Social Imaginary Borders and Dalit People: Analyzing through Rajkumar Peniel’s Work

WRITTEN BY Fatema Zohra, MASTER’S STUDENT, ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY
source: Phirenamenca.eu

When I began the course The Geography of Social Exclusion, I had little understanding of social imaginary borders and their impact on our social lives. Learning how COVID-19 and social imaginary borders intersected was fascinating, creating invisible divisions among countries during the pandemic. However, this made me reflect on the concept of borders within Dalit society. In my theology course, I studied Dalit Liberation by Rajkumar Panin, which deepened my understanding of caste-based exclusion. in this blog, I will briefly share my thoughts and realizations on how social imaginary borders apply to the Dalit people.

Social imaginary borders establish symbolic and institutional boundaries that people employ to create separations between each other while enforcing social exclusion. Dalits remain separated from others by social borders that combine caste prejudice with religious control systems and political status regulations that establish their societal position (Shah, 2020).

Rajkumar shows that the Indian Church has maintained caste divisions as part of its historical traditions even though it exists as a sacred spiritual institution. Dalits face marginalization in Christian communities because the Church fails to develop radical ethical principles that combat caste-based oppression. It shows that social barriers promoting discrimination exist even inside organizations that claim to champion equality and disorder (Peniel, 2010).

For many centuries Indian social discrimination known as “untouchable” has targeted the Dalit population as a result of India’s rigid caste system. The extensive presence of caste-based discrimination within India’s social, economic political, and religious structures keeps Dalits from taking full part in society. The Dalit theological movement successfully focuses on liberation yet insufficiently breaks down the core systems that enable discrimination according to Rajkumar (Peniel, 2010).

Caste-Base Discrimination against Dalit

1. Socio-cultural Exclusion

Traditional Indian social and religious organizations maintain the exclusion of Dalits because they perceive Dalits as impure. Through Hindu ideology, the caste system persists as a social system that divides people using four main categories called varnas (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra) and places Dalits outside these groups. Through caste classification society created “untouchability” as a practice that denies participation to Dalits:

  • Individuals who belong to the lower caste must avoid accessing religious sites and places dedicated to worship.
  •  The practice of sharing food or water sources remains forbidden for lower-caste individuals when it involves persons from higher-caste backgrounds.
  • Religious ceremonies alongside festive events form part of their participation every year.
  •  People from all castes reside within the same residential communities.

Due to these restrictions, these individuals maintain their position as social outcasts which prevents them from effectively integrating with the mainstream population (Shah, 2020; Peniel, 2010).

2. Economic Exclusion and Forced Labor

Historical oppression has restricted Dalits from performing tasks such as sewage cleaning, animal disposal, and manual scavenging work because of their discriminatory position. Dalits remain segregated into substandard work despite the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act (2013) because caste prejudices run deep in Indian society.
Economic exclusion also manifests in:

  •  A denial of land ownership prevents many Dalits from accessing farmland resulting in their dependent labor positions.
  • Professional discrimination against Dalit applicants by higher-caste employers triggers unemployment, poverty, and employment segregation.
  • Dalits receive wages much lower than those paid to upper-caste workers while doing equivalent work.

3. Educational Exclusion and Discrimination in Schools
Dalit students face discrimination within the Indian education system because it restricts their possibilities to access high-quality schooling. Students from Dalit backgrounds face two school-based discrimination practices in certain rural locations where teachers segregate them from other pupils through separate classroom seating arrangements and they also limit their school meal consumption rights. Dalit student dropout rates rise because of bullying combined with caste insults and insufficient academic support which forces students to leave school prematurely. Many Dalits face barriers to accessing quality universities because they face obstacles which include high costs of education as well as discrimination even though affirmative action policies offer some opportunities (Shah, 2020).

How This Social Exclusion Happens: The Structural Reinforcement of Caste
The system of caste discrimination exists through four interconnected elements that include social learning processes alongside theological arguments, legal failures, and political disregard. Religion supports the maintenance of the caste system through scripture regulations which describe a heavenly social ranking. Religious organizations preserve caste differences despite making official changes to their practices. Children learn discrimination through generations by receiving it as an allegedly natural part of social customs. The systems of protection meant for Dalits suffer from inadequate law enforcement which enables discrimination against them to continue. Many Dalits stay dependent on upper-caste landowners and employers which creates barriers for them to fight against oppressive working conditions (Shah, 2020; Peniel, 2010).

The caste-based discrimination that exists at every point in life blocks Dalits from accessing the social community. Rajkumar finds faults with Dalit theology because it concentrates on theoretical liberation concepts instead of targeting concrete social inequalities. Dalits can only achieve their social equality when the caste hierarchy receives dismantling through simultaneous legal as well as social and religious reforms that empower them to restore their proper social standing (Peniel, 2010 ).

References:
Shah, G. (2020). Social exclusion, caste, and health: A review based on the social determinants framework. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 12(2), 178–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/2321023020963317

Peniel, R. (2010). Dalit theology and Dalit liberation: Problems, paradigms, and possibilities. Routledge.

Navigating Spaces

WRITTEN BY MARIA AMANI, MASTER’S STUDENT, ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY
Maria Amani. Photo by Hannamari Shakya.

This poem is motivated by my mentorship experience under a certain Social Exclusion’s alumni, and our discussions on institutional whiteness and navigating white normative spaces as professionals and racialized individuals in Finland. The poem was originally written as an assignment during my mentorship in the Spring of 2025.  

Whiteness could be defined as an ongoing process where bodies are oriented towards a specific direction, ultimately dictating how bodies take up space, and what they are allowed to do in that space (Ahmed, 2007).  Institutional whiteness is an existing normativity or a state of institutions where individuals who do not fulfill whiteness are left to learn to navigate it– or as Sara Ahmed (2012) in her book “On Being Included – Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life” describes it to “inhabit whiteness”- as a survival strategy. I would like to highlight that whiteness does not merely have to do with the color of one’s skin; rather, it is an existing norm or a state of how spaces are to be entered and operated in. I think of it as an invisible system, by which individuals portraying whiteness hold power over others. Sara Ahmed (2012 p.35) comments on whiteness arguing that whiteness tends to be visible to those who do not inhabit it (p.35). 

This poem is my intent to describe the experience and the thought process of someone navigating whiteness in today’s world.  

If navigating spaces is my portion, then I must be like a ship in the deep, dark waters of the ocean. I’m trying to distinguish between night and day, the social cues and the micro-aggressions in the break room.

I must navigate these waters of agreed social norms and expectations between approval and being “the diversity hire” that solves all your issues with anyone who doesn’t look like the people in this room.

If navigating spaces is my portion, then as a ship, I wonder where my lighthouse is. Where are the glimpses of conviction that encourage me to keep going till, I see the shores of change. This is a war on injustice, and every battleship needs its peers and allies. A break from inhabiting
a space that doesn’t belong to me.

If navigating spaces is my portion, it’s lonely out here at the sea. Like the Titanic I am hit with this unwritten rule of otherness.
What’s below the surface of your hostility?

Is it that the emotions bubbling under your own surface are not dealt with?
Is it that the sense of power you gain in this room intoxicates to the point where I am now left navigating your insecurities.

Like Maya, I will rise. I will soar on these currents that I navigate. The same currents that carried the conquistadores to a land they claimed theirs.
The same waters that witnessed the oppressed be carried into unfamiliar fields to fill them with blood, sweat, and tears for the sake of someone else’s dream to discover a new world. The same waters carry me as I navigate this day with its labels and quotas.

Maybe my ship was never meant to be in your race.

Maybe my ship has its own purpose at sea. A purpose outside of the boxes you intend to place it in.

Maybe my ship will compete in a category of its own where the sunset frames its way to the port.
A port where we all have our own place. A harbor where we all belong.

If navigating spaces is my portion, then the ship of self-righteousness has sailed. Color blindness is dead, and so is my will to entertain your perception of my existence. Journey with me! Journey with me to create a new route! Let us navigate to a better world.