Caste and collective action

Dalit movements in Punjab have challenged caste hierarchy and exclusion through religious, social and political organising. They cannot be reduced to a single organisation or faith. Scholars study how people who faced discrimination built institutions, asserted dignity and negotiated relationships with wider political movements. The term Dalit is used in contemporary scholarship, but historical actors also used their own names and categories. Those terms need to be understood in their particular periods rather than assumed to mean the same thing in every context.[3]

Ad Dharm in colonial Punjab

The Ad Dharm movement emerged in the 1920s in colonial Punjab. Associated with Mangoo Ram, it asserted a distinct collective identity and challenged the social status assigned to communities treated as untouchable. Ronki Ram’s research examines its organisation and the significance of religious identity to its politics. The movement’s ambitions were both practical and symbolic: claiming recognition could contest the way official classifications and everyday hierarchies treated its members. Its history is part of Punjab’s broader struggles over citizenship, caste and representation.[1][4]

Work, conversion and emancipation

Research on colonial Punjab also connects caste to labour and asks how far religious conversion could transform unequal social and economic relationships. Conversion or a new collective identity could be a powerful assertion of dignity, but historians caution against assuming that social hierarchy disappeared immediately. Attention to employment, land, local institutions and lived experience helps explain the limits as well as the possibilities of reform. Different communities and individuals pursued different routes, and their experiences cannot be collapsed into one story.[4]

Later mobilisation and diverse identities

Comparative research on Dalit movements in Punjab and Maharashtra examines religious mobilisation alongside social change and development. In Punjab, later Ravidasi and other organisations developed within a changing landscape of worship, education, migration and politics. These histories overlap with earlier Ad Dharm activism, but they are not interchangeable: people’s religious affiliations and political choices differ. Studying a movement’s own publications and local institutions alongside academic accounts allows readers to see both shared struggles and disagreement over the best path to equality.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Ronki Ram. Untouchability, Dalit consciousness, and the Ad Dharm movement in Punjab ↗Written source · Source date: 2004-10 · Locator: Contributions to Indian Sociology 38(3), pp. 323–349; especially pp. 327–331 and 335–338. Accessed 2026-11-05.Selected passages in the author-uploaded copy were checked via the web reader. Publisher DOI: 10.1177/006996670403800302. The underlying pamphlets, interviews and report were not independently examined; access to the copy may vary.Return to Ad Dharm in colonial Punjab, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Navyug Gill. Limits of Conversion: Caste, Labor, and the Question of Emancipation in Colonial Panjab ↗Written source · Source date: 2018-09-18 online; February 2019 issue · Locator: Journal of Asian Studies 78(1), pp. 3–22; abstract and bibliographic record. Accessed 2026-11-03.Publisher abstract and bibliographic record were checked; the full restricted article was not independently examined.
  3. Surinder S. Jodhka and Avinash Kumar. Religious Mobilizations for Development and Social Change: A Comparative Study of Dalit Movements in Punjab and Maharashtra, India ↗Written source · Source date: 2010 · Locator: Working Paper 47; abstract and two-page research summary. Accessed 2026-11-03.GOV.UK catalogue and the linked research summary were checked; the complete 109-page working paper was not independently examined.Return to Caste and collective action, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Later mobilisation and diverse identities, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. Mukul Kumar, interviewing Navyug Gill. Agrarian labor, caste, and the limits of conversion: a conversation with Navyug Gill ↗Written source · Source date: 2019-04-01 · Locator: Interview, first and third questions on conversion, caste, labour and Mangoo Ram. Accessed 2026-11-03.The Association for Asian Studies interview was checked through indexed text after direct access returned 403.Return to Ad Dharm in colonial Punjab, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Work, conversion and emancipation, paragraph 1 ↑
Help improve this entry. Suggest a correction with a source.
Record PH-HIS-0168 · English edition · human review not performed