Papers by Ujithra Ponniah
Studying Elites:Challenges, Opportunities, Progressive Potential: Innovation Collection, 2023
Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 2024
Wealth in India is concentrated amongst a few privileged social groups in urban areas. What is th... more Wealth in India is concentrated amongst a few privileged social groups in urban areas. What is the relationship between wealth, caste, and elite action? I have selected Agarwals, a business caste in Delhi that belongs to the vernacular category baniya, for this case study. By drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations made over four years, I show that the mercantile claim to political power is economic, moral, and symbolic. This paper broadens the sociological understanding of the wealth and power of the elite by showing how upper-caste identitarianism is undertaken.
Agarwal Banias of Delhi
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 23, 2024
Managing Marriages through ‘Self-Improvement’: Women and ‘New Age’ Spiritualities in Delhi
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2017
ABSTRACT There has been a rise in the availability and consumption of ‘New Age’ spiritualities in... more ABSTRACT There has been a rise in the availability and consumption of ‘New Age’ spiritualities in urban India. I focus on one such self-care practice, Reiki, in a heterogeneous Delhi neighbourhood, and the engagement of urban upper-caste women from middle-class joint families with it. I argue that Reiki classes can be read as a site for the formation of gendered subjectivities. There are four kinds of interpersonal problems women discussed in Reiki classes: one's well-being in families, divorces, problems with mothers-in-law and material success. Through the habitualisation of positive thoughts, maintaining cosmic balance and managing one's ‘life-energy’, women were taught to take control of their lives within the constraints of familial situations. Through a focus on the self, these practices re-teach women to adapt happily by visualising the intimacies they desire, articulating their anxieties and imagining newer ways of ‘doing’ marriage. I argue that practices like Reiki disempower women through a language of self-responsibilisation. Self-healing strategies like Reiki therefore function both as a ‘technology of the self’ and as an extension of the adaptable Hindu joint family.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2020
Parul Bhandari. 2020. Matchmaking in Middle Class India: Beyond Arranged and Love Marriage. Singa... more Parul Bhandari. 2020. Matchmaking in Middle Class India: Beyond Arranged and Love Marriage. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. xii + 188 pp. References, Index. €67.40 (eBook).
NUJS Law Review, 2020
Are sexual identities caste marked? How does caste constitute same-sex desire? As a pilot study w... more Are sexual identities caste marked? How does caste constitute same-sex desire? As a pilot study we interviewed men who identify as Dalit and gay in metropolitan cities. Our study shows that caste pervades the intimate both in how Dalit queer, desire and are desired. Ideas of purity and pollution which would be written off as caste practices found in the rural, constitute the everydayness of urban intimacy. Dalits bodies were transformed into objects of upper caste desire through stigma and violence. Caste pre-constitutes desire, curtailing its radical potential for self and societal transformational. Furthermore, the queer movement by emptying out caste is a space of upper-caste queer persons. The demands of the queer movement hence are limited to what our interlocutors referred to as "bland" politics of legalising marriage. The everyday struggles of safety and livelihood of Dalit queer and trans persons does not find a mention. The Dalit movement, while more accepting also continues to be a masculine, alienating space through its inadequate engagement with sexuality and gender. Two years after the reading down of §377, the realisation of constitutional morality and democracy in same-sex intimacies and politics remains thwarted by the graded hierarchies of caste.
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2017
Abstract
There has been a rise in the availability and consumption of ‘New Age’ spiritualities i... more Abstract
There has been a rise in the availability and consumption of ‘New Age’ spiritualities in urban India. I focus on one such self-care practice, Reiki, in a heterogeneous Delhi neighbourhood, and the engagement of urban upper-caste women from middle-class joint families with it. I argue that Reiki classes can be read as a site for the formation of gendered subjectivities. There are four kinds of interpersonal problems women discussed in Reiki classes: one's well-being in families, divorces, problems with mothers-in-law and material success. Through the habitualisation of positive thoughts, maintaining cosmic balance and managing one's ‘life-energy’, women were taught to take control of their lives within the constraints of familial situations. Through a focus on the self, these practices re-teach women to adapt happily by visualising the intimacies they desire, articulating their anxieties and imagining newer ways of ‘doing’ marriage. I argue that practices like Reiki disempower women through a language of self-responsibilisation. Self-healing strategies like Reiki therefore function both as a ‘technology of the self’ and as an extension of the adaptable Hindu joint family.
This article explores the social reproductive roles performed by elite “upper”-caste Aggarwal wom... more This article explores the social reproductive roles performed by elite “upper”-caste Aggarwal women in family businesses in Delhi. With the substantialization of caste, there is an increase in heterogeneities within caste groups. By focussing on women’s associational and familial roles in a South Delhi neighborhood three strategies of reproduction are discussed: first, forging inter-strata fictive kinship ties for caste cohesion through women’s “social work”; second, forging intra-strata fictive kinship ties for business opportunities through sustained interactions; and third, steering the individuating aspirations of children around marital choices for the unity of the joint family and business. These strategies of elite reproduction highlight the secularizing pulls on gender and caste in urban contexts, despite the dependence of family businesses on caste and family ties. Furthermore, by focusing on women in family businesses, this article shows that while they are not passive victims of caste patriarchy neither are they invisible in the male-centric family businesses.
Book Reviews by Ujithra Ponniah
EPW, 2020
Book Review - Cultural Labour: Conceptualising the ‘Folk Performance’ in India by Brahma Prakash,... more Book Review - Cultural Labour: Conceptualising the ‘Folk Performance’ in India by Brahma Prakash, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019
EPW, 2021
Book Review - My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of
Lynching and Blood Justice in India edite... more Book Review - My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of
Lynching and Blood Justice in India edited by
Aparna Vaidik
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2020
Blog Posts by Ujithra Ponniah
A report of the recent panel discussion held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University that explores the... more A report of the recent panel discussion held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University that explores the phenomenon of sexual violence in educational spaces. Sexual harrasment by the faculty, intimate partner violence, and repression of the sexuality of women on campus are some of the issues deliberated upon. The panelists call for the revival of a strong and vibrant women's movement to counter deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes on campus.
Report by Ujithra Ponniah
We are especially thankful to Mr Ravi Prakash, chief functionary of SPEED, a nongovernmental orga... more We are especially thankful to Mr Ravi Prakash, chief functionary of SPEED, a nongovernmental organization in Gadwal district and its staff for the helpful inputs, and logistical coordination for facilitating our visits and interactions with different stakeholders in the district. We would like to express our appreciation and special thanks to Ms Aruna Ravulapalli, Project Manager (HD), SERP, Andhra Pradesh who was of great help in putting us in touch with relevant government functionaries in Krishna district. Thanks are due to our students, Pruthvi, Sowmya, Ashok, Geethika, Aparna for participating in the data-collection and for their transcripts of the interviews. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from the funders of this project, Plan India and Mahita and to thank them for the opportunity the project gave us to understand the multiplicity of complex factors associated with child marriage and state interventions for addressing the issue .
Book Chapters by Ujithra Ponniah
Johannesburg from the river banks: navigating the Jukskei, 2025
This book chapter draws on a Xhosa myth of a river goddess from South Africa to critique how prop... more This book chapter draws on a Xhosa myth of a river goddess from South Africa to critique how property developers extract from the commons in the creation of a gated city in peri-urban Johannesburg.
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Papers by Ujithra Ponniah
There has been a rise in the availability and consumption of ‘New Age’ spiritualities in urban India. I focus on one such self-care practice, Reiki, in a heterogeneous Delhi neighbourhood, and the engagement of urban upper-caste women from middle-class joint families with it. I argue that Reiki classes can be read as a site for the formation of gendered subjectivities. There are four kinds of interpersonal problems women discussed in Reiki classes: one's well-being in families, divorces, problems with mothers-in-law and material success. Through the habitualisation of positive thoughts, maintaining cosmic balance and managing one's ‘life-energy’, women were taught to take control of their lives within the constraints of familial situations. Through a focus on the self, these practices re-teach women to adapt happily by visualising the intimacies they desire, articulating their anxieties and imagining newer ways of ‘doing’ marriage. I argue that practices like Reiki disempower women through a language of self-responsibilisation. Self-healing strategies like Reiki therefore function both as a ‘technology of the self’ and as an extension of the adaptable Hindu joint family.
Book Reviews by Ujithra Ponniah
Lynching and Blood Justice in India edited by
Aparna Vaidik
Blog Posts by Ujithra Ponniah
Report by Ujithra Ponniah
Book Chapters by Ujithra Ponniah