Ancestor Spirits and Land Reforms: Contradictory discourses and practices on rights on land in South India
This paper is about Untouchable ancestors' strong emotional attachment to their ancestral land. Ancestrors of Untouchables remain in their ancestral land at the margin of the village, whereas ancestors of high castes leave for the abode of ancestors, after expiating their sins by transferring them to Untouchables. Since land became a saleable commodity during the nineteenth century, many high caste people became the owners of marginal lands. This trend culminated in land reforms, which officially turned the "landless agricultural labourers" in to landowners.