Punjabi Dalit transnational mobility: Challenging caste inequalities

The Indian state of East Punjab (hereafter Punjab/Punjabi) has a long and continuing history of overseas emigration, mainly originating from the predominantly rural Doaba region – a history that has produced a heterogeneous Punjabi diaspora located in over 75 countries worldwide, constituted by deeply embedded transnational networks.1 The relationship between Doaban transnationalism, social mobility and development within Punjab has consequently received much academic and political attention within India, which is well known as the largest foreign remittance receiving country in the world, as well as in the global academic and policy context, where transnational migrants are increasingly seen as agents of development. In this chapter I focus on Punjabi Dalit geographical and social mobility, originating from Doaba and beyond, and its relationship to enduring, but also dynamic, caste inequalities within the region.2 This is an under-explored nexus within the study of Punjabi transnationalism.