The Implied Rajput: Caste and Disguise in the U.P. Police

R.K. Chauhan (a pseudonym) ascended the ranks of the Uttar Pradesh police from one of its lowliest stations to one of its highest, retiring as a district superintendent.  Over the same period he underwent a transformation of caste; by his own account, he was born Dalit but became Rajput, taking on a title, manner and comportment associated with that dominant community—with unexpected consequences.  Anchored in interviews in Lucknow and part of a larger book project on caste concealment in urban north India, this talk follows the career of Chauhan and the critical reflections on chhaap—the indexical operation of marking and unmarking bodies with caste stigmata—that his experience as a doubly undercover observer leads him to elaborate.