The Marginalization of a Dalit Martial Race in Late 19th and early 20th-century India

Abstract

This seminal article uses Marathi and colonial sources to analyse the history of a Dalit martial race in western India focused particularly on Mahar and Mang military identities. Contextualised in relation to a wider Maratha and non-brahman martial identity which became re-formulated in terms of colonial martial race theorisations in late 19th century colonial India, the article focuses on a related transformation through Dalit agency of earlier Mahar and Mang military service into a late 19th-century Dalit martial race identity as a response to their caste-based exclusion from the Indian army after 1892. The article charts the attempts at mobilisation by Dalit ex-military pensioners to challenge their exclusion from the Bombay Presidency army and high-caste Hindu marginalisation of their long-term traditions of Dalit military service.