Dispelling Myths
Anjali Noronha
TURNING THE POT, TILLING THE LAND DIGNITY OF LABOUR IN OUR TIMES by Kancha Ilaiah Navayana Publishing, 2007, 108 pp., 150
November 2007, volume 31, No 11

Turning the Pot… is an important book to sensitize young adults, particularly of the so called educated middle classes in these times of tremendous economic and social differentiation. Dignity of labour has been a casualty of the caste system in India, where caste-bred hierarchies not only undervalue physical labour but also ostracize the labouring classes. Thus, while the products of labour have been enjoyed by the upper castes and classes, they have always looked down upon those that created those products. Today the same upper castes and classes, resist the producing communities their due place in society through processes of positive discrimination. This resistance in the form of anti-reservation movements of 2006 was the motivation for dalit writer Kancha Ilaiah to craft this interesting book.

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