Date of Submission
Spring 2018
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
Bill Dixon
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This paper will primarily focus on a new political vision known as radical brown pluralism. This political vision is based in the politics of the future and the politics of possibility. Brown pluralism is not a pragmatic legislative solution to the inequities that South Asians face or a panacea for internal division, but instead a template: a vision of community and advocacy that should represent the endgame for all brown activists, advocates, policymakers, artists, and citizens. Radical brown pluralism is as much a cultural vision as it is a political one as it utilizes the language and movements of the politic to fight for the evolution and preservation of a community.
Radical Brown pluralism is invested in future of South Asian Americans both in their role among other ethnic populations in the United States and in their existence as a collective polity. Positioned in between and borrowing from traditional notions of liberalism and radicalism, Radical Brown pluralism argues for political incorporation both within and outside of the state. Radical Brown pluralism imagines a South Asian community empowered to participate politically through traditional modes of incorporation and through alternate modes of grassroots organizing and mobilization. Additionally, Radical Brown pluralism envisions a South Asian community liberated from the constraints of caste and color, eased from the tension of religious and national conflict, aligned and in solidarity with communities of color, and open to the liberation of the women and queer individuals within the community.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Mutalik, Rishi P., "Brown Pluralism and Beyond: A New Political Vision for South Asian Americans" (2018). Senior Projects Spring 2018. 103.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2018/103
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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