally, Viswanath's own response addresses the assessments of her colleagues.

中文翻译：

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Rupa Viswanath 的《贱民问题：现代印度的种姓、宗教和社会以及种姓研究》圆桌会议

在这次圆桌讨论中，五位受过不同方法论训练的现代印度学者研究了 Rupa Viswanath 2014 年著作的各个方面，贱民问题：现代印度的种姓、宗教和社会，并评估其论点和贡献。这本书对印度种姓性质的学术共识提出了强烈挑战，认为在英国统治马德拉斯的马德拉斯总统期间，种姓是对最低阶层的劳动控制的一种形式，在这次圆桌会议上，她称其为殖民地马德拉斯是一个“奴隶社会”。这里包括的学者研究了该论点及其所依据的主要辅助论点。乌代钱德拉确定贱民问题带有种姓和贱民的新社会历史。Brian K. Pennington 将维斯瓦纳特认定的种姓“宗教化”与当代印度教右翼对宗教情感和真实性的关注联系起来。Lucinda Ramberg 采用了维斯瓦纳特对排除达利特人的公众构成的描述，以进一步探究该公众的性别本质及其同时产生的私人领域。Zoe Sherinian 提请注意维斯瓦纳特对传教士反对达利特人社会平等的描述，并研究了与维斯瓦纳特所研究的不同的传教士和达利特人的话语。乔尔·李通过展示与北印度殖民地社会实践的强烈相似性，扩展了维斯瓦纳特关于马德拉斯总统职位的一些主张。最后，维斯瓦纳特