New Books in Middle Eastern Studies Suraj Milind Yengde, "Caste: A Global Story" (Hurst, 2025)
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Dec 25, 2025 Suraj Milind Yengde, Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the global implications of caste in his latest book. He delves into the connections between caste and race, highlighting how Dalit activists found inspiration in African-American literature. Yengde shares fascinating insights from his fieldwork in Trinidad, where migration affected Dalit identities. He also discusses the rise of anti-caste organizing in North America and the challenges faced amidst current caste debates in the U.S. and Middle East.
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How The Project Began
- Suraj Milind Yengde began his project tracing global anti-caste networks from personal roots in Nanded and archival finds sent by activists.
- A box of activist archives in 2017 and COVID downtime propelled him to write Caste: A Global Story.
Ambedkar Centralized The Movement
- Modern anti-caste politics emerged in colonial India and consolidated under B.R. Ambedkar in the 20th century.
- Ambedkar's international education and rhetorical skill made caste a national civil-rights movement within the Indian constitutional framework.
Race And Caste: Similar Roots, Different Paths
- Race and caste share modern, systemic origins and both mark people for unequal distribution of state resources.
- Yet caste often entwines more deeply with social hierarchy and life-long immobility than simple racial binaries.
