Caste is not dead

Two days ago, I found outside my door a food delivery brochure that read, ‘Food for Brahmins (Iyengars)’. Despite the prevalence of everyday casteism, it is not uncommon to see Indians, especially in the middle and upper class, speak of caste as an anachronism. Though economic structures have undergone significant changes, caste lingers on in India — not just in politics, as is widely believed, but to sustain social relations.

While Surinder S. Jodhka’s Caste in Contemporary India examines questions of untouchability, social mobility, and Dalit activism, a particularly telling portion in the book is on how caste is seen in the very shining example of modern India: the corporate sector. Jodhka finds how inclusion is not part of a capitalist society, even though it is argued that people are judged according to their merits. Even HR departments, involved in the crucial tasks of recruitment and promotions, are filled with upper caste people, he finds, and while merit is the main criterion for recruitment, caste prejudices play a crucial role in judging the soft skills of candidates.

If Jodhka’s book is focussed on Dalits in Punjab and Haryana, Sujatha Gidla, in her acclaimed memoir of her mother and uncle, dives deep into the lives of her Dalit ancestors’ struggles in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. Gidla recounts in Ants Among Elephants how as a student at an engineering college in Warangal, she found a professor deliberately failing lower caste students. The principal supports the professor, so the students go on strike – only to be detained by the police and tortured. “Beat her until I can see welts on her,” the police deputy superintendent tells two policewomen.

Caste is most vividly noticed in one of the ways in which it is kept “pure” — through marriage, with inter-caste unions frowned upon. One of the most haunting works of fiction on this subject is Pyre by Perumal Murugan. Saroja and Kumaresan, belonging to different castes, run away and get married and face the wrath of Kumaresan’s community. Like in Gidla’s book, where she says Indians will ask any number of questions to find out what caste you come from, a villager sneakily tries to find out Saroja’s caste. He peers into her face and says: “This is not a face from our caste, Mapillai. This is the face of someone who hasn’t toiled.” This is not just a remark about looks, but about occupation and labour, all of which still irrationally divide Indians in every sphere even today.