Hierarchy and Egality in South Asian Traditions
What roles do ‘hierarchy’ and ‘egality’, as values and practices, play in the everyday lives of South Asian traditions? Hierarchy as a value in the social life of Hinduism has been much discussed. Scholarship has tended to contrast a transhistorical Hindu hierarchy with egalitarian elements of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Sikh thought in South Asia, framing ubiquitous caste-like social forms among the latter traditions as anomalous. Yet careful studies of everyday life in the religious traditions of South Asia suggest that a far more heterogeneous set of social imaginaries and a far more complex entanglement of hierarchy and egality are, in fact, shaping the trajectory of both inter-caste and inter-religious relations and practices.
updated: 2026-01-29 deadline: 2026-03-15 location: “Colombo” organization: “International Centre for Ethnic Studies” canonical_url: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/01/28/hierarchy-and-egality-in-south-asian-traditions