We've got to talk about caste

05/31/23 • 27 min

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Caste is one of the most complicated and misunderstood concepts encountered when attempting to understand India and Hinduism. Yet caste and a so-called caste system have become the singular focus of how Indian and Hindu society and culture are seen by the West — and increasingly being focused on by activists within the diaspora.

Sources:

German Indology, Aryanism, and Anti-Semitism, by Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee
The Indian Caste System and The British – Ethnographic Mapping and the Construction of the British Census in India, by Kevin Hobson
The Brahmin, the Aryan, and the Powers of the Priestly Class: Puzzles in the Study of Indian Religion, by Marianne Keppens and Jakob De Roover
Caste Confusion and Census Enumeration in Colonial India, 1871–1921 by Kevin Walby and Michael Haan
Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste by Padmanabh Samarendra
Ethnographic inquiry in colonial India: Herbert Risley, William Crooke, and the study of tribes and castes by C.J. Fuller
‘Untouchable’: What is in a Name?, by Simon Charsley
Scheduled Castes vs. Caste Hindus: About a Colonial Distinction and Its Legal Impact, by Jakob de Roover

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sources:

German Indology, Aryanism, and Anti-Semitism, by Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee
The Indian Caste System and The British – Ethnographic Mapping and the Construction of the British Census in India, by Kevin Hobson
The Brahmin, the Aryan, and the Powers of the Priestly Class: Puzzles in the Study of Indian Religion, by Marianne Keppens and Jakob De Roover
Caste Confusion and Census Enumeration in Colonial India, 1871–1921 by Kevin Walby and Michael Haan
Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste by Padmanabh Samarendra
Ethnographic inquiry in colonial India: Herbert Risley, William Crooke, and the study of tribes and castes by C.J. Fuller
‘Untouchable’: What is in a Name?, by Simon Charsley
Scheduled Castes vs. Caste Hindus: About a Colonial Distinction and Its Legal Impact, by Jakob de Roover

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

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If you think of Nazis, white supremacists, the Holocaust, a rabble of Fred Perry-wearing white dudes marching in Charlottesville, Virginia chanting “Jews will not replace us”, we don’t blame you. If your primary source of knowledge about India is your average high school textbook or mass market travel guideyou might also conjure up images of a group of light-skinned Aryans invading India in the hoary past and subjugating the darker skinned people already living there, the invaders imposing their beliefs and culture. In this episode we explain to you the connection between those two sets of imagery and how both are hugely off the mark.

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