Dalit identity in New Casteist print media: Paradoxical inclusion and frames of power, hierarchy and social dominance

Abstract

This thesis explores an area of entrenched inequality in India: caste, caste-based inequalities, ideologies, and power relations. It explores how mainstream print media in India, contributes to these inequalities. Through an explicit examination, I demonstrate how Dalit communities, their identities and their experiences of discrimination are framed in print media. Precisely, through the use of comparative analysis along with the consolidation of social and media theory this thesis explores that Indian print media, in a constitutionally casteless society, frames caste ideologies and legitimises primordial social dominance structure and power to shape and define caste discrimination, anti-Dalit prejudice and a negative stereotypical Dalit identity.