Questioning the thesis that foreign direct investment in retail will have a favourable effect on the fl edgling class of dalit entrepreneurs in India because processes of capitalist modernisation automatically undermine the significance of social identities like caste, creed and race, this article argues that only a minuscule section of dalits has benefi ted from globalisation while the majority, being "uncompetitive", has been pushed to suffer ontological insecurities and existential uncertainties.