Caste-ing space: Mapping the dynamics of untouchability in rural Bihar, India

In his early twentieth-century works, B. R. Ambedkar-the Dalit scholar, activist, and chief architect of the Indian constitution-recognized that the social separation of "untouchability" was manifested through spatial segregation. This ethnography follows up on his insight by combining oral narratives of the past and present with maps drawn by Bhuiyan Dalit women in Bihar, India, that depict the physical spaces they currently occupy in their village, the locations of sources of water and electricity, and the quality of these resources to which they now have access. Their narratives and maps demonstrate that the Bodhgaya Land Movement (BGLM) of the late 1970s helped end the most overt and readily discernible forms of caste-based discrimination. Nevertheless, more covert forms of resource discrimination and spatial and social segregation continue because the logic of untouchability still undergirds social interactions in rural Bihar and prevents Dalits from fully realizing their rights as guaranteed by law.