What is in a name? How caste names affect the production of situated knowledge

Abstract

Patel, Desai, Kothari … to those literate in the workings of caste these names describe a network and its power in relation to other networks, they infer the rules of engagement within and between network members, and they ascribe a geographical terrain to home. In research, rules of behaviour and assumptions of place that are coded into names can affect access to respondents, their disclosure of data and subsequent claims to validity. This paper explores the coded expectations of knowledge embedded in a name as seen by someone (me) fairly illiterate in the workings of caste by utilising the principle of Bourdieu's doxaa 'pre-reflexive intuitive knowledge' (Deer, 2012, 115)to untangle and explore the effect of names on the production of partial and situated knowledge. Drawing on fieldwork in Gujarat, India, I analyse reflexive accounts through the lenses of feminist geographers and critical race scholars to illustrate the effects of being unknowingly and unwillingly placed into a social hierarchy of power in the field, introduce the idea of 'us-ing' (an opposite of othering) to describe researcherrespondent relations, and explore how readers might interpret the presence or absence of data and claims to validity. These accounts make visible the effects of positionality on knowledge production in ways that speak to feminist-postcolonial research, and specifically to feminist researchers of colour conducting research away from 'home'.

Indian caste names and cooperation in the Prisoner’s Dilemma

“…For instance, in one region of South India, the last name of an individual is simply their father’s first name, which keeps changing across generational cohorts (Bhagavatula et al., 2017). Similarly, some sociologists have suggested “ Sanskritisation ” and urbanisation processes to have led people to give up caste‐revealing last names (P. P. Kumar, 2012; Patel, 2017). Such intertwining (leading to a lack of identification or salience with caste‐based identity) may have affected our finding of no difference in cooperation with ingroup versus outgroup members.…”

“…We conducted a series of pilot studies to identify appropriate last names for the (hypothetical) Player B in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game (discussed later) that would be indicative of either a general or a lower caste group. The use of last names for caste identification has been used previously in caste‐specific research (Banerjee et al., 2009; Parmar, 2020; Patel, 2017; Sankaran et al., 2017). Specifically, we conducted five pilot studies, on Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk, http://www.mturk.com; Pilot Studies 1–3) and using Facebook advertising (http://www.facebook.com; Pilot Studies 4 & 5).…”

“…Amongst the five larger caste groups, Shudras and Dalits were considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy. Each of the five caste groups had its own customs and rules, affecting or even defining many aspects of an individual's life, such as their marriage, occupation, status, and -most importantly for the study herein-one's personal or family name (Patel, 2017).…”

Diasporic scholarship: racialization, coloniality and de‐territorializing knowledge

“…When Kamna broadened the focus of her research to India, in part due to a fascination over what difference it actually made to her research experiences and outcomes, in light of people's racialized expectations of her, she encountered distinct processes of being placed by people in India as both an ‘us’ and an ‘other’. As discussed elsewhere (Patel, 2017), paramount to being placed was her caste‐position and positioning. For her, caste was an old‐fashioned word from her parents’ old‐fashioned world; it was a term that meant nothing to her (which in the UK is of course a caste‐privileged position in itself).…”

Life Satisfaction and Well-Being at the Intersections of Caste and Gender in India

“…Amongst the five groups, Shudras and Dalits were considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy and traditionally have been ostracised and suffered from social stigma. As these groups were hereditary and had their own rules and customs, they defined many aspects of an individual's lives, such as civic rights, access to education, food habits, privileges and marriage (Patel, 2017). Endogamy enforced the isolation of Shudras and Dalits and restricted social interactions with other groups (Simon & Thorat, 2020).…”