Vol. 9, Issue 5, Part E (2023)

Abstract
This paper explores the changing socio-economic and political context of Indian society and its implications on its collective conscience, a concept forwarded by Emile Durkheim. In view of the increasing cases of violence against Dalits in India, this paper attempts to relate the violence against Dalits with the changing normative context of the Indian society. A comparative analysis of the traditional social structure with the new one that emerged post-independent India enables us to comprehend the fact that how the shifting value system has created fissures in the social structure as well as collective conscience of Indian society. Violence against Dalits is one of the manifestations of a deeply fractured collective conscience.