Caste Quotes

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”
― Muhammad Ali Jinnah

“We aren't human."

"Yes. We. Are." His voice turns fierce. "I don't give a shit what the something-somethingth council of big important farts decreed, or how the geomests classify things, or any of that. That we're not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don't have to feel bad about how they treat us.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“When we choose a mobile network, do we check whether Airtel or Vodafone belong to a particular caste? No, we simply choose the provider based on the best value or service. Then why do we vote for somebody simply because he belongs to the same caste as us?”
― Chetan Bhagat, What Young India Wants

“I was actually permitting myself to experience a sickening sense of disappointment: but rallying my wits, and recollecting my principles, I at once called my sensations to order; and it was wonderful how I got over the temporary blunder--how I cleared up the mistake of supposing Mr. Rochester's movements a matter in which I had any cause to take vital interest. Not that I humbled myself by a slavish notion of inferiority: on the contrary, I just said--
"You have nothing to do with the master of Thornfield further than to receive the salary he gives you for teaching his protegee and to be grateful for such respectful and kind treatment as, if you do your duty, you have a right to expect at his hands. Be sure that is the only tie he seriously acknowledges between you and him, so don't make him the object of your fine feelings, your raptures, agonies, and so forth. He is not of your order: keep to your caste; and be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Fate determines your caste. You must accept it and live according to the rules."
You can't really believe that!"
I do believe it. That man's misfortune is that he cannot accept his caste, his fate."
I know that the Indians wear their caste as a mark upon their foreheads for all to see. I know that in England, we have our own unacknowledged caste system. A laborer will never hold a seat in Parliament. Neither will a woman. I don't think I've ever questioned such things until this moment.
But what about will and desire? What if someone wants to change things."
Kartik keeps his eyes on the room "You cannot change your caste. You cannot go against fate."
That means there is no hope of a better life. It is a trap."
That is how you see it," he says softly.
What do you mean?"
It can be a relief to follow the path that has been laid oud for you, to know your course and play your part in it."
But how can you be sure that you are following the right course? What if there is no such thing as destiny, only choice?"
Then I do not choose to live without destiny," he says with a slight smile.”
― Libba Bray, Rebel Angels

“A caste system is an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“We divided ourselves among caste, creed, culture and countries but what is undivided remains most valuable: a mere smile and the love.”
― Santosh Kalwar

“I want to burn with the spirit of the times. I want all servants of the stage to recognize their lofty destiny. I am disturbed at my comrades' failure to rise above narrow caste interests which are alien to the interests of society at large. Yes, the theatre can play an enormous part in the transformation of the whole of existence.”
― Vsevolod Meyerhold

“I could not see how poor people had the means of being kind, and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women [...]: no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“She's on the stairs, ma'am, getting her breath,' said the young servant, who had not been long up from the country, where my mother had the excellent habit of getting all her servants. Often she had seen them born. That's the only way to get really good ones. And they're the rarest of luxuries.”
― Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume I - Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove

“A chair is not a caste.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“...Of the Hindu, of whatever caste, it may be said, as of the poet, nascitur non fit. His birth status is unalterable. But with the Sikh the exact reverse is the case. Born of a Sikh father, he is not himself counted of the faith until, as a grown boy, he has been initiated and received the baptism of the pahul at the Akal Bungah or some equally sacred place.”
― Lepel H. Griffin, Ranjit Singh

“When you were talking about the caste system, I was thinking about how Mexicans still have to come to terms with this in our own culture. We spoke earlier about the castas paintings that were made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Mexico. The Spanish, establishing a form of racial apartheid, delineate the fifty-three categories of racial mixtures between Africans, Indians, and the Spanish. And they have names, like tiente en el aire, which means stain in the air; and salta otras, which means jump back; or mulatto, a word that comes from mula, the unnatural mating between the horse and the donkey. “Sambo” is now a racial epithet in the US, but it was first used as one of the fifty-three racial categories in the castas paintings.”
― Amalia Mesa-Bains, Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism

“Yes, we have to seek redemption! Redemption from the divisive politics based on caste and religion, redemption from the corruption which is eating our lives like termites, redemption from misery of poverty, redemption from the sins of our venal politicians. We need good governance and accountability. An individual has to fight for the things he rightfully deserves. People do not need crutches of any kind if the basic conditions of nation are conducive to their growth. It’s ridiculous; people are first deprived of basic amenities, denied their dues and then offered carrots to benefit the vote bank politics.”
― Madhu Vajpayee, Seeking Redemption

“I have discovered that some groups and castes are offered little to no opportunity to work in the public sector in Nepal.”
― Santosh Kalwar, Why Nepal Fails

“Nepal is confronted with many societal issues, including the caste system, child labor, illiteracy, gender inequality, superstitions, religious disputes, and a slew of other issues.”
― Santosh Kalwar, Why Nepal Fails

“Першою афроамериканкою, якій присудили премію Американської кіноакадемії, стала Гетті Макденієл. Вона отримала цю високу винагороду за роль Маммі (дбайливої, огрядної й асексуальної протилежності Скарлетт ОʼХара, яка була ідеалом жінки) у фільмі 1939 року «Віднесені вітром». Маммі, більш віддана білій родині, ніж власній, була готова вступити в бій із чорношкірими солдатами, щоб захистити своїх білих поневолювачів. Цей образ став зручною підпорою для зображення рабства в художніх фільмах, однак це була вигадка кастової системи, що суперечила історичним фактам. В епоху рабства більшість чорношкірих жінок були худорлявими, навіть виснаженими через скупе харчування, яким їх забезпечували. До того ж мало хто з цих жінок працював у будинках, оскільки їх вважали ціннішими на полі.”
― Ізабель Вілкерсон, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“Ендогамія зміцнює межі касти, забороняючи шлюби поза своєю групою чи статеві стосунки або навіть найменші ознаки романтичного інтересу до членів інших каст. Вона створює захисний екран між кастами й стає головним засобом утримання ресурсів та спорідненості в межах кожного рівня кастової системи. Завдяки усуненню законних родинних звʼязків між кастами ендогамія позбавляє людей здатності до емпатії чи почуття спільної долі. Під впливом ендогамії члени панівної касти рідко виявляють особистий інтерес до щастя, самореалізації й добробуту тих, кого вважають нижчими за себе, втрачаючи здатність ототожнювати себе з цими людьми та їхньою долею. По суті, ендогамія посилює схильність членів панівної касти вважати нижчих за себе не лише чимось меншим за людей, а й ворогами, чужинцями та загрозою, котру слід тримати під контролем за будь-яку ціну.”
― Ізабель Вілкерсон, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“He [Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, 1795], coined the term Caucasian on the basis of a favorite skull of his that had come into his possession from the Caucasus Mountains of Russia. To him, the skull was the most beautiful of all that he owned. So he gave the group to which he belonged, the Europeans, the same name as the region that had produced it. That is how people now identified as white got the scientific-sounding yet random name Caucasian.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“Name My Caste

My mom who birthed me is one caste
My Dad who raised me another caste
The man I married whose heart I wed
Is from another caste, it's said.

I studied where the caste was cast out,
Where dreams and goals just carried out.
So now you ask, "Which caste are you?"
I ask right back, "Which caste are you?"

You name my caste? I’ll name yours too.
Let’s play this game, just us two.
Doctor, Lawyer, Judge, Police,
PhDs preaching caste, not peace.

You claim to lead, to lift, to guide,
Yet drag old chains you wear with pride.
You move ahead but think behind,
A forward world with backward mind.

I don’t belong to caste or clan,
I only belong to God’s own plan.
So mark me not by caste or past,
I am what God designed to last.”
― Luffina Lourduraj

“The word caste finds its etymological roots in the Latin term castus, meaning "pure" or "chaste." This purity-based connotation undergirds much of how the caste system has been historically understood—especially by external observers—as a rigid hierarchy structured around notions of ritual cleanliness. The term entered the Indian lexicon via the Portuguese word casta, used by colonial seafarers and administrators in the 16th century to categorize the unfamiliar, complex social divisions they encountered on the western coast of India. This importation of the term marked a profound epistemic shift. As Nicholas Dirks argues in Castes of Mind (2001), colonial rule did not merely document Indian caste hierarchies; it reified, codified, and bureaucratized them. The colonial state transformed caste from a fluid, local, and context-specific social structure into a rigid administrative category essential to governance.
Prior to this colonial intervention, Indian society spoke of varna and jati. Varna, meaning "color" in Sanskrit, refers to the idealized four-fold division of society into Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders), and Shudras (laborers). However, the everyday lived reality of caste was mediated through jatis, localized, birth-based communities linked to specific occupations and ritual statuses. Jatis are numerous—over 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes exist across India—and form the actual basis of caste identity and exclusion. The colonial flattening of these complexities into the singular term caste was not an act of innocent taxonomy; it was, as Dirks shows, a political maneuver that essentialized caste as the defining feature of Indian civilization, thereby justifying British imperial rule as a civilizing mission.
Sociologically, caste has been defined as a hereditary, endogamous, and hierarchical group characterized by common traditional occupations, social status, and restrictions on mobility. Louis Dumont’s Homo Hierarchicus (1966) famously theorized caste as a system of ritual hierarchy organized around the oppositional categories of purity and pollution. In his structuralist framework, the Brahmin is the apex of purity, while the "Untouchable" (now self-identified as Dalit) is the embodiment of pollution. Although Dumont’s work remains foundational, it has been widely criticized for ignoring the material realities of caste, including land ownership, labor exploitation, and violence. B.R. Ambedkar, the foremost anti-caste intellectual and architect of the Indian Constitution, directly opposed such idealist readings. For Ambedkar, caste was not a religious or ritual order but a system of graded inequality rooted in birth-based discrimination and enforced through violence and denial of rights. In his seminal work Annihilation of Caste (1936), Ambedkar rejected the metaphysical justifications of caste and called instead for its total dismantling, arguing that no reform could succeed without challenging its structural core.”
― Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“The word caste finds its etymological roots in the Latin term castus, meaning "pure" or "chaste." This purity-based connotation undergirds much of how the caste system has been historically understood—especially by external observers—as a rigid hierarchy structured around notions of ritual cleanliness. The term entered the Indian lexicon via the Portuguese word casta, used by colonial seafarers and administrators in the 16th century to categorize the unfamiliar, complex social divisions they encountered on the western coast of India. This importation of the term marked a profound epistemic shift. As Nicholas Dirks argues in Castes of Mind (2001), colonial rule did not merely document Indian caste hierarchies; it reified, codified, and bureaucratized them. The colonial state transformed caste from a fluid, local, and context-specific social structure into a rigid administrative category essential to governance.
Prior to this colonial intervention, Indian society spoke of varna and jati. Varna, meaning "color" in Sanskrit, refers to the idealized four-fold division of society into Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders), and Shudras (laborers). However, the everyday lived reality of caste was mediated through jatis, localized, birth-based communities linked to specific occupations and ritual statuses. Jatis are numerous—over 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes exist across India—and form the actual basis of caste identity and exclusion. The colonial flattening of these complexities into the singular term caste was not an act of innocent taxonomy; it was, as Dirks shows, a political maneuver that essentialized caste as the defining feature of Indian civilization, thereby justifying British imperial rule as a civilizing mission.
Sociologically, caste has been defined as a hereditary, endogamous, and hierarchical group characterized by common traditional occupations, social status, and restrictions on mobility. Louis Dumont’s Homo Hierarchicus (1966) famously theorized caste as a system of ritual hierarchy organized around the oppositional categories of purity and pollution. In his structuralist framework, the Brahmin is the apex of purity, while the "Untouchable" (now self-identified as Dalit) is the embodiment of pollution. Although Dumont’s work remains foundational, it has been widely criticized for ignoring the material realities of caste, including land ownership, labor exploitation, and violence. B.R. Ambedkar, the foremost anti-caste intellectual and architect of the Indian Constitution, directly opposed such idealist readings. For Ambedkar, caste was not a religious or ritual order but a system of graded inequality rooted in birth-based discrimination and enforced through violence and denial of rights. In his seminal work Annihilation of Caste (1936), Ambedkar rejected the metaphysical justifications of caste and called instead for its total dismantling, arguing that no reform could succeed without challenging its structural core.”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“Historically, Scheduled Castes comprise communities outside the four-fold varna system, treated as ritually impure and subjected to untouchability and systemic social exclusion.

❝ “The outcastes are those whom the caste Hindus would not touch, let alone allow into their homes or temples.”
— B.R. Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables (1945)

They were historically denied access to public spaces, education, land ownership, and dignified livelihoods”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“Why 'Scheduled'?

‘Scheduled’ refers to the fact that these castes are listed in a constitutional schedule to facilitate policy targeting. It is a policy mechanism, not a cultural term.
❝ “The schedules enable the state to operationalize equality by targeting long-denied communities.”
— Marc Galanter, Competing Equalities. OUP, 1984
Articles enabling reservations:
Article 15(4) – Special provisions in education
Article 16(4) – Reservation in government jobs
Article 330–334 – Legislative representation
SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“Definition of Dalits?
Many people mistakenly perceive the term Dalit as merely another caste label. In truth, it is a profoundly political and ideological identity—an umbrella term that encompasses historically marginalized and oppressed communities. To truly understand Dalit, we must recognize that language operates on two intertwined levels: the textual and the contextual.

Textually, every word carries both denotation—the literal, dictionary meaning—and connotation—the emotional, cultural, or symbolic resonance. For example, lily denotes a particular white flower, yet it connotes purity and fragrance. Similarly, rose refers to a specific botanical entity, while also symbolizing love and beauty.

However, certain terms—like Purohita (Hindu priest)—cannot be fully grasped through textual analysis alone. Their meanings are shaped by the historical, religious, and cultural frameworks in which they function. A Purohita is not just a religious figure; he embodies the ritual authority, social hierarchy, and Brahminical dominance inherent in Hindu society.
Likewise, Dalit is not just a lexical item—it is a historically charged identity rooted in centuries of caste-based exclusion, violence, and resistance. It embodies the collective struggle against structural oppression and signals a radical assertion of dignity and justice. To engage with the term Dalit is to confront the lived realities of caste discrimination and to recognize its role as a political and cultural counter-narrative. Hence, Dalit must be understood not just linguistically, but through a deep sociopolitical lens that attends to the histories, struggles, and aspirations it signifies.”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“Why do we need reservation in Private sectors?
Private sector reservation is not just a matter of employment—it is a matter of democratic justice and representation in a society where caste continues to determine who gets hired, promoted, funded, and heard. Without reservation, Dalits remain invisible in boardrooms, media, law firms, tech companies, and startups. As Suraj Yengde points out in Caste Matters (2019), “In India's new economy, Dalits are the untouchables of the digital age. There is no Ambedkar in Silicon Valley.” Additionally, global capitalism in India benefits from caste-based cheap labor, while resisting caste-based equity, thus reproducing old hierarchies in new forms.”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“What is the Third-Class Degree and the Colonial Education Dilemma
The introduction of Macaulay’s Minute on Education in 1835, followed by Wood’s Despatch in 1854, laid the foundation for a British-style education system in colonial India. Designed to produce a class of Indians who were “Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect,” this system emphasized English-language education, liberal arts, and European epistemology, effectively displacing indigenous systems of learning rooted in Sanskrit, Persian, and Tamil traditions.
Initially, Indian universities (established in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras in 1857) adopted a rigid system of academic classification, with students qualifying for a first class at 60%, and second class at 45%. This system quickly exposed disparities in performance, particularly among students from varied caste backgrounds. While upper-caste Brahmin communities had long-standing access to education—especially in Sanskritic traditions—they struggled with the new colonial syllabus and pedagogy, which emphasized logic, Western literature, and sciences.
By the late 19th century, British educators were alarmed by the high failure rates among Indian students, especially in South India, where Tamil Brahmins—despite their traditional academic roles—were not performing well under the British evaluative framework. In an effort to boost the number of graduates and maintain a steady supply of clerks and civil servants, British officials proposed the creation of a “third class” degree with a pass mark of 33%. This move was formalized in the Indian Universities Commission Report of 1902.
What is notable—but often underemphasized—is how upper-caste Hindus, especially the Dwija castes (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas), rallied behind the idea of introducing this lower threshold. Many of these groups, who had historically benefited from hereditary access to religious and scriptural education, were now struggling to adapt to modern, secular, and English-language education. The third-class degree became a lifeline—ironically endorsed by the very castes that later would oppose caste-based affirmative action, arguing for "merit" as the only valid criterion.
The creation of a third-class degree, thus, serves as an early historical example of structural adjustment to accommodate dominant castes—a form of affirmative accommodation before the term “reservation” even entered Indian political discourse. While it was framed as a meritocratic concession to help Indian students succeed, it was in fact a policy born of practical necessity and caste-based pressure, aiming to preserve the hegemony of upper castes in the emerging modern bureaucracy.
This irony becomes even more stark when viewed against the later history of Dalit and Bahujan struggles for access to education, especially in the 20th century. Leaders like Jyotirao Phule, Periyar, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar would go on to expose how education remained deeply caste-coded. For centuries, the Dalits (Scheduled Castes) and Shudras had been denied access to learning altogether. When reservations were introduced to level the field post-Independence, these very upper-caste communities began to resist them, invoking the rhetoric of "merit"—a notion that was conveniently malleable when they needed the third class to survive colonial assessments.
Thus, the colonial education system did not eliminate caste—it subtly reinforced it by repackaging privilege under new labels. The introduction of the third-class degree exemplifies how colonial policy was not caste-neutral but often aligned with the interests of dominant castes. It laid the groundwork for ongoing debates around meritocracy, reservation, and educational justice in India—a legacy that continues to shape the nation's politics and social dynamics well into the 21st century.”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“The abolition of caste in India is impossible without dismantling the entrenched economic and land-based power structures that uphold it. As Dr. B.R. Ambedkar forcefully argued, caste is not merely a division of labor, but "a division of labourers" (Annihilation of Caste 17), where the hierarchical allocation of work is inherited and enforced through socio-economic mechanisms. Historically, caste has operated as a system of economic exploitation, wherein dominant castes consolidated power through control over land, knowledge, and religious institutions, relegating Dalits and other oppressed groups to landless labor and degrading occupations. Ambedkar contended that “caste is not just a social institution, it is also an economic one” and warned that “you cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You have to blow it up” (Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Ancient India 23).”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“How next generation can become casteless?

Educating the next generation for a caste-free society requires more than tokenistic inclusion; it demands a pedagogical revolution rooted in equality, empathy, critical thinking, and epistemic justice. The present educational system, as Ambedkar noted in Annihilation of Caste, is complicit in “manufacturing obedient caste minds” that naturalize hierarchy rather than challenge it. Therefore, education must first deconstruct the hidden curriculum of caste—the ways in which textbooks, classroom practices, language, and institutional norms reinforce dominant caste narratives while marginalizing Dalit-Bahujan voices. Schools must be restructured as spaces of liberation, not discipline, by incorporating the writings, histories, and philosophies of Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule, Ayyankali, Periyar, and other anti-caste thinkers into core curricula, not just as electives or afterthoughts. Pedagogy must shift from rote memorization to dialogic, experiential learning that cultivates empathy and reflexivity in students. Teachers themselves must be sensitized through anti-caste training, and diversity in teaching staff—especially Dalit and Adivasi educators—must be actively pursued through affirmative hiring. Importantly, education should challenge caste not only intellectually but institutionally, through caste-free hostels, fair admissions, and safe grievance mechanisms. As Paulo Freire argued in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “education is either a practice of freedom or a practice of domination”—and in caste society, it has largely been the latter. The next generation must be trained not just to understand caste, but to actively dismantle it, through critical consciousness, solidarity practices, and ethical citizenship. Only when children are taught that caste is not cultural heritage but a violation of human dignity—and are given the tools to resist it—can education become the foundation of a truly egalitarian India.”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar

“The Classic Question: The Paradox of The Majority or Bahujen.

The term Bahujan refers to India’s demographic majority—Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes—constituting nearly 70% of the population. Yet this numerical strength has not translated into structural empowerment, giving rise to what scholars call the Bahujan paradox: the tension between political visibility and persistent social marginality.
Historically, caste society imposed graded inequality (Ambedkar), ensuring that even among oppressed groups, internal hierarchies prevented unity. Despite the promise of democracy, land ownership, wealth, education, and cultural capital remain concentrated in upper-caste hands. This creates the first axis of the paradox: majority in numbers, minority in power.
The second dimension lies in politics versus structure. From the 1980s, the rise of the BSP, SP, RJD, DMK, and others marked a political awakening. Bahujan leaders captured state power in several regions, but institutions like the bureaucracy, judiciary, and media remained dominated by elites. Electoral success has thus not dismantled systemic dominance.
Third is the tension between unity and fragmentation. Kanshi Ram envisioned solidarity across SCs, STs, and OBCs, yet rivalries and caste sub-identities often splinter this bloc, weakening collective bargaining.
Fourth, policy gains contrast with social realities. Reservations and welfare have created upward mobility for a small segment, but caste violence, everyday discrimination, and failed land reforms persist.
Finally, there is empowerment without emancipation. Leaders once rooted in radical anti-caste thought often compromise with dominant caste and capitalist frameworks. Cultural icons like Ambedkar and Phule are celebrated, but frequently co-opted by parties unwilling to confront caste hierarchies.
In essence, the Bahujan paradox reveals a striking contradiction: India’s majority commands votes but not full dignity, wielding political clout without achieving structural transformation.”
― Dr.Thanigaivelan Santhakumar