New Books in Anthropology The Caste Question with Suraj Yengde and Anupama Rao
Feb 1, 2026
Anupama Rao, Columbia history professor who studies colonialism, gender, and caste, and Suraj Yengde, scholar and anti-caste activist and author, map the contours of caste. They unpack defining caste as embodied social relations. They debate comparing caste and race. They trace historical formations, endogamy and violence, and the politics of caste privilege.
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Caste As A Relational, Bodily Hierarchy
- Caste is a relational social order combining inherited privilege, graded hierarchy, and a philosophy of the body rooted in Hindu ritual imagination.
- Its power mixes status and economic worth unevenly, producing persistent structured inequality that adapts over time.
Caste As Airtight Social Compartments
- Caste functions like airtight compartments that preserve lineage-based purity and prevent fluid social mixing.
- It operates globally as a regime of descent legitimacy that structures access to privilege and exclusion.
Build Institutionally And Spiritually
- Focus anti-caste work on institutions and individual self-respect, not solely on inter-caste marriage as a cure.
- Use cultural and spiritual projects (like Ambedkar's embrace of Buddhism) to rebuild collective dignity and agency.
