Devadasi labor is unclassifiable within the categorizing grids of formal economic reporting.

Evidence

In the body of the report, the “occupation” devadast does not emerge in the many tables. The master list, included in the chapter headed “Demographic and Economic Profile,” includes thirty “types of skill.” The last two are “others” and “no skill.” The percentage distribution is Rural: 0.97 and 89.69; and Urban: 3.26 and 69.48. How would the devadast be docketed? Is lasya—the convincing representation of lust—still her skill? — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2023

Categorization

• QUESTION: The devadasi falls between every economic category — does her literal unclassifiability amount to a position no discourse can strategically take up, or is it where agency actually lies?
• XREF: connects to: When everything is capital, labor and class become illegible categories — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 64

Broader Connections

• When everything is capital, labor and class become illegible categories #corroborates (0.82) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 64