Society with Indian Characteristics: Caste, Class, and Species in Contemporary Retellings of the Rāmāyaṇa

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyzes the construction of Indian society in retellings of the Rāmāyaṇa published in India between 2010 and 2020. I focus on the concepts of caste, class, and mythological species. Through discourse analysis of a corpus of retellings, nonfiction works by the same authors, and comparisons with secondary literature, I show how specific castes, classes, and species are assimilated to one another and contrasted with competing identities. I also show how such representations define positive traits of Indianness and contrast them with the opposite negative traits of Otherness. I conclude that, despite differences in style, the retellers imagine an ancient pre-colonial India imbued with the modern neoliberal values of freedom of choice and social mobility.