Monster in Your Path

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A01=Sharika Thiranagama
Author_Sharika Thiranagama
caste
Category=JBSL
Category=JHMC
Category=NHF
communism
domesticity
durable inequality
enslavement
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family
feminist anthropology
gender
global left
histories of marginalization
horizon
houses
humiliation
India
inequality
Kerala
laborers
neighborhood
phenomenology and anthropology
political anthropology
political mobilization
racial formations
work

Product details

  • ISBN 9780520425149
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 21 Apr 2026
  • Publisher: University of California Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
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The Monster in Your Path is an original and provocative look at why the global Left stumbles when dealing with historical structures of subordination like caste or race. Sharika Thiranagama examines rural communities in the South Indian state of Kerala, where decades of Communist Party rule has transformed life through land reform and social reorganization. Despite Marxist ideals, new forms of caste disparities have moved from “public” space to private spaces and private lives. Through an exquisitely crafted ethnography that centers Dalit women, the book explains how historical economies of humiliation and subordination continue to influence modern spaces like the private home. From histories of enslavement to an exploration of the houses and neighborhoods through which Dalit communities build dignity and self-worth, Thiranagama sets a new agenda for caste studies in India and beyond.

Sharika Thiranagama is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University and author of In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka.

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