Between the State and Market: Subaltern Resilience in Entrepreneurship

While state support for marginalised entrepreneurship rests on its presumed emancipatory potential, little attention is paid to the exclusionary practices reproduced through state and market agents. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the Dalit entrepreneurial ecosystem in Tamil Nadu, I demonstrate that market spaces are embedded within social hierarchies, where social logics shape both opportunities and motivations. Therefore, as the state expands market access for the marginalised, it simultaneously disciplines and reinscribes practices of caste through bureaucratic language and processes. The study reveals that despite neoliberal promises of equality through market participation, caste hierarchies continue to shape outcomes, preventing a neutral market space where the language of market and governance acts as a new means of articulating privilege.