The Identity Trap

Ethnic identity, scholars remind us, is only one among the wide repertoire of identities to which an individual has access. Still, the marginalized struggle to break free of a single stigmatized identity. This chapter returns to Dalits’ choice of social identities. It argues Dalits’ ability to adopt new social identities is highly constrained because their social exclusion and material deprivation are self-reinforcing. When Dalits are able to choose alternate social identities, other groups do not recognize these identities. Dalits’ experience with stigma illustrates that it is difficult for a marginalized ethnic group to leverage political equality to remedy social inequality because the social stigma associated with a marginalized ethnic identity changes slowly.