Blog 15: Research Ideas

Until today, I was planning on doing some kind of research about the Civil Rights Movement to tie in with my episode, but after reading the Commonplace chapter I think that I should focus on something more timely. The discrimination going on in the episode I watched was being actively performed, but it has traces very far back in history, for thousands of years. Similarly, the separation of the Caste system in India is a huge basis for discrimination in India today, but its origins go back so far that they are in fact completely unknown, made into a thing of legend.
Although India has made strides to correct the issue of severe Caste discrimination, it is still a powerful social force, and it is key to consider when looking at anything from treatment of people in rural India to how elections turn out. I think it will be interesting to see the parallels between the modern caste system in India and the way that the Troglytes were treated in The Cloud Minders.
Resources:

Waughray, Annapurna. "Caste Discrimination and Minority Rights: The Case of India's Dalits." International Journal on Minority & Group Rights 17.2 (2010): 327-353. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Rao, Ursula. "Caste and the Desire for Belonging." Asian Studies Review 33.4 (2009): 483-499. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

GILMARTIN, DAVID. "AHR Forum: Rule of Law, Rule of Life: Caste, Democracy, and the Courts in India." American Historical Review 115.2 (2010): 406-427. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Ganguly, Debjani. "Pain, Personhood and the Collective: Dalit Life Narratives." Asian Studies Review 33.4 (2009): 429-442. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Waughray, Annapurna. "Caste Discrimination: A Twenty-First Century Challenge for UK Discrimination Law?." Modern Law Review 72.2 (2009): 182-219. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Matthew