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Madigas, one of the most discriminated former Untouchable groups in central Karnataka, South India, began to refuse their ‘caste duty’ of killing a buffalo at the time of a village festival venerating the fearful goddess Maramma. Anthropologists and sociologists have regarded the worship of village goddesses as more inclusive subaltern practice whilst Sanskritised temple rituals have been seen as more hierarchical and elitist. The recent Dalit assertion movement and their interpretation of the Maramma cult reveals the inadequacy of such academic interpretations, as well as the limitations of urban-centered Dalit politics in south India.

Voir aussi : Cycle de conférences d'Aya Ikegame (Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo)