{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T04:56:17Z","timestamp":1790571377482,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790553600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Sociol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Casteism stratifies people in India into hierarchical ranks, imposing customs, rituals, and traditions in accordance with the division of labour. This systematic continuity of casteism preserves memory that is passed down from generation to generation, not merely by ideology but also embodied by mnemonic practices. Dalits are the most afflicted community by both ideological and habitual oppression of the upper caste. Beyond legal abolition of untouchability, it persists as a system of descent-based ethnic inequality. This study explores autobiographies of Omprakash Valmiki\u2019s\n                    <jats:italic>Joothan<\/jats:italic>\n                    (1997) and Urmila Pawar\u2019s\n                    <jats:italic>The Weave of My Life<\/jats:italic>\n                    (2008), two Marathi Dalit writers who have penned their experiences of suffering and humiliation inflicted by upper caste. Using thematic narrative analysis through the lens of Paul Connerton\u2019s concept of habit memory and incorporated practices, this study demonstrates that casteism is sustained in everyday habits by treating autobiographies as sociological evidence of ethnic caste discrimination. Embodied memory is performed through bodily acts, identifying five incorporated practices such as commensality, untouchability, labour division, spatial segregation, and postural discipline that function as bodily mnemonic systems through which hierarchical coercion is naturalised across generations. Existing scholarly works primarily focus on the abstract idea of casteism, identity quest, and trauma which leave a significant gap in understanding the role of embodied memory in sustaining inequality.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1884348","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T04:29:08Z","timestamp":1790569748000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Embodied social exclusion: habit memory and the reproduction of caste in Dalit autobiographies"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Dhanshree","family":"C","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology","place":["Chennai, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"R.","family":"Preetha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology","place":["Chennai, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"81","article-title":"Castes in India: their mechanism, genesis and development","volume":"41","author":"Ambedkar","year":"1917","journal-title":"Indian Antiq."},{"key":"ref9005","volume-title":"Annihilation of caste","author":"Ambedkar","year":"1936"},{"key":"ref2","first-page":"266","volume-title":"Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches","author":"Ambedkar","year":""},{"key":"ref3","volume-title":"Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical Edition","author":"Ambedkar","year":""},{"key":"ref9001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1017\/CHOL9780521264341","volume-title":"Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age","author":"Bayly","year":"1999"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511812507","volume-title":"Outline of a Theory of Practice","author":"Bourdieu","year":"1977"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511628061","volume-title":"How Societies Remember","author":"Connerton","year":"1989"},{"key":"ref12","volume-title":"Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications","author":"Dumont","year":"1980"},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"124","DOI":"10.5281\/zenodo.6446826","article-title":"Urmila Pawar\u2019s the weave of my life: a narrative of protest","volume":"2","author":"Dutta","year":"2022","journal-title":"Akademos: Interdiscip. J. Lit. Cult. Stud."},{"key":"ref17","volume-title":"Practicing Caste: On Touching and Not Touching","author":"Jaaware","year":"2019"},{"key":"ref19","first-page":"3","article-title":"Caste, gender and ideology in the making of India","volume":"36","author":"Jaiswal","year":"2008","journal-title":"Soc. Sci."},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"338","DOI":"10.1215\/26410478-11806721","article-title":"More than Badboo: the many lives of caste, leather, and labor","volume":"8","author":"Kapoor","year":"2025","journal-title":"Crit. Times"},{"key":"ref23","volume-title":"The History of Caste in India","author":"Ketkar","year":"1909"},{"key":"ref24","volume-title":"Towards an aesthetic of Dalit Literature: Histories, Controversies and Considerations","author":"Limbale","year":"2004"},{"key":"ref9002","first-page":"271","article-title":"Les techniques du corps","volume":"32","author":"Mauss","year":"1935","journal-title":"Journal de Psychologie Normale et Pathologique (Paris)"},{"key":"ref9006","first-page":"62","article-title":"Joothan: A Dalit\\u0027s life","volume":"2","author":"Mohan","year":"2014","journal-title":"International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities"},{"key":"ref9003","first-page":"1","article-title":"Introduction. In S. Limbale, Towards an aesthetic of dalit literature: History, controversies, and considerations","volume-title":"A. Mukherjee, Trans. \\u0026amp; Ed","author":"Mukherjee","year":"2004"},{"key":"ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.soc.24.1.105","article-title":"Social memory studies: from \u201ccollective memory\u201d to the historical sociology of mnemonic practices","volume":"24","author":"Olick","year":"1998","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Sociol."},{"key":"ref27","volume-title":"The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman\u2019s Memoirs","author":"Pawar","year":"2008"},{"key":"ref29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1525\/9780520943377","volume-title":"The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India","author":"Rao","year":"2009"},{"key":"ref30","volume-title":"Writing Caste\/Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women\u2019s Testimonios","author":"Rege","year":"2006"},{"key":"ref31","volume-title":"Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences","author":"Riessman","year":"2008"},{"key":"ref32","first-page":"11","volume-title":"Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical edition","author":"Roy","year":"2014"},{"key":"ref36","article-title":"Threads of oppression and resistance: gendered casteed struggles in Urmila Pawar\u2019s","author":"Tanan","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref37","volume-title":"No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South India","author":"Tharu","year":"2011"},{"key":"ref38","first-page":"10","article-title":"Dominant bodies and their ethical performances: violence of caste embodiment in higher educational institutions","volume":"55","author":"Thirumal","year":"2020","journal-title":"Econ. Polit. Week."},{"key":"ref39","first-page":"4141","article-title":"The legacy of social exclusion: a correspondence study of job discrimination in India","volume":"42","author":"Thorat","year":"2007","journal-title":"Econ. Polit. Week."},{"key":"ref9004","volume-title":"Joothan","author":"Valmiki","year":"1997"},{"key":"ref41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.5281\/zenodo.15585639","article-title":"Joothan: a quest for identity and depiction of the traumatized mind of a Dalit","volume":"4","author":"Vincent","year":"2025","journal-title":"Int. J. Contemp. Res. Multidiscip. (IJCRM)"},{"key":"ref42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1515\/9783110785845-007","article-title":"Gestures, habits, and cultural transmission: from \u201corganic memory\u201d to the social sciences","author":"Viola","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"158","DOI":"10.26812\/caste.v1i2.188","article-title":"A cultural psychological reading of Dalit literature: reading Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki","volume":"1","author":"Vyas","year":"2020","journal-title":"CASTE: Global J. Soc. Excl."},{"key":"ref44","volume-title":"Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents","author":"Wilkerson","year":"2020"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Sociology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1884348\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T04:29:13Z","timestamp":1790569753000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1884348\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"references-count":32,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1884348"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1884348","relation":{},"ISSN":["2297-7775"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2297-7775","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"article-number":"1884348"}}