SHAILAJA PAIK. 2022. The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality and Humanity in Modern India, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 422 pp., ISBN 9781503634084  

Shailaja Paik’s The Vulgarity of Caste delves into the lives of Dalit women engaged in Tamasha, a theatrical art form prevalent in Maharashtra, western India. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, Paik examines how these women’s lives are shaped by the shifting dynamics of casteist and patriarchal systems, as well as the sociocultural frameworks of value and hierarchy within broader Maharashtrian and Indian society. The monograph is structured into three sections and eight chapters, offering a historical and analytical perspective on the interplay between Tamasha and the women who perform it. Paik focuses particularly on the notions of vulgarity, stigma, and discrimination, revealing how these are employed by dominant communities in placing the Dalit women who performs Tamasha at the most alienated position. Simultaneously, Paik highlights the agency of these women, exploring the dialectics of oppression and resistance. She portrays Tamasha not only as a site of discrimination but also as a powerful form of resistance, emphasizing its role in challenging societal norms and asserting agency.

In exploring the lives of Tamasha women, Paik stresses on the intricate interplay of gender, caste, and sexuality, arguing that the sex-caste-gender complex naturalizes and perpetuates their characterization as Ashlil, often translated as vulgarity, which became a dominant discourse in the late 19th century. Dalit women in Tamasha posed a dual threat to Victorian morality and the Brahmanical caste structure, both of which perpetuated hierarchical social relations. Paik examines how this idea of Ashlil positioned Tamasha performers as vulgar, immoral, and undisciplined, necessitating their reform and control. This framing, as Paik argues, marked the Dalit women’s bodies as sites of regulation and policing, reinforcing caste and gender hierarchies.

In addition to Ashlil, Paik critically examines two other vernacular concepts from Maharashtrian society—Assli and Manuski—to analyze how colonial and post-colonial transformations in India intensified both structural and symbolic violence against women. Within the Ashlil-Manuski-Assli framework, Ashlil—associated with dishonour, immorality, and inferiority—stands in direct opposition to Assli. Assli represents the notion of authenticity as defined by the Victorian and Brahmanical ideals that shaped the nation-building projects of colonial and post-colonial India. Interestingly, Ashlil is constructed as a byproduct of this very Assli ideal. Dalit Tamasha performers were inherently denied inclusion in the Assli (authentic), referring to the upper-caste individuals who claimed to embody the ‘modern, respectable Maharashtrian/Indian identity.’ On the contrary, the Tamasha women’s caste and class locations rendered them intrinsically Ashlil, with Ashlil serving as a structural antithesis to Assli. Paik highlights the paradox of colonial modernity’s ‘civilizing missions,’ which, while claiming to elevate society, simultaneously marginalized and devalued the arts and cultural expressions of those on the margins, particularly Dalit women. Paik thus reveals the deep entanglement of caste, morality, and modernity in perpetuating the marginalization of Dalit women in Maharashtra.

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