'The Bedias are Rajputs': Caste consciousness of a marginal community

Abstract

This article attempts to further the argument that caste hierarchies are subject to creative manipulation by those who inhabit the supposedly fixed slots. I provide detailed ethno graphic data on the Bedias of North India, a 'denotified' community which lives off the prostitution of its own women. The engagement in this occupation renders the Bedias very 'low' in general opinion. But the data regarding the beliefs and practices of the Bedias shows that the community redefines the non-marital relations of the women with men belonging to higher-ranking castes through recourse to upper-caste norms of patriliny and hypergamy in order to claim upper-caste origin and affiliation. In doing so the community rejects the social position which the broader society accords it.