Castes In India
In 1916, a 25-year-old Indian doctoral student at Columbia University presented a paper that would reshape how we understand caste. B.R. Ambedkar challenges the prevailing Western theories, arguing that endogamy, marriage strictly within one's own group, is not merely a feature of caste but its defining mechanism. He traces the system's origins to Brahminical matrimonial practices and demonstrates how this self-imposed restriction spread through emulation, creating the entire hierarchical structure. This is Ambedkar at his most brilliant and daring: young, freshly educated in Western anthropology, and already refuting his own professors' frameworks. The text reads as both rigorous anthropological critique and fierce intellectual intervention, a young man's declaration that the existing explanations were insufficient. It established the thesis Ambedkar would spend his life refining and defending, the insight that would later inform his battle for Dalit liberation and his authorship of the Indian Constitution. For anyone seeking to understand the intellectual architecture of caste, and the mind that would go on to dismantle and rebuild a nation, this is essential reading.
Editions
X-Ray
“no civilized society of today presents more survivals of primitive times than does the Indian society. Its religion is essentially primitive and its tribal code, in spite of the advance of time and civilization, operates in all its pristine vigour even today.””
— B. R. Ambedkar
“as long as caste in India does exist, Hindus will hardly intermarry or have any social intercourse with outsiders ; and if Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem.””
— B. R. Ambedkar
“For myself I shall find as much pleasure in a positive destruction of my own ideology, as in a rational disagreement on a topic, which, notwithstanding many learned disquisitions is likely to remain controversial forever.””
— B. R. Ambedkar
“இந்து சமுதாயத்தை எடுத்துக் கொள்வோம். இந்தச் சமுதாயம் பிற சமுதாயங்களைப் போலவே பல வர்க்கங்களைக் கொண்டிருந்தது. அவ்வாறு அமைந்த பண்டைய வர்க்கங்களாவன: 1.பிராமணர்கள் அல்லது புரோகித வர்க்கம் 2.சத்திரியர்கள் அல்லது இராணுவ வர்க்கம் 3.வைசியர்கள் அல்லது வணிக வர்க்கம் 4.சூத்திரர்கள் அல்லது கைவினைஞரும் ஏவலருமான வர்க்கம். இந்தப் பகுப்பு முறைகளை நன்கு கவனிக்க வேண்டும். இந்த அமைப்பில் ஒரு வர்க்கத்தைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள் தம் தகுதிக்கேற்ப பிரிதொரு வர்க்கத்தினராக மாறமுடியும்.””
— B. R. Ambedkar
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Castes In India by B. R. Ambedkar free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Castes In India by B. R. Ambedkar free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71Cite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Ambedkar, B. R.. Castes In India. Lex, lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71.Ambedkar, B. R. (n.d.). Castes In India. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71Ambedkar, B. R.. Castes In India. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/castes-in-india-069adda7-fafc-4a02-9794-d8386254fa71.
