In the Lineage of the King: Conversion, Identity and Why the Rajbanshi in Bangladesh Claim to be Kshatriya

Abstract

Claims to Kshatriya status by lower caste or tribal groups are by no means restricted in time and place to the Rajbanshi. Nevertheless, Rajbanshi claims provide a characteristic example of the colonial, caste and academic dialogues about conversion, elite emulation, ethnicity, and identity development which surround the processes defined as Hinduization and Sanskritization by weber and Srinivas. This paper relies on ethnographic research in a Rajbanshi community in northwest Bangladesh to augment and illustrate discussion points from that literature.