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“I AM DALIT, HOW ARE YOU?”: IDENTITY REPRESENTATIONS IN DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Zabiliute, Emilija (2010)
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
Abstract
This thesis looks at the Dalit transnational activism that advocates Dalit human rights. It analyzes the representation of the collective Dalit activists' identity. The primary data (interviews and representational data) was collected during the fieldwork in two organizations, the NCDHR and the IDSN, which are the focus of this thesis. Thesis uses international relations' theory on transnational activism. For the analytical part, discourse analysis is applied in order to find the main identityrelated themes in the Dalit Human rights movement, and to place them into the wider Dalit social movement discourse. The point of departure for the analysis is the paradoxical aspect of the epistemological tensions between the collective identity and... (More)
This thesis looks at the Dalit transnational activism that advocates Dalit human rights. It analyzes the representation of the collective Dalit activists' identity. The primary data (interviews and representational data) was collected during the fieldwork in two organizations, the NCDHR and the IDSN, which are the focus of this thesis. Thesis uses international relations' theory on transnational activism. For the analytical part, discourse analysis is applied in order to find the main identityrelated themes in the Dalit Human rights movement, and to place them into the wider Dalit social movement discourse. The point of departure for the analysis is the paradoxical aspect of the epistemological tensions between the collective identity and human rights standpoints. It then describes the transnationalism of the organizations. The discussion is followed by analysis of Dalit identity representations. Finally, it then discusses the attempts of Dalit activists to enter the human
rights discourse. The thesis concludes that the discursive representations of Dalits do not escape the wider “local” Dalit social movement context. At the same time, it instrumentally uses international human rights' discourse. (Less)
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author
Zabiliute, Emilija
supervisor
organization
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
the global and the local, discourse, collective identity, India, framing, human rights, transnational activism, Dalits, caste, representation
language
English
id
1670246
date added to LUP
2010-09-13 09:59:16
date last changed
2010-09-13 09:59:16
@misc{1670246,
  abstract     = {{This thesis looks at the Dalit transnational activism that advocates Dalit human rights. It analyzes the representation of the collective Dalit activists' identity. The primary data (interviews and representational data) was collected during the fieldwork in two organizations, the NCDHR and the IDSN, which are the focus of this thesis. Thesis uses international relations' theory on transnational activism. For the analytical part, discourse analysis is applied in order to find the main identityrelated themes in the Dalit Human rights movement, and to place them into the wider Dalit social movement discourse. The point of departure for the analysis is the paradoxical aspect of the epistemological tensions between the collective identity and human rights standpoints. It then describes the transnationalism of the organizations. The discussion is followed by analysis of Dalit identity representations. Finally, it then discusses the attempts of Dalit activists to enter the human
rights discourse. The thesis concludes that the discursive representations of Dalits do not escape the wider “local” Dalit social movement context. At the same time, it instrumentally uses international human rights' discourse.}},
  author       = {{Zabiliute, Emilija}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{“I AM DALIT, HOW ARE YOU?”: IDENTITY REPRESENTATIONS IN DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}